WASHINGTON – Helping software learn while learning a good bitthemselves about what credit union members want and need to know isa hot activity for some folks at Callahan & Associates rightnow. The advisory firm has contracted with Fuze Digital Solutionsof Bellevue, Wash., to deploy Fuze MemberLink, a digital knowledgebase and contact management system that Callahan now is blendinginto its Web site at www.creditunions.com. The information comes in“knowledge packs” – personal finance content and calculatorsupdated regularly and cross-referenced and integrated with theclient's own product and service information. “We're still in theplanning stages of figuring out how we're going to implement it,and it's one of those things that you learn to use as you use it,”says Scott Patterson, Callahan's e-commerce manager. “But I thinkthe opportunity for us to help credit unions with this isincredible.” Callahan & Associates already is powering onesection of its Web site – the Info Center – with the Fuze solution,enabling visitors to ask questions that come directly to the properperson at Callahan. “We rarely endorse vendors, and really try tomaintain an independent third-party view of the industry. This isless about Fuze and more about how to use knowledge-basedtechnology to improve our service to credit unions and theirservice to members,” Patterson says. “Even small credit unions canprovide really incredible customer experience on par with theCitibanks of the world if it's done effectively,” he says. “Memberswon't need to go anywhere else. “And from my perspective, it'sgreat to learn about these technologies, because it helps meunderstand how credit unions are tackling the issue of digitalknowledge management.” Patterson says the Fuze solution was a goodway to start because of the robust knowledge base it comes with,which Fuze CEO Chuck Van Court says is gleaned from extensive workwith credit unions to learn what their members tend to want toknow. Then it comes down to customizing what's there – helping thelearning system learn some more. “One of our biggest challenges ispopulating the knowledge base,” Patterson says. “Chuck at Fuze hasreally pre-populated this with a lot of good information, so we'recertainly not starting from scratch. “But we do have to spend timethinking here about what pieces of information should go in there,or be added later, and what keywords it should have. This is muchmore than the simple `search the site' function where you getanything that has that word in it,” the Callahan e-commerce managersays. “But over time, as we develop our internal processes and getour people to think in terms of developing the knowledge base, itwill become much easier to use and there'll be a lot more there,”Patterson says. “It will just continue getting better.” Van Courtagrees. “The knowledge base must naturally grow as part of thesupport process, which will cause it to get better and better atanswering member and staff questions in a voice they understand,”the Fuze CEO says. “Unlike a static list of FAQs, a highlysearchable knowledge base will attract usage when members realizethe breadth and dynamic nature of the information it contains,” hesays. Fuze now has about 20 credit union customers, ranging fromunder $50 million to about $1.5 billion in assets, includingWright-Patt and Patriot, and one CUSO – CU*Answers. The companyalso has a handful of non-CU customers, most notablyCareerBuilder.com, Techies.com and NEC. Pricing is based on assetsize and its hosted solution ranges from “a couple hundred dollarsper month for small credit unions to a few thousand for largecredit unions,” Van Court says. MemberLink is available as an ASPor licensed model, with most clients opting for the former, VanCourt says. He says integration challenges so far have beenminimal, focusing mostly on integrating with Web sites and creatingan extract file for targeted marketing. “The challenges will comewhen we start integrating with other systems on a real-time basis.However, all these can be overcome and primarily deal with creatingsecure communications through our customers' firewalls,” he says.Fuze also is continuing to grow its offerings. “We are expandingour knowledge packs to include `Money Express', which is a seriesof about 75 articles focused on improving the financial literacy ofall members, from ages 12 to 112,” Van Court says. Each articlelinks to an online glossary and includes an online quiz at the end.A rewards program for younger members also is in the works. Otheradditions include alerts and two-way secure online communications,including for the 80% or more of members who are not online bankersat a typical credit union, and a single sign-on application toallow online bankers to access MemberLink without a separatesign-on, Van Court says. Integration with phone systems, voice-overIP, online banking, core systems and marketing gear like MCIF andCRM solutions are things Van Court sees in the near term. “Way, wayout there I see software consistently being able to extrapolatespecific answers from disparate general content,” Van Court says.“Some vendors tout that they can do something like this now, but Ihave yet to see an implantation that truly delivers the consistentresults required across broad and disparate data to make thistechnology truly effective,” he says. -

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