Growing exponentially and mysterious in its complexity, the datastreaming into a credit union is a rich repository of valuableinformation that can deepen member relationships, improve revenuesand enhance performance.

Any executive who has studied the benefits of data analyticsdelivered from the enterprise system knows this, and anyforward-thinking executive should be looking beyond the coreenterprise to the competitive advantages of the mobileenterprise.

Consumer use of smartphones for financial transactions is on therise. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, there were 202million mobile users in 2012, 57 million of which used mobilebanking. Among mobile banking consumers, photo check deposits andbill presentment and payment receive the most use.

This is not news. Financial institutions have long seen the needfor mobile technologies to meet member and customer demand.

But new research from Cisco underscores how critically importantit is for financial institutions to understand the potential of themobile channel: consumers are willing to divulge more details abouttheir finances if they get something in return from their financialinstitution, such as better protection from identity theft (83%),increased savings (80%), personalized service (78%) and simplerfinancial management tools (56%).

The clincher: The Cisco study also found that the majority ofconsumers feel that their financial institutions do not know enoughabout them to offer the additional services they would welcome.

That's a distressing finding, given the proficiency with whichwell-integrated ERP platforms can mine big data, analyze it andproduce a wealth of intelligence that can bolster member outreachwith programs and services tailored to their particular needs. Ismobile the missing piece?

A good ERP platform alone can provide fast, accurate insights tohelp a credit union remain competitive. What mobile ERP adds to theequation is an even faster mechanism for reaching members when andwhere they want, with a variety of helpful tools and services.

Aside from the basic mobile banking offerings of account balanceand transaction history, bill payment and scheduling, transfers andremote deposit, and other standard information, mobile ERP opens upmore complex opportunities for reaching members:

• Person-to-person (P2P) payments to provide truly real-timepersonal payments
• Financial management tools to help members budget better,improve credit scores and increase savings
• Investment alerts, analytics and forecasts packaged to enhancemember investment opportunities
• Loan application processing to not only accept loanapplications but process and authorize loan amounts to complete thetransaction on the fly – while the member is still on the car lot,for example

With deep member trust and an engaged audience, credit unionsare particularly well-situated to take advantage of increasingconsumer preference for online and mobile offerings—and to takeadvantage of the feedback potential of mobile ERP solutions.

According to Forrester Research, 38% of all online consumers and45% of consumers under 45 years old are always addressable onmultiple devices, providing both an opportunity for extended memberoutreach as well as feedback. Forrester sees four key areas offundamental business impact from the mobile platform:

1. Continuous engagement—credit unions can reach members any time,any place; and your members expect around-the-clock availability ofmobile services
2. Data capture at the point of engagement—from using the camerafunction to capture check images to monitoring mobile bankingactivities, your members are feeding your ERP system with aconstant stream of data that can be leveraged for better businessintelligence
3. Context-aware applications—GPS and other sensors on mobiledevices provide yet another piece of the member puzzle that can beaccessed to help customize and personalize credit unionservices
4. Engagement analytics—monitoring app use can help credit unionsstreamline and improve mobile offerings

Information available from the credit union ERP platform isn'tlimited to transactions and other highly structured data.Mobile ERP integration transforms information from all thedisparate data sources in the credit union – home-grown systems,SunGard, Jack Henry, Metavante, Fiserv, Excel spreadsheets – intoinformation that members and management need.

Credit unions can use their mobile ERP platform to gathermembers' mobile usage data, mine social networks and extractother unstructured data for value-added analytics and predictivemodeling that transform the meaningless noise of big data intoactionable business intelligence.

By fully exploring and exploiting the opportunities presentedthrough the mobile channel, credit unions can better serve members'needs now and into the future.

Rom Reddy ispresident/CEO of SitaCorp. in Somerset, N.J.

.