It was late January when the Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv rocked the coresystem universe, announcing it had acquired competitor and DNA corearchitect Open Solutions for roughly $1 billion, much of that indebt assumption.

Then Fiserv dropped another bomb, saying it was killing off itsAcumencore. The product had been billed as a breakthrough, but it mainlytriggered acrimony and disappointments—as well as somelitigation—involving the handful of early adopting creditunions.

Nine months later, experts are quick with opinions about howwell Fiserv handled the Acumen failure and its transitioning of DNAinto its portfolio.

Fiserv rival Symitar in San Diego has continued to pick up coreclients, about 35 so far this year. But lately Fiserv is firing back, claimingseven credit union signings to DNA since the acquisition.

Those credit unions are quick to sing Fiserv's praises.

For the Carson City, Nev.-based, $457 million Greater NevadaCredit Union, the Fiserv acquisition of DNA was an answer to aprayer, said CEO Wally Murray.

The credit union was on Fiserv's aged CUBE system and waslooking for new core. Its first choice had been OSI's DNA, butMurray said he could not abide the company's high debt load. “DNAwas a proven performer, it might have been our first choice,” hesaid.

He elaborated that Greater Nevada had closely eyeballed Acumen,DNA and Symitar, eventually ruling out Symitar.

“It just wasn't a good fit for us. We felt it was oldertechnology,” Murray said.

Acumen and DNA also presented issues but with Fiserv's Januaryannouncements, everything fell into place and Murray signed on thedotted line for Fiserv's DNA.

At Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union, a $5.5 billion institution based in Live Oak, Texas, the situation wasdifferent, but also very similar. It had announced it wasconverting to Acumen after 30 years on a home-brewed system. ThenFiserv pulled the plug on Acumen.

Randolph Brooks Vice President of Electronic Services MaryO'Rourke said in her mind, it's all working out for the better. Shesaid when the news broke about Acumen, Randolph Brooks' only timeinvestment had been in preparing its data for a conversion, workthat would have been needed regardless.

As it further happened, Randolph Brooks also had been a fan ofDNA but also had been put off by Open Solutions' balance sheet.Fiserv's acquisition put DNA back in the picture, and theinstitution is on schedule to undergo the conversion in thirdquarter 2014.

“Now that DNA is part of Fiserv, we're getting everything wewanted: a proven, modern technology platform in DNA, the financialstability and market leadership of Fiserv, access to a vast arrayof integrated, best-of-breed solutions and the ability to customizeour own technology with DNAcreator,” she said.

O'Rourke said Randolph Brooks, which has a technical staff ofnearly 10 working on its core, hopes its team will create apps thatit can sell in DNA's online apps store.

“We perhaps can recoup part of our costs,” she said.

Next Page: Third Route for AffinityFCU

John Fenton, CEO of $2.2 billion Affinity Federal Credit Unionin Basking Ridge, N.J., adopted DNA via a third route.

He had decided Affinity needed to upgrade to a new core after 27years on a Fiserv core, and in early 2012 he settled OpenSolutions' DNA, in part because he had doubts about Acumen.

But as it turned out, the Fiserv purchase occurred during histhe conversion, so Affinity completed the conversion as a Fiservcustomer.

“We have always had a good relationship with Fiserv and we areglad they spent close to a billion dollars to take OpenSolutions/DNA out of debt. The two immediate advantages are thatFiserv has added resources to DNA that has made them moreresponsive to our needs, and they will now integrate the front endof Acumen into DNA, which means we get the best of both worlds,”Fenton said.

In an interview, Mark Sievewright, president of the Credit UnionSolutions group at Fiserv, stressed that there would be moreannouncements of DNA signings, probably in the next four to sixweeks. He said Fiserv's ownership has addressed the balance sheetquestion.

He also said that Fiserv has increased the investment inproviding service for DNA clients.

All in, per Fiserv's numbers, at the time of the DNAacquisition, there were two credit unions live on Acumen andanother 10 in the process of converting.

Now, three institutions in that group have announced they aremoving to DNA: $1.4 billion Navigant in Smithfield, R.I., $1.89billion MIDFLORIDA Credit Union in Lakeland, Fla. and RandolphBrooks.

“We will surprise some people,” he said.

Add it up and where does the updated scorecard leave Fiserv?

Brad Smith, CEO of Austin, Texas-based technology consulting firmAbound Resources, said, “Fiserv's reputation was damaged in thelarger credit union space—Acumen was a black eye—but they remainthe 800-pound gorilla. I don't think it will cause lastingdamage.”

He added that Fiserv worked aggressively to smooth ruffledfeathers.

“I don't think they have this fully buttoned up but they areclose,” he said.

At Cornerstone Advisors in Scottsdale, Ariz., Research DirectorScott Hodgins said the real questions are not about the handful ofinstitutions that had signed with Acumen, but rather, the ones whochose to wait out the maturing of Acumen.

“The bigger question is what will happen to the credit unionsthat were waiting for Acumen,” he said. “They had confidence. Thismade a lot of them look really bad.”

Sam Kilmer, senior director at Cornerstone Advisors, said thatFiserv's acquisition of DNA had answered questions credit unionshad about financial stability, but added there are now questionsabout how well Fiserv will service DNA.

Despite the questions, Fiserv's 2,300 core clients represent asignificant lead over competitors.