WABASH, Ind. — With a design concept akin to Angie's List, VendorCamp is a new service for credit unions providing the ability to securely manage and collaborate on vendor relationships.
"It's a single source for our current vendor relationships and a window for industry expression of vendor behavior, likability, product effectiveness and innovation," said Ryan Showley CIO at Beacon Credit Union.
"We now have one place to go to read peer reviews and endorsements, like Angie's List, while also organizing our lists of 'Vendors to Watch' or grouping the vendors and products by what we are searching for this year," said Showley, who also serves on VendorCamp's Advisory Board.
The $1.1 billion credit union is one of a handful of credit unions that have joined VendorCamp since it was launched last October. These include Bay Federal Credit Union, Service Credit Union and Greylock Federal Credit Union. "It's very interesting to read the ratings of vendors," said Carrie Birkhofer, president and CEO of $700 million Bay Federal Credit Union. "As more participants sign up and use the system, it will provide even more value."
The cloud-based vendor management system, complete with contract storage, ratings and reviews, was founded by Christopher Beltran who also co-founded Passageways, which offers enterprise software portal solutions. "VendorCamp contains the ability to rate and review vendors and products and also includes a team collaborative environment for managing contracts and renewals in some never-before-done ways," he noted.
'Overwhelming Business Task'
Showley explained that the concept was conceived in the summer of 2013 by a group of industry peers who collaborated on the "overwhelming business task" of managing vendors in the industry. "Each year we sign on with more vendors for products that benefit our membership but need to maintain their contracts, costs, SLAs, product features and releases, employee acceptance, usability and customer service," he said.
Beacon Credit Union, for example, has more than 50 vendors and applications grouped into critical, medium- and low-priority categories. These are based upon how and if the vendor manages its member information. "Industry regulators require annual reviews and due diligence and it is our responsibility to our member-owners to spend wisely and take ownership of these relationships," said Showley. "Dedicating employees to this increasingly overloaded business function has been tenuous at best."
Adoption Rates Are Critical
While the service is new to the credit union industry, messaging and adoption rates are critical. "We need a system to help us maintain rich relationships with our vendors, manage their information so that we gain the most from their products and services," said Showley.
Beltran said a new "contract management" component has been added to the service that will allow participants to safely store unlimited respective contracts and share access to specific team members.
"As an early adopter of the rating system, [Beltran] reached out to us to get feedback. We saw a natural progression from being a vendor ratings and review system to a fully functional vendor management system with ratings," said Birkhofer. "As a result, the software is being developed with the end user in mind creating a rich user experience."
VendorCamp comes at a cost with three package offerings: basic, professional and premium. The annual fee ranges from $1,999 to $3,999. Showley explained that he and his IT staff will initially use the service internally with key employees across the organization logging their interactions with vendors.
"My staff and I spend time on the [CUNA Technology Council] listserv, which we all know is cumbersome and time-consuming. The shared information is invaluable, but the organization of the data is a decade old," said Showley. "Ideally, I'd like to see that vibrant community, and a few others, incorporate their expertise into this easily organized, comprehensive, user-friendly VendorCamp."
