Southeast Corporate Converting to OSI; Relationship Database the Hook

GLASTONBURY, Conn. – When it comes to data processing, natural person credit unions and corporate credit unions have different needs, though they’re getting closer as CUs get deeper into serving businesses. The $3 billion Southeast Corporate FCU recently selected The Complete Credit Union Solution from Open Solutions Inc. to handle its data processing. OSI Product Manager Lizette Nigro said corporates are a different animal than natural person CUs, mainly in that they need more commercial functionality. She said functions like cash management and analytical account tools are valuable to corporates. Like banks serving businesses, corporates need to be able to show their members ACH transfers, wires, and other transactions in real-time. OSI’s system has this functionality, but Nigro said even though the relationship between a corporate and a CU is more commercial than a natural person CU and their members, the relationships are very unique, and corporates want systems that can operate based on individual relationships. “Our product does offer an extensive line of commercial functions, but going back to the whole member approach, the database is designed around the person, that individual relationship,” she said. OSI’s system revolves around an Oracle relational database that allows an organization to tailor products and services to individual members. This could come into play at a corporate for rate setting, where interest rates are determined by how much business a credit union does with the corporate. “The database model built to support OSI’s user-friendly application for reporting and transactions is extremely open and dynamic. The technology will provide a more comprehensive picture of our relationships with our members, as well as our own performance,” said Bill Birdwell, Southeast Corporate FCU’s President/CEO. With the relationship database, Southeast can create reports that show them exactly how their members are utilizing their services, said Nigro. Andrew Bennett, SVP of Operations for OSI, said OSI’s dynamic messaging empowers the corporate to deliver information about individual CU relationships across various platforms, which is becoming increasingly today important as corporates move more services online. Benett said OSI is close to signing some more corporates. OSI is its third corporate client. “It’s a really small segment with very unique needs. There’s not a lot of people developing solutions for the corporate credit union market. A lot of people talk about it, but not a lot have materialized,” said Bennett. Interestingly, Bennett said there are some corporates that are operating on their own in-house systems that are now starting to look around and see what’s out there. [email protected]