Desert Schools Federal Credit Union launched a new information technology credit union service organization known as SwitchThink Solutions.
Desert Schools, a $4.3 billion-asset credit union headquartered in Phoenix, created the new CUSO in partnership with San Diego-based credit union core processing vendor Corelation. The two parties said the CUSO provides other credit unions running on Corelation’s KeyStone platform with “a complete suite of services to complement their processing environment and expand their capabilities.”
According to Desert Schools FCU, in 2015 it achieved “tremendous success” in improving member experience and streamlining operations through its implementation of the KeyStone platform with Corelation. From this experience, the credit union said, it recognized increased opportunities to create efficiencies from within the software.
Ron Amstutz, executive vice president of Desert Schools, said he began to understand that many other credit unions did not have the IT resources to realize the benefits from the same KeyStone system his CU was using. Several months later, SwitchThink was born from that realization.
“We believe there is tremendous value credit unions can gain using KeyStone’s technology as a springboard to achieve their business strategies,” Amstutz said in a statement. “By leveraging our size, scale and expertise, we have created an organization that can help credit unions of all sizes do just that.”
Desert Schools FCU said SwitchThink offers a suite of services, including development and consulting, disaster recovery, infrastructure hosting (platform-as-a-service) and a complete managed services solution. SwitchThink’s hosted solutions are delivered via an exclusive “community cloud” for Corelation clients, and SwitchThink has been named the preferred hosting partner to Corelation.
“Desert Schools and the IT team at SwitchThink impressed us early with their ability to apply our KeyStone technology in new ways for optimum efficiency and strategic gain,” said Theresa Benavidez, Corelation’s president and CEO. “We were thrilled when they decided to extend their infrastructure, development and applications expertise to help other Corelation clients do the same. Our hosting solutions relationship with SwitchThink will allow our clients to benefit more quickly from our innovative software.”
Credit union industry veteran Scott Butler is SwitchThink’s CEO. Butler served as an executive IT consultant to Desert Schools for five years and led the company through its core conversion. Butler has spent more than 30 years serving the technology needs of credit unions at companies such as EDS and Fiserv.
“As a team of credit union industry professionals who have proven the ability to unlock the transformational capabilities of KeyStone, we are committed to helping Corelation’s clients improve operational efficiency, accelerate innovation, and speed their desired business results.” said Butler.
