A new member-centric approach to ATMs here helped speed up responses to member inquiries by 50% — a head-turning response that also earned the CU a 2016 Model Bank award.
"Where we made a significant step forward is in being able to tap directly into the data at the ATM level and to do so as a channel manager without having to rely on data analysts," said BECU Head of ATM Management and Development Shirley Taylor.
"Having the ability for direct access and in a format that provides the visuals along with the ability to use various parameters in each of the dashboards has supported a number of recommendations based on actual data that wasn't even accessible to our data analysts based on the traditional reports and data that we get," she added.
Last October, BECU was nominated for Celent's Model Bank award by transactional data specialists, INETCO Systems Limited, a CU partner based in Burnaby, British Columbia. In total, there were more than 100 credit union and bank entrants competing for 19 awards. BECU, which won in the omnichannel banking category, was the only winner in the credit union space.
"Beyond member experience, BECU used transaction data in a new way to better manage its IT infrastructure, self-service device and application portfolio in production," said Celent Senior Analyst Bob Meara.
ATM Thoroughfare
With more than 900,000 members, the $14 billion BECU averages 8,000 to 12,000 ATM transactions per month. To better utilize this all-important channel, the CU partnered with INETCO to delve into the data generated by those transactions.
"Through our partnership and investment in INETCO's omnichannel monitoring and analytics solutions, BECU now enjoys a member-centric, hands-on view into operational performance, customer usage and channel profitability," said Taylor. "We are now cultivating a data-driven culture that can add member value through improved ATM availability, convenient self-service device placement, a lower cost-to-serve and better product-to-member service alignment."
The metrics that stood out to Celent's analyst judges included BECU's 88% predicted reduction in time required for cash utilization analysis, 70% faster mean time to isolate performance issues, 65% faster ATM placement and lease renewal analysis and 58% faster geographical channel analysis.
"The benefit is the ability to take an in-depth look at our ATMs and drill down to each individual location, peak hours and what is hitting when and where and what the percentage balance of that is," said Taylor. "This allows us to justify ATM retail expansion and where it would be most effective for membership."
In total, BECU currently has 215 ATMs in production and another 15 in the process of being deployed (between June and October of this year).The omnichannel monitoring and analytic tools also allows Taylor and her team to differentiate between BECU ATMs, Rite AID ATMs (cash only) and CO-OP ATMs, as well as when leases are set to expire (normal term is three to five years) and member usage by ZIP code.
"These ATMs are our tellers—this is our remote operating model," said Taylor. "We have some ATMs turning 14,000 to 16,000 transactions per month."
Celent Calls on More CUs to Participate
Meara said he hopes that in the coming year Celent will receive more submissions from credit unions for the 2016 Model Bank award. And while he conceded that larger banks and credit unions have more bandwidth and resources to invest in new technologies and the application process, the contest door is wide open.
"We would love to get broader exposure among credit unions. We solicit nominations from clients and non-clients alike and there is no cost to participate," said Meara. "Our client base does skew more toward banks rather than credit unions and I'm not exactly sure why that is. However, there are many, many credit unions that are well ahead of their bank peers in so many ways and we would love to be able to shine a light on these initiatives."
