The brutally honest feedback from a recentlyassembled focus group of small business owners revealed most ofthem won't even consider aligning with a financial institution ifthere isn't a robust suite of online banking and technologyservices.

In other words, having the right types of technology tools thatwould allow business owners to check balances, transfer funds,capture remote deposits, manage cash and originate ACH transactionscould potentially sway entrepreneurs to move all their accounts toa credit union.

The $936 million Whatcom Educational Credit Union in Bellingham, Wash., made acommitment early on to be on the cutting edge when it came toimplementing technology that would meet the needs of its businessmembers, said Kent Bouma, business services manager.

“It is absolutely competitive out there,” Bouma said. “If we'regoing to be in the game of commercial lending and banking, we haveto always be on the forefront or businesses will go somewhere else.You're either in or you're out.”

To that end, WECU has been building on its online bankingfoundation over the past few years to include services such as RDCand ACH origination. To make it happen, the credit union partneredwith CU Business Groups LLC, a Portland, Ore.-based businessservices CUSO that serves 430 credit unions in 44 states. Boumasaid some small business owners have said having a sophisticatedlineup of technology tools are necessary components for WECU toearn their business.

Later this year, WECU will be launching its new and improvedonline banking platform, Bouma said. In addition to having acleaner and improved format with many more useful tools, other newfeatures will include a suite of financial tools as well asimproved accessibility for mobile device users.

“With a customizable dashboard that offers budgeting tools, theability to transfer to members and non-members alike and remotecheck deposits, the new system will give members the tools theyneed to take control of their finances,” Bouma said.

WECU is also planning to roll out a mobile app for iOS andAndroid devices. Windows and Blackberry users will also havealternative access via the credit union's website, he added.

The enhanced suite aims to grow WECU's business services evenmore. As of Aug. 31, the credit union had 4,969 business members,$153 million in business loans and $73 million in businessdeposits, according to Bouma.

If data from a 2013 Treasury Strategies andMineralTree survey of more than 50 banks and credit unions isany indication, some financial institutions are indeed listening tothe requests of their business banking customers and members.Nearly 80% said they offer online bill pay for small businessesfollowed by online wire initiation at 75% and online ACHorigination at 73%. Areas of improvement included offering moreinvoice management capabilities—only 25% of those surveyed had thiscapability—and less than half provided online and integratedreporting across payment types.

Meanwhile, more credit unions are increasing their awareness ofhigh-level technology options such as Treasury management services,said Larry Middleman, president/CEO of CUBG. Those small businessowners that voiced their opinions within that focus group are of the ilk that prefers a more sophisticatedplatform to include RDC for check processing and sweep services,for instance, he noted. And, the focus group participants were notbillion dollar behemoths. All 10 of them had annual sales rangingfrom $1 million to $10 million, a range considered to be a sweetspot of service for credit unions.

“There is more of a desire to step it up a notch or two,”Middleman said. “The barriers are, where credit unions have aninterest in and a desire to serve more sophisticated businesses,the big gaps lie in the systems themselves. Generally speaking,some credit union host systems really lack the sophistication.”

Frankly, having technology to handle processing suchas account analysis might be too complicated for some credit unionsto handle, Middleman said. Commercial banks are not immune either,as some of them also struggle with inadequate host systems toaccommodate tools such as RDC and sweep services.

When the $1.8 billion Community First Credit Union in Appleton, Wis., wanted to focuson growing deposits and cash management services within itsbusiness services space, it turned to Fiserv's DataSafe. One of thekey features of the account processing system allows for a360-degree view of each member's relationship. When users access amember record, they can see every product or service the member usein one place, according to Fiserv.

DataSafe supports a hosted environment and an in-house client,said Susan Miller, vice president of strategic development atFiserv. On the deposit side, account analysis allows credit unionsto define and track services that a business member uses. There isalso a sweep account functionality and ACH origination.

Next Page: On the Lending Side

On the lending side, DataSafe provides all of the automation forthe setup of multiple loans, lines of credit, term loans, realestate loans, participation loans, and SBA loans.

“We're constantly looking for new features to bring to themarketplace to help credit unions run more efficiently,” Millersaid. “Commercial was one of those areas that we thought wouldoffer benefits.”

Part of DataSafe's scalability comes from its open architectureand ease of integration, Fiserv said. Community First employs avariety of Fiserv and third-party products, and DataSafe integratesseamlessly, the company noted. That access has helped the creditunion keep up with what members want, need and demand, saidCommunity First President/CEO Cathie Tierney.

Because the $1.1 billion North Island Credit Union in San Diego has a community charter,it is competing head to head with community banks, said JohnnyGalvan, vice president of business services. For that reason alone,the cooperative knew the 15-year old program had to evolve to caterto its business members.

“We realized we needed to have cash management. With everythingthat has happened from the economy's standpoint, a lot ofbusinesses were banking with us but their savings were elsewhere,”Galvan said. “ACH has helped because now, we can move money around.It helped retained members during a time when things weren'tlooking good for banks and credit unions.”

Since debuting ACH in 2005 and RDC around 2008, both tools havehelped North Island grow its net portfolio loan balances toapproximately $145 million and deposit balances to $94 million,Galvan said. The credit union is also a CUBG client.

While RDC has been steadily growing, Galvan acknowledged thatthe service has not gone gangbusters yet. North Island has 58terminals representing more than 120 accounts, he said.Year-to-date, the average monthly deposit is $916, the averagenumber of items processed is 13 and the total average dollarsdeposited is $14 million. However, the remote tool helped retainmembers when the credit union teetered on the edge of financialcollapse during the height of the Great Recession.

Today, branch staff is told to identify business members thattend to hold up the teller lines with transactions as potential RDCusers, Galvan said. These cash-intensive businesses are also primecandidates for loans.

“Technology is a tool. The key is to implement the technologyproperly and having the tech support,” Galvan said. “When I wasyounger, my dad told me 'computers are great but they're only asgood as the person operating them.'”

Looking ahead, North Island is prepping for a possible rolloutof a mobile banking product for business, Galvin said. Becausecompanies are still working the kinks out for this specializedtool, the credit union will likely start on the consumer end in themiddle of 2014, he said. While members have also asked for positivepay services, there have been some glitches due to incompatiblesystems, Galvin said. The credit union continues to work onremoving the bugs. Fraud protection remains a top priority.

“All of the higher risks are going to be in the businessproducts,” Galvan said. “That's where we need to focus ourstrategic decisions so that we're not spinning our wheels or havingto change vendors. Normal credit unions don't lend themselves wellto business systems. You have to make a decision to either spendmore money to have a better product or less money to be forever inbeta mode.”