MOUNT LEHMAN, British Columbia — You probably remember Ms.Thermodynamics, your high school physics teacher, quotingAristotle's statement that nature abhors a vacuum.

Gene Blishen agrees. He's general manager of Mount Lehman CreditUnion and has gained a reputation for taking the credit union–$40million assets and 1,800 members–to technological heights notordinarily expected in a small credit union.

“The key is not operating in a vacuum,” Blishen declared. “Wehave to recapture the agenda for small credit unions ourselves.Credit unions have phenomenal advantages. Now, after the financialcrisis, it's exponential. Small credit unions have a hugeadvantage. We can turn on a dime. What we can do in a week wouldtake a large credit union three months.”

The latest example of innovation at MLCU occurred recently whenthe credit union became one of the first two financial institutionsin Canada to offer text or short messaging service banking. Theother is Coast Capital Savings, Canada's second largest creditunion with $11.9 billion in assets, 380,000 members and 49 branchesin metropolitan Vancouver.

MLCU members can text “MONEY” to obtain account balances andtransaction histories. Unlike other mobile banking approaches,there is no need for Internet access.

Blishen explained how MLCU has positioned itself to thrive in anera when bigger has been touted as better.

“We have tremendously large credit unions here, such as VanCityand Coast Capital,” he noted. “We're a small, single-branch creditunion. All the small credit unions were merging, and we wonderedwhat we could do. So we decided we would become a niche creditunion.

“We couldn't battle the giants on price. That's kind of like thecorner grocery store going up against Walmart. We decided to usetechnology, and as contracts from suppliers expired, we began topull in various things.”

About four years ago MLCU came up with the idea of MessageNotes,which sends a member a text message on their cell phone whenever atransaction occurs on one of their plastic cards. The messageusually arrives within two to five seconds. The credit union has apatent pending on that process.

“We call that a 'push' technology. In other words, it pushes themessage out when the transaction occurs. We've found most creditunions around here can't do that, for a number of reasons. A lot ofthe mobile banking products you see from Wells Fargo and others areactually pull technology,” Blishen said.

MLCU has already introduced its second generation ofMessageNotes and is now working on a third version, expected to berolled out late this winter or early next spring.

That version will allow members to choose any type oftransaction or calendar event for MessageNotes, including loanpayments, automatic payroll deposit or even interest credit or safedeposit box access.

How can a credit union with a staff of 10 accomplish allthis?

Blishen explained that in the late 1990s MLCU looked at itsbanking system and asked what the credit union actually wanted itto do. Most people, he noted, want the system to do everything.

“So they go out and buy the latest and greatest. We decided wewanted our banking system to just process transactions. If we havea system like that–and they are fairly cheap–we can then take thatinformation, bring it over into some of the tools the computerindustry has basically given us, and hire people who areprogrammers to take those mundane back-office features and createexactly what the user wants,” Blishen said.

He indicated every time a financial institution wants a changein a vendor-developed banking system, the price is probably fivetimes the cost of handling the change internally. In addition, hebelieves the understanding developed in-house allows the creditunion to make extremely knowledgeable, valuable decisions.

He cited the example of an MLCU program that creates PDFstatements with check images. A standard product, he acknowledged.But the credit union has taken it one step further by allowing amember to create a statement covering specific dates in the currentmonth, an entire six months or any other period. A lot ofbusinesses, Blishen said–and the credit union does offer businessaccounts–want a statement with everything combined in a PDF formatso they can analyze cash flow or some other data.

What mistakes does he think credit unions make when it comes totechnology?

“They're not aware of what's happening,” he answered. “Yoursecond highest cost after staffing is IT. You have to understandhow business needs within the credit union can be solved bytechnology. I think that bridge is often lacking at creditunions.

“They listen to experts or to their own technology people, whodon't understand the business rules. That means they don'tunderstand what you can do from a technology standpoint. There's alot of misplaced trust. It's part of your job to understand what'shappening.”

That commandment extends down the food chain. For instance, whenthe iPhone became available in Canada, each staff member wasprovided with one. The idea was to place the latest technology inthe hands of every employee.

Blishen is convinced another hurdle to technology is peopledon't believe they can do it. A small credit union, he said, alwayshears the noise around them. Instead, he suggested adopting andimproving technology is like golf. Work on improving your own gameinstead of trying to beat Tiger Woods.

While MLCU is an innovator when it comes to technology, Blisheninsists a prime consideration is whether a given piece oftechnology works as a humanizing factor. Does it take the drudgeryout of work? Does it keep the end user in mind? In fact, he's beendescribed as the beat cop at the intersection of technology andhumanity

“When you develop things with the end user in mind, whether it'sstaff or a member, and you get their input, then you create ahumanizing factor in technology,” Blishen emphasized.

“The really great thing is when someone who is 60 years oldcomes up to the counter and says, 'You know, I use MemberNotes andit's great.'

“Someone asked me how many credit unions there would be in 2015and I said, 'Ten.' 'Ten? Which ten?' 'Mount Lehman Credit Unionwill be one. I don't know who the other nine are.'”

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