Desert Schools FCU has a message for other credit unions undergoing a core conversion: "Use a system how it's designed. Don't try to make it look like your old system," said Ron Amstutz, executive vice president of the $4 billion institution.
"For a credit union of our size, this was no easy undertaking, "Amstutz noted. "But it was a necessity, as our previous system kept us from fully serving our members and operating a capacity to meet their evolving needs. We needed a system that would allow us to grow and expand our products and services for our members."
Desert Schools' conversion to Corelation's KeyStone occurred over Labor Day weekend 2015, according to Amstutz, and the improvements so far have been "tremendous." Some of the results include:
- Nightly processing time has decreased from eight hours to two.
- Operations staffing costs have been reduced 8% year over year.
- Training time in contact centers dropped by two days, from 12 to 10.
- Call volume in the main call center has decreased 15%, from an average of 53,000 calls a month in the seven-month period between January and August 2015, to 45,000 in the same period this year.
- Annual maintenance costs dropped from $1.5 million to $500,000.
For its efforts, Desert Schools has earned a Best Practice Award from CU Journal.
Amstutz said when the CU had narrowed its choice of new core system provider to two solutions, executives asked all lines of business at Desert Schools to give them a number of staff positions they expected could be cut under each new system.
"We got a commitment in writing to reduce 15 staff positions throughout the organization [with Corelation's KeyStone], he said, adding that all 15 positions have since been eliminated.
Other improvements include a "MemberView" tab that instantly tells front-line employees what products and services a member has with the CU, allowing staff to have "more intelligent sales conversations," according to Amstutz, adding that 2016 has been a record year for loans, deposits and new accounts.
The CU's operating efficiency ratio has also fallen to 68%, from over 80%, due in part to the two hours that have been eliminated from nightly processing time. Desert Schools also reports that it has reduced maintenance of its cost of operations by over 70% since the conversion.
And Amstutz knows a thing or two about core conversions. This is the fourth one he's experienced since he started working in the CU industry in the early 1980s. "And I hope this is my last," he added. "That's the plan."
And he stresses his message about using a new core processing systems in the manner that it was designed. Some employees look at how they are accomplishing tasks on their current system and ask the new provider to recreate the process for them. That's a mistake, according to Amstutz.
"Don't look at how you do your job today," he advised. "You may need to change how you do your job to use the new system and be more efficient."
