The e-statement service is part of the CUNotify solution from CUBUS Solutions of Livermore, Calif. It also includes text or e-mail alerts that can include notification of any transaction, as well as balance levels, maturing CDs and loan payment or overdue reminders.

"The member can literally manage his account from 360 degrees," said John-Ashley Paul, president/CEO of CUBUS Solutions, which incorporated in 2006 as a privately owned offshoot of Harland Financial Solutions' UltraData core processing operation and now serves 85 credit unions.

The third part of the CUNotify solution is fee letters. "Anything that comes out of the core, all those notices that are normally printed, such as overdraft and NSF letters, can be seen in a dynamically generated PDF on the Web," Paul said. "That increases cost savings and it allows our customers the opportunity to do target marketing to the member who sees that statement or notice."

He said the technology also lends itself to particularly effective member service, allowing staffers to "act almost like a concierge service."

"Alerts can go to account managers of high net worth members, as an example, that balances have dropped below a certain level, and they can then get on the phone and make a courtesy call. The members may not realize they even signed up for that alert," the CUBUS CEO said.

Malbrue at Affinity Plus said it goes a bit further.

"This works not only for high net worth members, but for our contingent of older members, some of whom may not even have access to the Internet. We'll let them know that a CD is about to expire, for instance, and that they can roll over to a better rate," he said.

Sound intrusive? Not when it's strictly opt-in from the start, Malbrue said. The result? "They can't believe their credit union would look after them like that. They're wowed. We have all kinds of member surveys showing that."

Building on its success with the e-statement solution, the credit union is now using the rest of the CUBUS product set, including a remote deposit service, loyalty checking solution and a points reward program.

The CUBUS Solutions products fit the unique culture of Affinity Plus, Malbrue said, because they give every staffer at the 300-employee, 20-location credit union the ability to serve the needs of any member.

"Here at Affinity Plus we're all member advisers. We can all help a member. You can have someone at the call center, an employee in IT, an employee in HR…they're all empowered to have these kinds of conversations with members," he said.

That kind of staff dexterity can come in handy during times of peak demand, Malbrue said.

For instance, "We fielded in the neighborhood of 6,000 calls in the month of January from members worried about their adjustable and interest-only mortgages," he said.

"We were able to help at least 3,000 of them refinance, and the only way we could do that is by having every employee be a member adviser," Malbrue said.

"The key was making it so that every employee can gather enough information to help the member and then partner that member with someone who has more information and get done what needs to be done," he said.

Flexibility with the software also has been key, the Affinity Plus executive said.

"I'm not sure we're using any of the products from CUBUS in their original form," Malbrue said. "We always put our own twist on things here, because of the way we're focused on providing maximum value to members every single time.

"That's not just a clich?."

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