CU Times talked with three credit union technologists tofind out where they will be spending their IT dollars in 2015.

Post-Core Conversion Spending

“We break our IT spending up into two categories. First, there'sthe keeping the lights on/doors open category,” Kristopher Kovacs,SVP of operations for the $2.2 billion, 197,000-member Coastal Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., said.

He said the other category represents the various projects andinitiatives throughout the credit union.

“We just completed a core conversion, so we've been locked downon our non-core projects for the better part of three years,”Kovacs said.

In addition to the conversion to Symitar's Episys platform, Coastal also converted eightancillary systems as part of the project, he added. The creditunion deployed a member relationship management system at thattime. Kovacs and his team now need to catch up on other projectsnot related directly to the conversion.

“Part of what we're looking at from a spend perspective is, howdo we take these new systems and further integrate them into ourorganization,” Kovacs said.

For example, he said that since the credit union didn'tpreviously run an MRM system, it now needs to invest in analyticssoftware to support the best use of that system. Coastal is alsoexploring ways to share information available through these newsystems with its members, Kovacs said.

“It does us a limited amount of good to use this informationinternally, but we believe there's even more value in giving ourmembers a view of some of that information,” he noted.

This initiative to push more information out to the members willalso require additional investment in the credit union's digitalbanking channels, Kovacs said. He used MRM as an example.

“Once you have the right offer and you're able to track it, youneed a way to deliver it to the member and facilitate thecommunication with that member,” he explained.

Coastal is working with an outside firm to develop the interfacebetween the MRM system and the credit union's digital bankingplatform. Kovacs said the core conversion forced the credit unionnot only to reevaluate all of its older systems, but also how thosesystems are deployed.

“Many of these systems require a tremendous amount of hardwareand software. Do we want to spend our time managing that hardwareand software, or do we want to put it in the cloud?”

Kovacs' staff will devote considerable time in 2015 evaluatingeach major system for possible cloud deployment in 2016, he said.

Moving Away from Best-of-Breed

“There's no pile of money you can give me that I can't spend,”said Brad Williams, chief technology officer for South CarolinaCredit Union, who is responsible for all technology spending at the$1.3 billion, 150,000-member institution in Charleston, S.C.

“Next year, Windows Server 2003 will be going off of support, sothat's forcing us to replace a few systems,” Williams said.

Many vendors support different versions of their own softwaredepending on the version of Windows Server, so upgrading that program to a more currentversion will also require product upgrades, he noted.

“That's a big chunk of money,” Williams said.

When the financial downturn hit in 2008, the credit union wasforced to rethink nearly all of the ways it did everything in orderto reduce operating expenses, he recalled.

“About two years ago, we came up with a way to revamp the way wedo our products and services and who we do them with, and reduceour operating expenses as a result,” Williams said. “We choseFiserv as our all-encompassing vendor.”

South Carolina CU currently runs Fiserv Spectrum as its coredata processing platform, he added.

“We decided to move away from our best-of-breed strategy wherewe dumped millions of dollars into systems that we never reallyfully utilized,” Williams pointed out.

He said Fiserv provides virtually every technology product acredit union might need.

“We decided to go with them as our first choice, and as long asthey can provide what we need, we'll buy from them.”

This approach creates an economy of scale that reduces bothupfront costs and ongoing maintenance costs, Williams said, adding,“We've seen a huge lift to our operating expense reduction as aresult.”

Using only Fiserv products actually came about when the creditunion decided to convert to Fiserv's ill-fated Acumen platform,Williams said.

“When Acumen went away, we said, 'let's continue forward withthe ancillary products and save a new core search for later.'”

So far, Spectrum has been able to provide all the features andfunctionality the credit union needs and Fiserv has recentlycommitted to a substantial investment in continued Spectrumdevelopment, Williams said.

“It could turn out that Spectrum is sustainable long-term. Afterwe get all of the Fiserv products deployed, which will take anotheryear, we'll step back and see what we think.”

Three Priorities

David Dang, SVP of information technology at the $440 million,50,000-member PrimeWay Federal Credit Union in Houston, said thecooperative wants to focus on three areas in 2015.

“The first area is mobile,” he said. The credit union has beenrunning the Corelation KeyStone core processing platform for the past two years. Dang saidwhile PrimeWay has a mobile presence now, he wants to expand it.The credit union will also add mobile remote deposit capture by theend of 2014.

“Our goal is to have all the functionality currently availablein our online banking platform available through mobile,” hesaid.

The credit union currently uses Digital Insight for both onlinebanking and mobile. Dang said he wants to extend the mobileplatform beyond the company's current capabilities.

“For example, account opening – we definitely want that as partof our mobile platform,” We're even looking at delivering memberservice via mobile.”

Dang said he expects to be able to integrate all of these newfeatures into the existing Digital Insight platform.

“The second area of priority is security. We want to focus onsecurity for both our members as well as internally here atPrimeWay,” he shared.

The credit union is committed to providing its members extensivetraining and information on security-related matters.

“On the PrimeWay side, we continue to add additional layers ofsecurity,” Dang said. “I'm a strong believer in layered security. Icall it the onion approach. Every layer a hacker peels, there's anadditional layer there to protect us.”

He admitted that it's impossible to completely thwart allcybercriminals. However, a well-designed layered approach tosecurity will serve as a strong deterrent and encourage hackers tolooks elsewhere, Dang said.

“The third area we're looking at in 2015 is video. How do weutilize video to remotely serve members? I believe that's thefuture of member service.”

To that end, PrimeWay is exploring the possibility of migratingto a video-enabled call center, thereby creating a more personal,face-to-face experience for members, Dang said.

“Truly, what I want for PrimeWay is to offer both a high-touchand high-tech user experience.”