WASHINGTON — Traditional IT responsibilities, such as the management of technology infrastructure, end user desktop support and system access, are critical to credit union operations, but one credit union's IT department is going well beyond the traditional.
At The Partnership FCU, the IT department also takes responsibility for business analytics, product and service lifecycle management and project management, a move that is resulting in savings for the CU.
"We've found that the combination of these responsibilities under our department is wonderfully efficient," said Partnership Director of Business Technology David Martinez, adding that one of the newest initiatives will be automating all in-house letter production.
Credit Union Journal visited with Martinez as part of its reoccurring feature profiling IT professionalsthe often unsung CU heroes — to better understand how organizational goals are executed by the IT department.
Understanding Operations
Martinez explained that the CU's Business Technology Department consists of four employees.
Along with himself, there are two business analysts and an IT support specialist. In addition, they partner with a third-party managed services provider (MSP) who delivers network and desktop support. This includes a part-time onsite engineer.
"The third-party MSP acts as an extension of our IT team, seamlessly integrating into our operations. He is integral to the day-to-day management of our IT infrastructure and desktop support for our employees," said Martinez.
This collective team helps steer the $147 million credit union, supporting 35 employees, 12,226 members and three branches. Before assuming his current post, Martinez held other positions at a handful of "large banks" before accepting a job seven years ago with National Science Foundation FCU.
"At the time, I was the operations manager, and like many of my peers who work at or have worked at small credit unions, my leap into technology management was largely driven by the needs of the CU coupled with the consequence of limited resources," recalled Martinez. "The CIO position was suddenly vacant, there was a pressing need to maintain daily IT processes and I was best situated to assume the responsibilities."
To ensure he was up to speed, Martinez undertook online training as well as on-the-job training with vendor partners.
Quickly learning that he had both an aptitude and a passion for the work, he continually expanded educational pursuits through ongoing formal training, regular reading of technology-related publications and information sharing among industry peers and vendors.
In 2009, Martinez undertook his most challenging technology project to date: the merger of National Science Foundation FCU and FDIC FCU, which formed The Partnership FCU. After this successful union, he earned a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. "This background led me to my current position as the director of business technology, which I've held for the past two and a half years," said Martinez.
Staying Current
To stay current, Martinez regular participates in webinars on topics such as IT compliance, security and innovations.
He also recently attended the CO-OP Think Conference and Digital Insight Innovation Conference as well as the Interactive Intelligence Mid Atlantic Customer Summit. Each year he sends his IT Support Specialist to the FISERV Users Conference, and he plans to attend the upcoming Credit Union InfoSecurity Conference.
"This ongoing education has been a key factor in my ability to proactively manage our technology environment; navigating the endless evolution of compliance and security risks while simultaneously maximizing efficiency through the application of leading technology solutions and practices," noted Martinez.
While IT accomplishments have been realized in recent years at The Partnership FCU, there are protocols to follow before any forward movement is made. These include bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with the credit union's COO. Topics discussed include helpdesk ticket trends, upcoming patching schedules, hardware and software lifecycles, enhancement requests, trending of key IT metrics, industry trends and compliance requirements.
"The COO and I also conduct a monthly strategic meeting with our MSP where we discuss and define the broader direction of our IT programs," said Martinez. "These monthly meetings typically focus on larger IT projects, third-party vendor relationships, system and solution acquisitions and strategic IT partnerships."
Along with analyzing the "credit union scorecard," the COO meets with the CEO and the board on areas of concern. These meetings are also the forum for presenting the business case for the proposed solutions complete with a detailed cost/benefit analysis. Whether or not a technology is implemented is based, in part, on a guiding philosophy: impact on member, organization and employee.
One of the exciting IT initiatives on tap for 2014 is automating all in-house letter productions. The concept was born from observing other departments within the credit union that were printing and mailing form letters to members, explained Martinez.
"Once this came to IT's attention we immediately recognized the opportunity to automate this through our SQL report writer and the existing relationship with our statement vendor, who is already producing daily notices for us," said Martinez. "By recognizing the need and having an awareness of how our existing infrastructure could be leveraged, we will be able to realize new efficiencies without spending a penny on new systems."
Savings, he added, are realized in staff automating a previously labor-intensive process, reduced postage rates through its statement vendor and the ability to combine multiple letters for the same recipient in one envelope. Additionally, e-statement members will receive letters electronically eliminating related postage costs.
Future Plans
Looking forward, Martinez and his team will do their best to remain ahead of compliance requirements, combat advanced cyber criminals and security threats and ensure continuity of operations while balancing technology costs. However, other projects are on tap. "Every year, a significant portion of time must be devoted to patches, upgrades and replacing infrastructure that's reached its end of life," said Martinez. "These essentially are the 'no-choice' projects." There are also "nice-to-have" projects, which will be realized this year, including "How much can we save?
"We will leverage our existing document e-sign software to generate a letter that details all of the loans a member has on his or her credit report," he continued. The existing e-sign software currently interfaces with loan documents and populates data from the credit union's core and credit reports enabling the member to sign loan agreements and disclosures electronically whether in the branch or remote. "With this initiative we will introduce a new form that will calculate what the member's payment would be if he or she were to refinance the loan with our credit union."
When asked if he feels his IT department is ever taken for granted by co-workers (even subconsciously), Martinez said he is "thrilled" that some people have such an impassioned reaction when technology isn't working and believes it's indicative of how integrated technology has become in daily life.
"People rely on it and expect it to work. That's wonderful. We've succeeded. I don't think you'll find anyone in the IT field that is content with system downtime or a frustrated end user, so it is our responsibility to keep our end users happy."
