Call it an especially long courtship.

The search for a new core system at the $393 million Vermont Federal Credit Union began in the fall of 2011 and itwas not finally resolved until late January, 2013, said LancePotter, its senior vice president of information systems.

That was when the Burlington-based institution signed a contractwith Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv which, shortly before, hadannouncedits acquisition of Open Solutions Inc. and that company's flagshipproduct, the DNA core system.

Vermont Federal had in fact decided on DNA months earlier, inAugust 2012, remembered Potter. The credit union had determined itwanted to move off the core – Fiserv's Spectrum –that it had beenon at least since the mid-1980s, said Potter.

Pretty quickly the search landed on DNA, said Potter, because ofthe core's advanced features, including a member-centric approach,rather than the account-centric approach that defined Spectrum andcores of a like vintage.

Another DNA advantage, said Potter, is more efficient andflexible loan processing. “We will be able to do it in the core andwon't have to use third-party systems,” he said.

As for why the long lag between deciding on DNA and contractingto go forward with the conversion, Potter indicated the creditunion's concerns about OSI's financial stability, given its highdebt load (around $1 billion at the time of the Fiservacquisition).

“The process went longer than we had anticipated but we did nothave to be off our core at a specific time. We could wait,” saidPotter, who indicated that OSI had suggested solutions for itsfinancial woes were in the works, although “they offered nospecific details,” he said.

“OSI was open with us, they said they were looking to addresstheir finances,” said Potter.

“When it was announced that Fiserv was acquiring OSI we werepleased,” said Potter. [The decision to sign with DNA] “required little due diligence on our part,” mainly because VermontFederal already had several decades of experience working withFiserv and knew the company well.

Potter added that Vermont Federal had “just now started ourformal conversion process.”