SUNNYVALE, Calif. — To keep pace with government-mandated authentication guidelines that require a one-time, out-of-band passcode to be used to log into online banking, Star One Credit Union turned to a third-party vendor, Digital Insight.
But the transition, while ultimately was successful, wasn't as smooth as expected.
In this recurring feature, Credit Union Journal visits with IT professionals - the often unsung CU heroes - to better understand how organizational goals are executed.
In this edition, Star One CU's Web Services Manager Fred Shuherk provides an inside view of operations.
"Moving to Digital Insight proposed a challenge to our members who were unfamiliar with receiving a text message or surfing to a new browser window to access an e-mail account," said Shuherk. "Some users didn't have text messaging ability and/or were unfamiliar with how to browse to a different window or open a new tab in order to retrieve their passcode via an e-mail account."
The $6.6 billion Star One CU has 91,000 members, many of whom are retirees who were comfortable with the existing online banking platform. Members who had trouble accessing respective banking information online took to the phones and flooded the call center.
And while Shuherk explained that members were quickly assisted with the new protocols, a lesson was learned.
"Not all users are up to date on Internet technologies or even with the basics and those users who use online banking are not well prepared for technology changes. New public-facing technology rollouts should be done on an incremental basis and not all at once to a large group of users," he noted.
Executing IT Concepts
Beginning his career at a community bank in 1986 as a swing shift computer operator and item processor using Burroughs S4000 hardware on ITI banking software, Shuherk next worked at Stanford Federal Credit Union in the IT department with duties that included PC setup, terminal maintenance, computer room wiring, telephony, vendor management and as a swing shift operator overseeing data general hardware running on Citicorp software.
Since 1996, he has worked for Star One CU. His first post was in the IT department installing PC hardware/software as well as overseeing vendor management and the technical help desk that ran on Risk 6000 IMB hardware running Focus XP (now Fiserv) software.
Two years later he moved to the Web Services Department and was promoted to manager in 2001.
Managing a department requires Shuherk to also wear many hats. For Star One CU's Web Services department to run smoothly, he holds "huddle" meeting every Thursday for his staff. "At these meetings all aspects of the week and upcoming initiatives are discussed by each staffer. I believe in knowing where all of my staffers are in terms of our projects and for resource management reasons. Then I have a monthly meeting with my executive VP of remote services to go over higher view discussions."
Continuing Education
To stay abreast of industry changes, Shuherk has continued his education by obtaining credentials as a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Certified System Engineer. He also attends regional and national conferences such as Finovate San Francisco, Digital Insight Annual Conference, CUNA Technology Council Annual Conference, WESPAY Annual Conference and the California/Nevada Credit Union League where he has served as the Annual CCUL PAC Auctioneer Caller for the last seven years.
Looking forward, Shuherk said Star One CU is working on new develops in P2P payments, near field communication in mobile devices, mobile bill pay and a new website schedule to debut in 2014. In addition, an enhanced social media platform that will include Facebook member surveys is on tap. "Technology is expensive and there has to by buy-in from the top to implement it, which includes ROI review and proof of concept scenarios given to staff who otherwise are not intimately familiar with said technologies," said Shuherk. "This is one of the challenges I face as a web services manager."
