SAN ANTONIO — Last September $7.5-billion Security Service Federal Credit Union implemented a new CRM solution that resulted in a dramatic savings in workflow steps and time, which SSFCU executives say has helped every area of member service.
According to Julian Hall, AVP, integrated solutions, enterprise application development, the new CRM solution uses a unique design pattern utilizing the credit union's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This solution eliminates the need to duplicate core member and account information into the CRM database. Instead, all this information is fetched from the core system of record by the SOA in real-time.
"The biggest impact is the versatility and flexibility for our workforce," said Hall. "We now have one unifying platform for our front-office and back-office people to serve the membership. This even helps to cross-train more easily because everyone is able to see what is happening. We save three-and-a-half days per week of training. Productivity benefits are tremendous, and we get even more returns as we go on."
Todd Renaud, VP of the integrated solutions group, said SSFCU did not track ROI as a metric because the credit union's previous CRM system was drastically different and therefore the switch did not lend itself to an apples-to-apples comparison.
"We are using it in multiple areas of the business and we believe we are 42% more efficient in our workflows by cutting steps," Renaud said. "Some of the processes that have been significantly improved include change of address, retrieving a statement copy, vehicle title conveyance, payoff quotes for loans and getting check copies."
User Adoption Strong
Hall said the new solution has the benefit of improving security by not producing multiple copies of sensitive information. Data changes on the system of record are "shielded" from the CRM solution, according to Hall. Also, because there is no copy of the data, there are resulting storage cost savings, which are multiplied across the non-production test CRM environments in place. SSFCU estimated approximately $250,000 of SAN storage savings.
Finally, the simplification of the database implementation enables the credit union to have an easier effort to migrate to future releases of CRM versions, since the data migration tasks are much reduced. This is estimated to equate to approximately 400 hours saved per upgrade over time.
"It is simple and easy to see what is going on with the member," Hall said. "We can switch members from one person to another smoothly. There is one view of the members, so anyone in the credit union gets all of that information. User adoption has been extremely strong."
SSFCU is continuing to invest in the new CRM system, Hall noted. He said the credit union has a dedicated team of developers, plus it has a team of outside people it works with and Microsoft offers assistance.
"We will continue to automate business processes and increase investment in sales," he said. "We are starting to reap the rewards. Sometimes members are not aware of the products that might help them, and now we can have the right amount of communication. In the case of indirect lending members, they might not realize what a full-service credit union we are."
