FERNDALE, Mich. -- It's both the end of an era and a new beginning at Credit Union ONE.

After 20 years in operation, the $784 million CU is shutting down its tech CUSO, ONE's Technologies, a provider of core processing services on the UltraData Enterprise system to 17 other credit unions through a service bureau arrangement with Harland Financial Solutions.

Those other credit unions are hardly being orphaned, however. They're migrating themselves to service bureau arrangements at Harland's Enterprise Services Center in Des Moines, Iowa, while Credit Union ONE takes its UltraData processing onto an in-house platform.

"This is not a conversion process. Everything will be identical for them," says Gary Moody, CEO at Credit Union ONE.

And instead of taking support calls from the other 17 credit unions served by his CUSO, Moody's IT staff can put its 10 years of experience on the UltraData platform to work exclusively on new projects and ongoing support at his 21-branch CU, which operates in metro Detroit, to the West in Grand Rapids and Traverse City to the north.

Credit Union ONE currently has 27 FTEs assigned to IT. When the migration is completed this fall, Moody says, he expects 20 of them to remain with IT and seven to move into support roles in different departments around the organization.

"We're not gaining staff in that sense, but we are gaining resources," Moody says. "We can now focus on projects that have been on the back burner while we operated as a service bureau."

For instance, he says, "We are in the midst of completely revisiting our Web site. Now we can focus on working with Harland and Cavion to upgrade the site and do a lot of other things that can increase our value to our members.

"We're really excited about what this

new relationship with our core processor

can mean."

That's a sentiment shared by David McConney, executive vice president of the Credit Union Core Systems Group at Harland.

"Of course, we're always looking to grow our service bureau business at our Enterprise Service Center," McConney says. "But we're also moving forward with Credit Union ONE in a relationship we're calling 'Showcase Partner Status.'

"That reflects the commitment on both our parts going forward with their renewed focus on their core business, on member service and on branding, that's supported by leveraging our technology in ways that uses the wealth of talent and expertise they already have right there," he says.

"They don't even have to change their hardware."

Speaking of sentiment, while the change makes sense operationally, there will be some sense of loss at Credit Union ONE, Moody concedes.

"I don't want to downplay that point," the CU's CEO says. "Our staff has developed very close relationships over the years with the employees at our long-term clients, and we value that.

"But we all realize this new arrangement makes perfect sense. We'll all be working directly with the people at Harland who are the creators and supporters of the core processing software we all depend on. That's an exciting opportunity for everyone."

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