FERNDALE, Mich. -- It's both the end of an era and a newbeginning at Credit Union ONE.

After 20 years in operation, the $784 million CU is shuttingdown its tech CUSO, ONE's Technologies, a provider of coreprocessing services on the UltraData Enterprise system to 17 othercredit unions through a service bureau arrangement with HarlandFinancial Solutions.

Those other credit unions are hardly being orphaned, however.They're migrating themselves to service bureau arrangements atHarland's Enterprise Services Center in Des Moines, Iowa, whileCredit Union ONE takes its UltraData processing onto an in-houseplatform.

"This is not a conversion process. Everything will be identicalfor them," says Gary Moody, CEO at Credit Union ONE.

And instead of taking support calls from the other 17 creditunions served by his CUSO, Moody's IT staff can put its 10 years ofexperience on the UltraData platform to work exclusively on newprojects and ongoing support at his 21-branch CU, which operates inmetro Detroit, to the West in Grand Rapids and Traverse City to thenorth.

Credit Union ONE currently has 27 FTEs assigned to IT. When themigration is completed this fall, Moody says, he expects 20 of themto remain with IT and seven to move into support roles in differentdepartments around the organization.

"We're not gaining staff in that sense, but we are gainingresources," Moody says. "We can now focus on projects that havebeen on the back burner while we operated as a service bureau."

For instance, he says, "We are in the midst of completelyrevisiting our Web site. Now we can focus on working with Harlandand Cavion to upgrade the site and do a lot of other things thatcan increase our value to our members.

"We're really excited about what this

new relationship with our core processor

can mean."

That's a sentiment shared by David McConney, executive vicepresident of the Credit Union Core Systems Group at Harland.

"Of course, we're always looking to grow our service bureaubusiness at our Enterprise Service Center," McConney says. "Butwe're also moving forward with Credit Union ONE in a relationshipwe're calling 'Showcase Partner Status.'

"That reflects the commitment on both our parts going forwardwith their renewed focus on their core business, on member serviceand on branding, that's supported by leveraging our technology inways that uses the wealth of talent and expertise they already haveright there," he says.

"They don't even have to change their hardware."

Speaking of sentiment, while the change makes senseoperationally, there will be some sense of loss at Credit UnionONE, Moody concedes.

"I don't want to downplay that point," the CU's CEO says. "Ourstaff has developed very close relationships over the years withthe employees at our long-term clients, and we value that.

"But we all realize this new arrangement makes perfect sense.We'll all be working directly with the people at Harland who arethe creators and supporters of the core processing software we alldepend on. That's an exciting opportunity for everyone."

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