"Many of our customers are able to successfully apply the data collected by the Engage platform on their own, but some want expert advice on best practices to achieve results," said Greg Heaps, the company's chief operating officer.

"Our consulting services are very flexible, allowing companies to focus on specific areas where they need help or they can select one of our prescribed programs that align directly with the stages of business growth," he said.

The consulting services are available onsite or online, the company said.

Amplify Goes Mobile

AUSTIN, Texas — Amplify Federal Credit Union is taking the honor deposit concept to the mobile banking space.

The $464 million credit union now allows its members to record deposits using any Web-enabled mobile phone and through any carrier and send the check in later.

The service is an extension of the Instant Deposit Online offering that Amplify debuted in April. More than 2,500 members have signed up for that service so far and more than 1,000 checks have been processed, the credit union said.

"As gas prices rise, people are looking for ways to make fewer trips to branches," said Kent White, vice president of marketing at Amplify (www.goamplify.com). "With Instant Deposit Online, we can not only help people get funds into their accounts faster, but save miles of driving, traffic hassles, and time.

The Instant Deposit Online technology is provided by Jwaala, a financial services technology provider partly owned by Amplify. MShift created the interface between the Jwaala software and Web-enabled cellphones.

Bluepoint's New Team

VISTA, Calif. — Bluepoint Solutions has created a new onsite client service offering and appointed a veteran of the credit union space to head it up.

Erin Coleman is the company's new vice president of alternative services. She heads up the team of specialists in proactive site management and maintenance of the Bluepoint product suite of Check 21, remote deposit capture, document management and multifaction identification software solutions.

Coleman has been a technology, product and strategic accounts manager and held other positions in her 14 years in the financial services industry. Her employers have included Harland Financial Solutions, PSCU Financial Services, Keys Federal Credit Union and Dade County Federal Credit Union.

"Bluepoint's client-centric philosophy and proven best practices methodology are what generated my interest in the company and this opportunity. I believe these will be key building blocks in the success of alternative services," Coleman said.

The company (www.bluepointsolutions.com) currently has more than 750 credit union customers.

"Bluepoint's mission is to improve our clients' institutional performance. Alternative Services supports our mission. It allows us to provide financial institutions with highly trained experts to manage and maintain their Bluepoint products onsite," said Naseer Nasim, the company's CEO.

FSCC Extends Relationship With Digital Dialogue

SAN DIMAS, Calif. — Financial Service Centers Cooperative Inc. has extended its call center and software services relationship with Digital Dialogue by 10 years, the companies said.

FSCC provides 5,000 access points for shared branching and call-center services to more than 12 million credit union members and 1.8 million of its transactions were processed last year by Digital Dialogue, the companies said.

Digital Dialogue, owned by PSCU Financial Services and based in suburban Detroit, has partnered with FSCC since 2003 and serves more than 200 individual credit unions along with the FSCC network.

"Digital Dialogue offers our various credit union affiliates total member service with 24/7/365 call center operations," said Sarah Canepa Bang, CEO at FSCC (www.fscc.com).

"Because our credit union network is geographically disbursed throughout the world, the technology that Digital Dialogue offers is invaluable to our credit unions and their members," she said.

The announcement was made at FSCC's annual meeting in Chicago.

"Working with FSCC over the past five years, Digital Dialogue has grown both its market share and products and service offering with custom-branded call center services," said Peter Schmitt, president of Digital Dialogue (www.digital-dialogue.com).

Jwaala Online Honor Deposit Is Separated

AUSTIN, Texas — Jwaala has begun marketing its online honor deposit feature as a separate product.

Called HomeDeposit, it had been a feature of the MoneyTracker online banking extension but is now being offered as "an independent solution to any institution wanting to roll out a full-featured consumer home deposit solution" at less cost than competing products, the company said.

The HomeDeposit feature works much like the UPost service created by eCU Technologies before that CUSO was acquired by Wescom Resources Group. The pre-qualified member logs the deposit online and then mails in the check and enjoys immediate access to the funds.

The MoneyTracker online personal finance manager is the flagship offering of Jwaala, a CUSO of Amplify Federal Credit Union.

Jwaala's Web site at www.jwaala.com now lists eight credit unions so far as users of its product lineup, which includes MoneyTracker, HomeDeposit and a multifactor authentication tool.

Open Solutions Partners With HP in EMEA Market

GLASTONBURY, Conn. — Open Solutions Inc. continues its international outreach, this time announcing a partnership aimed at the European, Middle Eastern and African markets for financial institutions.

The company will be reselling its entire product line, including core processing systems for credit unions and banks, in those nations through a "European strategic teaming alliance partnership" with Hewlett Packard, the companies said. HP will localize, customize, deploy and support the Open Solutions products under the agreement.

"This joint agreement will give small to mid-size financial institutions an advantage in the market. Even with a limited budget, these institutions will now have access to a sophisticated, open database core banking system," said Nicola Aliperti, vice president, financial services industry, for EMEA HP.

"HP has extensive reach in the global market and strong implementation expertise. We've experienced tremendous growth globally and look forward to bringing our world-class technology solutions to the EMEA region," said Wayne Ginn, senior vice president of international operations for Open Solutions.

Open Solutions has forged similar international partnerships with companies in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India and Southeast Asia.

PSCU Financial to Offer Combined Channel Banking

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — PSCU Financial Services plans to soon offer a combined online, voice and mobile banking solution.

The service will be through a reseller arrangement with Q2 Software of Austin, Texas, and will include 24/7 member support and consultative support from PSCU.

"Our online bill payment product has been very successful, but it has always been our goal to provide fully featured online banking to our member-owner credit unions," said David Serlo, president of the 500-member CUSO.

"The credit union industry will now have access to a turnkey online banking solution with cooperative pricing, world class support and a modern integrated architecture," Serlo said.

Features will include standard online banking capabilities as well as integrated mobile and voice banking, multifactor log in that can be used across all delivery channels, integrated small business member services, the ability to match the look and feel of the credit union's Web site and built-in online channel marketing tools.

Pilots of the new application will begin in the fall and a full product launch is expected early next year, the company said.

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