Two well-established vendors in the credit union space just heldtheir annual meetings: portal provider Passageways LLC andcollections and collections, lending and data analysis specialistAkcelerant Software.

Passageways, founded as a CUSO at Purdue Federal Credit Union inWest Lafayette, Ind., a decade ago, celebrated its 10th anniversarywith a conference in St. Louis that drew more than 150 customersfrom its financial services and health care client list earlierthis month.

“This 10-year journey, with all its wonderful ups and sometimeshorrible downs, has been a memorable one. Our customers andespecially our early adopters are the reason we continue to innovate andthrive as a company today. I see nothing but even more fun timesfor our team as Enterprise Collaboration continues to be anexciting space to be in,” said CEO Paroon Chadha.

Chadha helped form the company as a creator of intranet portalsfor credit unions while he was a grad student at Purdue University. He said Passagewayshas now provided solutions to more than 300 credit unions and otherclients across several industries.

Akcelerant, meanwhile, stayed home for its 2013 Customer Educational Conference fromApril 29 to May 1 in Philadelphia. The Malvern, Pa., company saidmore than 240 attendees from 120 financial institutions and vendorsattended.

Sessions included lab and classroom discussion and focused oncurrent topics such as legal considerations, effective lending,internet investigation techniques and foreclosure trends.

Thecompany said presenters included Brad Pizer of Pizer &Associates P.C., CUNA Mutual Group Northeast sales manager KadieReichardt, licensed private investigator Michèle Stuart and RichSharga, executive vice president of Carrington Mortgage Holdings.

“I would like to thank all of our attendees for theircontinued participation, as well as acknowledge the importance ofour 14 partners and sponsors, especially SWBC, this year's premierevent sponsor,” said Eric Snyder, Akcelerant executive vicepresident, business development.

Akcelerant, which began in 2000 as a provider of collections software primarily to credit unions,said it now serves more than 500 financial institutions.