PLANO, Texas – Fiserv's commitment to invest in IntegraSys, the former EDS credit union division, has helped IntegraSys beat its own timetable in rolling out an overhaul of one of its core systems. IntegraSys is in phase one of a four phase process of revamping its Premier online core system. Premier is relatively popular in credit union land with some 400 credit union clients ranging from those with just a few million in assets up to as large as the $1.6 billion San Antonio Credit Union. So far three clients have gone live with phase one, which features one of the most important aspects of any system, especially in terms of member service and cross-selling – the new teller platform. IntegraSys redesigned the system under a Services Oriented Architecture that utilizes Microsoft .NET. The system is now also Windows based, instead of just a Windows front-end which is how the CUs interviewed for this story described the existing Premier for Windows (launched in early `90s). IntegraSys describes the Services Oriented Architecture as one that allows it to utilize reusable standard interfaces. "The technical people like to talk about XML being the standard of today. The service oriented architecture allows us to make those XML type calls in our development going forward," said Albert Ku, SVP and General Manager for the Premier product. Credit unions beta testing the product said this version is more like what Windows is all about. "The old product was more of a screen scrape where they made it look like Windows. There was some navigation ability, but nothing like this product. Tellers don't have to remember any transaction codes any more. It's much easier to train folks on. I laugh because tellers are saying they've already forgot the old transaction codes after using this product," said Cheryl Thompson, CEO of U.S. Courthouse CU in Nashville. AAFES CU, the first CU to beta the product, said managing changes to the system are easier. "With Premier for Windows any time there was an update, EDS had to schedule a download. We sometimes had difficulty pulling that download down. Now with the next generation Premier the updates are automatic. They do them on their end on the server," said Cheryl Gibson, CEO of AAFES CU in Dallas. "It's user friendly. Anybody who has any knowledge of Windows can learn it. It's going to cut down on our IT personnel on staff," she said. The staffing reduction will come once all modules are complete and the CU can get rid of its servers that it has in-house now that are used to connect different systems, like its loan processing and member service representative processing. Ku said the teller platform is the "glitzy" part of any core system, and he thinks Premier will make CU tellers' work lives easier. "What we've done is taken 125 common teller transactions and reduced that to 10 to 15 transactions that are basically Windows-based intuitive transactions. In the past tellers would have to remember up to 125 different transaction codes. Today by operating within a very small handful of screens, the .NET allows us to generate the multiple transactions required," said Ku. Another significant upgrade is the cross-selling features, said Ku. It features built-in cross-sell and sales tracking giving CUs control over member profiles and what criteria to use to match products to members. The next wave of the system will be the member services component, followed by lending, and then back-office functionality, said Ku. Ku said Fiserv's backing helped accelerate the new system. "The plan was underway (before the Fiserv acquisition), but through Fiserv's desire to invest in the product we were able to accelerate the development and the release of the first phase," said Ku. "I can manage resources now in a way that I haven't been able to mange resources for a long time. The attitude is get the people in place and get the projects over with so we can focus on growing the business," said Ku. Will the revamped Premier attract more larger CUs to the online processing world? Ku said credit unions are probably realizing that the costs savings of online systems are not as dramatic as some experts have been saying, however the service, performance and flexibility of online systems are making such strides it is attracting larger CUs that are concerned about having control over their system. [email protected]