PASADENA, Calif. — Credit union land has been a natural place tofind co-opetition-cooperation among competitors-since the termemerged, and it would be hard to find a better example than therelationship between Wescom Resources Group and Symitar.
WRG, the technology products and services CUSO of Wescom CreditUnion, has been regularly called upon by Symitar to help with thecore processing conversions that accompany mergers.
The CUSO sends a small team of staffers to help with analysis andprogramming, working for Symitar, a Jack Henry & Associatesdivision whose popular Episys core processing platform has spawneda cottage industry of specialists providing ancillary softwareproducts and consulting services.
“We have our own professional services team, and we mightperiodically chase after some of the same work, but the reality isthat each of us has our own strengths and capabilities,” said TedBilke, general manager of Episys operations and development atSymitar.
“I know it's kind of a word from the 90s, but I like to call itco-opetition. It fits very well. Everybody is trying to servicethis market around Symitar applications and we're really excited tohave them help us fill any voids in being able to support ourcustomers,” Bilke said of the WRG engagements.
WRG helped with three mergers last year and is expected to nowprovide support for SymForms forms development and PowerOnprogramming deployments for one of the three conversions Symitarhas planned for each month this year, Bilke said, along with mergerwork.
WRG's role is simple to define. “We assist with all the datamapping and crossover work and then getting all that informationfrom the credit union that's being taken over into the new creditunion's system,” said Alan Brunner, director of operations forWRG.
But no two jobs are exactly the same for the WRG team, whichusually consists of a programmer, business analyst and projectmanager. A merger takes two to four months, and “each one isdifferent,” Brunner said.
“For instance, we could be converting from an Open Solutions systemto Symitar or a Summit system to Symitar, or we could be moving itall from one Symitar system to another, which is a little easier,since you can use a lot of the existing code,” he said.
The customers also have to get involved. “We know Symitar like theback of our hand, but we don't know those other systems that well,and we need to call on the credit unions themselves to help uslearn a little bit…with things like how this particular field maygo here in Summit but over here in Symitar,” Brunner said.
That's the data mapping piece. “They also have to do the analysiswith the credit union to see what processing rule changes need tobe done to the Episys system,” said Symitar's Bilke. “Dividendsmight be calculated differently. New credit cards might need to beissued or the old ones kept. There may be some incrementalconfigurations or parameters they need top set up to supportthat.”
There also are the human issues.
“When you're dealing with a merger, there are people there who arepotentially going to lose their jobs, especially with the creditunion that's being taken over,” said Brunner, himself a survivor ofWRG's acquisition of the former eCU Technologies from PennsylvaniaState Employees CU. “You have to be very respectful of that, and itcan be a bit difficult.”
He also said he expects mergers to remain a fact of life. “Not toolong ago we had about 12,000 credit unions and now there are about8,000. A lot of the smaller ones are having problems survivingright now and that's affecting their members tremendously, sothey're looking for the opportunity to merge so they don't close,”he said.
Brunner, who remains based in Harrisburg, Pa., has staff scatteredaround the country that he can call upon when Symitar gets an offerit can't refuse.
“It's not an option for us when a customer puts a merger together,”said Bilke, the Episys general manager.
“We decided the best approach is for Symitar to maintain therelationship and the accountability with the credit union for themerger, and we would use WRG, in essence, as a subcontractor,” hesaid, “but we still manage the project. And we only use WRG withfull disclosure to the customer. But so far, nobody has said'no.'”
Brunner at WRG, meanwhile, said, “We want to get to the point wherewe never say 'no' to Symitar. They only have so many bodies to doso many mergers and conversions each year, and since we're in thebusiness, and we've had a great relationship with them over theyears, it's a great fit.”
WRG's parent credit union itself is one of Symitar's largestcustomers, and the 225-client CUSO offers an expanding line ofproducts such as home banking and consulting also offered by thecore processor, but “without Symitar, there is no WRG,” Brunnersaid.
“That's just the way it is,” the WRG operations director said. “Wehave a lot of respect for the company and its people, and whilewe're going to compete for some things, we're very pleased to bethere to support them, too.”
As for WRG and the other operations that serve the marketplace of600-plus Symitar credit unions, “our view is that all of the thingsthese guys do just create more value for our overall product,” saidBilke. “And we are first and foremost a software company.”
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