In my last article for CU Times, I discussed howwearing my Fitbit to keep my heart healthy reminded me of how anenterprise content management solution can help with the health ofyour HR department, which is the heart of your credit union.

Since then, I've been wearing my Fitbit daily and have becomehooked on it. I even started adding friends via the Fitbit app toget a better idea of how I'm doing compared to my peers. When Istarted, I was a little discouraged because the first few days Iwasn't in the top 10, but then I kicked my competitive personalityinto gear.

I became obsessed, challenging my friends to daily or weeklyshowdowns and thinking of any and all advantages I could take towin. Then I realized all the similarities between my Fitbitobsession and the credit union industry.

I was recently in a meeting with a prospect who was interestedin implementing ECM for his credit union's consumer lendingoperations. He said that their processes were too slow and,ultimately, competitors were winning business.

This is something we hear more often lately when it comes toconsumer lending.

I felt a connection to the individuals in the meeting because wewere both striving for better outcomes. We were both lookingfor a solution that would push us to the front and make us moreagile to stay ahead of the competition. For me it was thinking ofways to get more steps per day; for my prospect it was implementinga strategic technology solution that would increase the pace with which they complete loan applications andrespond to questions.

Finding Agile Solutions for a Tough Market

The consumer lending market is large, and is filled withnon-traditional lenders that can offer loans with lower coststructures due to a virtual environment rather than thebrick-and-mortar structures. Traditional lenders are now seekingsolutions that will keep them nimble against their competition.

It's clear that technology is often the answer to theseproblems. More often than not, we see credit unions finding theagility and flexibility they need to stay profitable, competitiveand efficient in ECM technology. Because increased speed andaccuracy starts with gettingall that paper out of the way.

Achieving Uniform, Transparent Processing

By digitizing documents, and ultimately the processes thosedocuments are tied to, you capture information, make it instantlyavailable and standardize your processes. In fact, you can takealmost any process, including consumer loan applications, andcreate an automated workflow. Not only will that workflow make suredocuments such as loan applications are complete and accurate, itwill automatically route them to the appropriate personnel,alerting stakeholders along the way.

Detailed tracking of these documents provides enhancedvisibility into the lending approval process. You know exactlywhere they are in the process, who has opened or altered thosedocuments and how soon they will be completed. And, automaticdocument histories increase security and reduce risk with audittrails and records management.

Increasing Member Satisfaction

At the end of the day, we all know the most important aspect oflending for a credit union is focusing on member service andensuring you can provide the best service possible. With the rightECM solution in place, your credit union can provide quickerresponses to member inquiries because you can access informationimmediately. The faster your credit union is able to respond andapprove a consumer loan, the more likely you are to secureadditional business.

The competitiveness of the consumer loan market demands an agilesolution. To stay profitable and ahead of the competition, creditunions are turning to ECM to streamline various aspects of theconsumer loan process. This includes document imaging, input andcapture, storage, retrieval and workflow routing of documents,which reduces the cost of the loan process and increases the speedat which an organization can accept a loan.

Because the faster you can approve a loan, the faster you canacquire, satisfy and retain members. And you won't need to worryabout your competition, because you won't have any. As for me, I'llcontinue to focus on adding more steps per day to beat my Fitbitcompetition.

Michelle Shapiro is financial services marketing manager forHyland, creator of OnBase. She can be reached at 440-788-6803 [email protected].