SALT LAKE CITY — Two credit unions were among the winners of user awards from Allegiance Inc., a provider of enterprise feedback management tools.

They were the $2.3 billion Mountain America CU of West Jordan, Utah, recipient of the 2008 employee engagement award, and employee feedback award winner the $3 billion Desert Schools FCU of Phoenix, Ariz.

Both are users of the company's Engage platform, used to gather and analyze employee and member feedback. The awards were presented at Allegiance's second-annual Engage Summit and were based on top scores in customer and employee engagement and feedback.

“Companies that understand the importance of engaging employees and customers are more successful and enjoy faster growth. We commend these companies for going beyond the ordinary in opening feedback channels with their employees and customers and being responsive to their needs,” said Adam Edmunds, CEO of Allegiance (www.allegiance.com).

Mobile Banking Arrives At America First

RIVERDALE, Utah — America First Credit Union has launched its mobile banking service.

The $4.2 billion CU is using software from Atlanta-based Firethorn and is working to expand the list of handheld devices it can support on the AT&T and Verizon Wireless networks.

The mobile application is downloaded to individual mobile devices and allows users to make account inquiries, balance transfers and bill payments. The account numbers and other personal information still reside at the credit union.

The Web site for the service is at www.americafirst.com/mobile. A demonstration is at www.americafirst.com/demo/mobile_banking.

Online Membership Applications Offered by Digital Dialogue

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Automated online membership enrollment is now available from Digital Dialogue, a nationwide provider of call center and software services to credit unions.

The enrollment service is available through the client credit union's Web site or 24/7 call center and includes identity verification and other fraud prevention measures as well as cross selling, real-time funding and institution switch kits, the company said.

“Online member services, such as new enrollment, are not only convenient but also reduce application abandonment that is common with return mail applications and decrease operating costs by converting a cumbersome paper-based method to an efficient electronic format,” said Peter Schmitt, president of Digital Dialogue.

A part of PSCU Financial Services, Digital Dialogue (www.digital-dialogue.com) serves more than 200 credit unions. Its call center clients also include the Financial Services Center Cooperative shared-branch network.

Bluepoint Solutions Signs Dallas CU

DALLAS — Neighborhood Credit Union will soon be deploying several paperless products from Bluepoint Solutions Inc., the company and credit union said.

The $245 million CU will be using solutions from the Vista, Calif., company's document management suites, including eSign and FASTdocs.

“Our goal is to speed up the time our representatives spend on routine things with our members and invest our time providing solutions for our members,” said Carolyn Jordan, senior vice president of retail operations for seven-branch NCU (www.myncu.com).

Bluepoint (www.bluepointsolutions.com) sells its products directly and through partnerships with WesCorp, Southwest Corporate, Mid-Atlantic Corporate, SunCorp and Fidelity.

The company said it currently has its products in place at 751 credit unions in 41 states and has sold its solutions to more than 100 credit unions so far this year.

Navy Federal Hires Title Management Outsourcer

MERRIFIELD, Va. — Navy Federal Credit Union will be using the title management services of VINtek Inc. for its automotive lending business, the company and credit union said.

Philadelphia-based VINtek (www.vintek.com) provides electronic and paper title management outsourcing to credit unions, banks and other lenders and currently manages nearly 5 million titles and more than $69 billion in automotive assets, the company said.

“The smooth conversion of our loan files and collateral by VINtek met our priority of creating the least amount of impact on our members as possible,” said Susan Brooks, assistant vice president of consumer lending for $33 billion Navy Federal (www.navyfederal.org).

LES FCU Chooses CUOL

WALTHAM, Mass. — Louisiana Employment Security Federal Credit Union (www.lesfcu.com) will be migrating from an in-house XP Systems core processing platform to a data center operated by Credit Union On-Line Inc.

The Waltham-based CUSO (www.cuol.com) has been in business since 1980 and said it now is the only provider of the XP2 System in a data-center environment.

The migration will help the $24 million CU extend its product and service offerings whil adding new efficiencies and meeting disaster recovery requirements.

“We've been a member of the XP family for over 20 years, and we feel there's no system out there worth leaving it for,” said Jackie Patin, CEO of LES FCU in Baton Rouge.

“As our technology goals became more demanding, we found that CUOL could provide what we need, and for less than the cost of increasing our staff and equipment upgrades and purchases required to accomplish it,” Patin said.

Online Resources Launches Expedited Payments Service

CHANTILLY, Va. — Online Resources Corp. said it has now broadly rolled out a integrated expedited payments service it first piloted last year.

Now, the company said, more than 500 credit union and bank clients can offer their end users the ability to make guaranteed same-day payments in return for a service fee paid to the institution.

The integrated service allows consumers and business users to choose speed-of-delivery options to eligible payees by simply logging on to their financial institution's Web site.

They payments are then expedited through Online Resource's payments network, an end-to-end system that links its proprietary gateway with its biller network.

“This service enables our financial institution clients to generate fee income from the growing market for last-minute payments, as more consumers rely on expedited payment services,” said Sheila Narayan, executive vice president and general manager of Banking Payments Services for Online Resources.

“It also benefits our biller clients with faster, guaranteed funding of payments debited from consumers' checking accounts using Online Resources' patented debit technology,” Narayan said.

The Chantilly-based firm (www.orcc.com) said it also offers same-day and next-day services through thousands of walk-in bill payment providers, as well as real-time API interface that ties financial institutions' existing banking and payments platforms to facilitate expedited payments.

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