Mobile Banking
WICHITA FALLS, Texas-"Members should be able to bank on the go, and mobile banking will be adopted rapidly," according to Kevin Scott, operations manager at $81-million Texoma Community CU, which offers online bill pay and live chat, among other electronic services.
"I am convinced that mobile banking is essential to attract and keep Gen X and Y," agreed Raymond Dowling, president and CEO at $56-million Stamford FCU in Stamford, Conn.
"The younger people, whom we need to attract, are early adopters and are always on the go," added Cindy Griffin, president at $48-million Northern Hills FCU, in Sturgis, S.D. "Newer members are less loyal, so having relevant technology to service members is very important." Self-service channels "leave less room for error, reduce costs, and make members happier," she said.
SMS mobile banking tops the list at recession-weary Tulsa Postal and Community FCU: "If there was something on my wish list — other than for this economic nightmare to be over — it would be text banking," said President and CEO Mark Colley. "We all need to make ourselves more convenient to the member and attract new members. Done properly, this could help answer that issue."
Kent County CU in Grand Rapids, Mich., hopes for mobile banking that is delivered through a mobile-optimized website. "We haven't had a lot of requests, but I expect that to change in 2010," said Raymond Ward, president and CEO at the $36-million CU.
Internet Banking
DAVENPORT, Iowa-"Triple play" mobile banking has been underway since September at $93-million The Family CU here.
Combined with online bill pay, "once you've used homebanking, you can't go back," said Mark Bohdanyk, VP, business operations at $1.3-million Table Rock FCU in Shell Knob, Mo. "It's an industry standard, and in our case, will allow members to bank from home and not have to drive thirty miles to our office."
A merger this year at Boston-based Alpha CU has raised the ante for Internet banking and bill pay, said David Snow, president at the $24-million CU. "Because of demand, economies of scale and a more diverse and larger membership, we feel the time has come to offer these services."
Bill pay would increase Lakes Area CU's ability to retain members, said Melissa Swenson, marketing specialist at the $25-million CU. By February, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CU will add bill pay to its existing set of online services, she said.
Txt Msgng
CHEYENNE, Wyo.-Members at $35-million Unified People's FCU should be able to use their cell phones to request homebanking alerts, including account balances, said Camille Shillenn, president at UPFCU. "This is imperative to serve younger members, and we find that even members who aren't tech-savvy like to text."
'SM IM'
CHEYENNE, Wyo-What could be better than secure text-messaging (SMS) and instant-messaging (IM)? Combine them on one platform, suggested James Yates, president at $42-million First Education FCU.
"As PCs lose favor with younger generations, SMS and other mobile applications become more important. Text-messaging and PC-based instant messaging have broken the age, gender and class barriers and are the preferred and most convenient communication method for a growing portion of our membership."
Yates' said his "SMIM" platform would offer secure communication between members and employees.
Scaled Costs
ARCATA, Calif.-"We wish for fair technology costs for all products, scaled for the size of the institution," said Greg Goodwyn, CEO, Northern Redwood FCU. The $16-million CU doesn't want to pay "buy-in" fees, which make it difficult to recover product costs, he said. "Price it according to institution size and volume usage, so everybody pays about the same per use."
Fix Up Back-Ups
HANNIBAL, Ohio-Back-up on Backups: System imaging software — "something like an EVault Internet-based backup solution to make backups easier," suggested Mike Liskanich, IT manager at $96-million Ohio Valley Community Credit Union.
Capture Rapture
DALLAS-The $48-million Employees CU in Dallas wants to add merchant capture to its existing branch capture technology, said Vonda Burkhart, VP, CFO. "We have many DBA accounts, and they have a large check volume."
In Chattanooga, Tenn., David Smart, CEO at the $34-million Trust FCU, offered, "Our top technology wish is for an easy to use, yet affordable consumer capture product that will integrate with our other e-products. We have many members who work from home or live miles away from a branch."
Fraud Guards
YANKTON, S.D.-"With all the fraud this last year, it's more important that we're able to replace a compromised debit or credit card as quickly as possible," said David Wright, Services Center FCU, Yankton, S.D. The CEO at the $38-million CU said instant issuance technology should do the trick.
Instead of replacing plastic cards, how about technology that guarantees better card security or fraud monitoring "to help prevent, or at least reduce," fraud, suggested Mark Ruppert, general manager and CEO at $41-million Ontario Shores FCU in Newfane, N.Y. "We lost a significant amount of money — $20,000 — in plastic card fraud in 2009. There's a lack of significant assuredness that it won't happen again."
Intranet
WAUWATOSA, Wis.-"We must move our institutional knowledge into an electronic format using an Intranet to help our staff, management, board and occasionally regulators see how we operate; how we document; how we test; and how we retain key information," explained Dean Wilson, president and CEO at $40-million FOCUS CU.
Intranet
LAKE CHARLES, La.-The $15-million Calcasieu Federal Employees CU celebrated early, opening its gifts as this article went to press: "Santa brought us a new main server and six new computers in order to conform to a core software update," said Jessica LaRocca, CEO and manager. The new server will enable encrypted core backups, required under NCUA guidelines, and more efficient processes and performance, she continued.
New Phones
COLUMBIA, S.C.-Carolina Collegiate FCU is having trouble with its six-year-old telephony, said Anne Shivers, president at the $72-million CU. It's difficult to communicate between branches, and it won't pull voicemails or faxes into the current versions of Microsoft Outlook. "A new system will help us be much more efficient."
Many Needs
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-To ensure business continuity, Sioux Empire FCU wants multiprotocol label switching (MPLS); for optimized storage and resource use, the CU wants virtualization; for improved storage and to support virtualization, the CU wants a storage area network; and for longer-term backups that take up less space, and to improve WAN performance, the CU wants data de-duplication, according to IS Manager Bill Trudeau and Tech Specilaist Michael Van Driesen at the $80-million CU.
All The Pieces
ROCHESTER, N.Y.-"I want my loan decisioning system to approve loans based on my criteria," said Ann Hynes, president at $46-million St. Pius X FCU. The improved system would better reflect Hynes' own decision-making process. "That would be the crowning touch for the system I have, which gathers all the pieces."
Just 1 Thing
KETCHIKAN, Alaska-"Our greatest wish is for a new branch office on Annette Islands Reserve, the only Indian reserve in Alaska," said Helen Mickel of $43-million Tongass FCU. "Tech-wise, I'm pretty satisfied right now."
