MADISON, Wis.-A popular project from the Filene Research Center's i3 Innovation Hub is working its way through the process of being built out for piloting by credit unions.
HomeTrak was proposed by Lisa Palma, COO at Blackhawk Community CU in Janesville, Wis., and was the winner of Filene's "Idea Idol" competition earlier this year. The project aims to help homeowners anticipate when big-ticket items need to be replaced so that they can better plan for those costs ("
According to Matt Davis, Filene's director of innovation, Filene will do a call for pilots during Q1 2012 to attract CUs interested in testing HomeTrak. "We have had as many as 280 credit unions pilot a project, but usually a test can be done with as little as 10," said Davis. Depending upon how those CUs respond, the project will either receive further tweaking or be released to the market.
In the run-up to testing HomeTrak with CUs, Filene has also requested funds from its board to help the project go further. Davis said that such projects typically cost between $10,000 and $30,000. Part of Filene's budget is geared toward what Davis called "developing innovation competency," and the funds are the result of support from throughout the CU system.
