HERNDON, Va. — Eight years ago, Ron Daly committed his future to a new idea and a single client.

Sequestered in an office at Northwest Federal Credit Union, Daly was working to deploy a concept he developed while serving as the CU's chief financial officer and working on his MBA at George Washington University: providing electronic statements online instead of mailing paper documents to credit union members.

Operating as a CUSO with his old employer as his first and only customer for more than two years, Daly and his team have watched Digital Mailer grow to a client base of about 125 credit unions.

The company also has grown to 13 full-time employees working out of expanded offices at Northwest FCU and an operations center in Charlotte, N.C., as well as a nationwide sales force.

The product line also has expanded along with the digital tools to deliver them, moving from PDF documents to XML-based delivery and beyond, and is now able to offer a variety of presentation options, including electronic alerts.

And after delivering about seven million e-statements and five million e-alerts to date, Daly and his primary backer, Northwest FCU, have a potent new partner — the nation's largest corporate credit union.

WesCorp recently bought into DigitalMailer for an undisclosed amount, a move that Daly said will help his CUSO expand its reach in both client base and product offerings.

“We have a one-size-does-not-fit-all strategy. That's always been a differentiator for us, that you can take our product and make it look and feel different than the one from the credit union across the street,” Daly said.

“Now, open platforms at the core processors and all the new data streams out there have allowed us to be more and more creative about using the Internet to change looks and create new links, and having WesCorp with us will allow us to be even more creative,” he said.

For instance, the corporate's storehouse of client credit union check images can be accessed and presented in customizable ways using DigitalMailer tools, a strategic avenue for reaching out to the small business market.

“For instance, a CPA who wants to see all the checks cleared in a business owner's account can access them with one click instead of one at a time,” Daly said.

Looking ahead, Daly said the partnership with WesCorp also will help with the development of a “customer communication center” branded by the credit union and providing easy access to a variety of statements sent by the credit union to one location, serving as what Daly called “the role of a virtual safe deposit box.”

Other tools under development have a focus on mobile messaging.

“We were already working on that as an avenue for reaching especially younger members,” Daly said. “Having WesCorp involved has accelerated the development process.

“We've moved from being an e-statement company to a digital communications company and this can only help us accelerate that overall process, too.”

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