SANDIA LABORATORY FCU
Category: Management Automation
Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union is completing more projects on time and has improved focus and communication throughout its organization thanks to the adoption of a Web-based management automation tool, according to a spokeswoman.
Jo Dee Martinez, SLFCU's senior manager of strategic projects, credited "Connections Online," a product from Cleveland, Ohio-based Cardwell [formerly Cardwell Group], in conjunction with consulting work by company owner Jim Cardwell, with helping the credit union complete 30% more projects in the first year following implementation. In addition, she said SLFCU was able to cut out weekly management team meetings that lasted one to three hours and replace them with brief, monthly meetings-resulting in a savings of approximately 240 executive hours per year.
"Because we are so focused and clear on our objectives, we not only have been able to reduce the number of meetings, we now know exactly what will be discussed at each meeting, instead of not knowing what we might get hit with each week," she said.
By 2004, the organizational situation at the $982-million, 55,000-member CU had gotten out of control, Martinez said. Each department had its own method for tracking and prioritizing projects and initiatives, and there was no cohesive, systematic method of tracking the progress of goals and projects. Attempts to use Microsoft products, such as Word, Excel and Project, were unsuccessful, she said.
"We spent a lot of time attempting to gather all the input for each department so we could have a comprehensive list of projects. But that took so much time and effort, we never got to the point of being able to address the real concerns," she recalled. "We knew what was giving us pains, but we couldn't get our arms around everything. It was draining our ability to get all the things done we thought needed to be done."
Jim Cardwell previously had done a presentation for the credit union, but Martinez said other methods of solving SLFCU's problems were attempted.
Finally, when she received multiple referrals to the Cardwell product from friends at other credit unions struggling with the same issues, Jim Cardwell was asked to do another presentation.
Cardwell said his company has 80 credit union clients-mostly in the $800-million to $3-billion asset range but some with as few as $200 million in assets.
He said Sandia Laboratory FCU's story is one he sees frequently as credit unions grow larger.
"Once a credit union gets over $100 million, it usually is no longer run by just a manager, but a management team," he said. "A credit union with $250 million to $500 million in assets is complex, and can't fly by the seat of its pants. It is not that they don't have good people, but there are many project methodologies. There is a lot of activity, but things don't get done, which causes frustration for staff and CEOs."
Martinez said SLFCU began implementing Connections Online "from top down" in November 2004. Jim Cardwell was brought in to offer consulting services to the executive and senior management team.
After the first phase was completed in March 2005, the tool was expanded to include most of the rest of the staff. The second phase was fully implemented by September 2005.
Sandia Laboratory FCU uses three components of Connections Online: "Organization Connection," the top-level development module; "Team Connections," a project management tool; and, "Individual Connections," which tracks individual goals.
"By using all three, we get alignment from top to bottom in the whole organization," Martinez said. "Organization Connection tracks goals and strategies of the organization, down to the individual level, where each task shows which person is responsible."
"I can see my accountability and responsibility to the organization, and for each task that involves me, I can see my role," she added.
Jim Cardwell praised SLFCU's executive team for its enthusiasm in embracing the change to an online management tool.
"It was a lot of fun working with them. They wanted something more collaborative, with more communication and more accountability," he said. "After, they said they got more done in the first year than in the previous five, which is something we hear all the time."
According to Martinez, Connections Online's price tag was $57,000. Of that amount, $20,000 covered a licensing fee for up to 200 users, and $37,000 went to consulting.
She said SLFCU's senior leadership unanimously agreed the benefits outweighed the time and costs.
"It takes a commitment by an organization to move forward holistically, but we did so and we replaced old, antiquated process with new processes," she assessed. "It always seemed like a pipe dream to have everyone in the organization share the same project management methodology. But with Connections, marketing, IS, and everyone else can use one system that can be scaled. We haven't found a project yet Connections isn't suitable for, and we've had some big ones."
