SAN DIEGO-After five years of development, a new core system created by the man behind two other major CU processing systems is about to take wing.
Corelation has inked deals with two credit unions to convert to its new KeyStone core offering, designed by John Landis, who also helped launch Symitar's first offering a quarter century ago. Harbor FCU and Cabrillo CU will officially make the switch to KeyStone during the second quarter of 2011.
"He loves doing that kind of stuff and if you saw him in action you'd understand. He loves designing software and it's what relaxes him and makes him happy," explained Corelation President Theresa Benavidez. "Ask him a question about how something works and you can see him writing code in his head as he's thinking."
No Propietary Code
Benavidez explained that KeyStone uses updated tools and runs on no proprietary code, which will make finding developers much easier and allow them to quickly familiarize themselves with the product. Flexibility is a critical selling point for KeyStone, as is its myriad of offerings that are built in to the system including loan and member application as well as related forms product. KeyStone also signals a radical departure from account focused core systems and instead concentrating on entire relationships.
"Today the auditors want to know who you are dealing with," said Benavidez. "We answered that by making our system more member centric so you always know who you are dealing with."
Robin Lentz, CEO at Cabrillo CU is not worried about making the switch to a brand-new core system. After all, she made the same leap 25 years ago when Landis brought her Symitar's first offering.
"When I found out that John was writing a new system I was very intrigued to find out what he was creating," she said, lauding KeyStone's relationship-based focus and back office efficiencies, calling it a "system for the future."
Uniquely Seamless
KeyStone is also unique in that it works seamlessly with many different vendor modules for just about any application. "We really like the look and flexibility and that it is an open solution and that gives us a lot of opportunities," said Tina Fugelsang, CEO of Harbor FCU, adding that she has "a lot of faith in John" to create a core offering that will allow her credit union to take the technological lead.
The emphasis on easy vendor module integration is not only one of KeyStone's main features, but also central to Corelation's philosophy. Benavidez explained that Corelation could, but isn't likely to create home banking or other ancillary products in the future so it can keep focused on the core offering and allow CUs maximum control over how they do business. "We don't want to make the decisions for credit unions," she said. "Giving them that flexibility allows them to go to the vendors that will allow their credit unions to be successful."
With Cabrillo and Harbor slated for a Q2 launch next year, Corelation is in talks with a couple other institutions for conversion a few months later.
Benavidez said the firm would be comfortable with a conversion every other month starting halfway through next year and then a conversion once a month in perpetuity once the initial clients are fully acclimated.
