Other vendors already offer many of these tools to credit unions, but weaving those tools together for members has vexed many in the industry. And when megabanks are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in their digital experience, the cost of "keeping up with the Joneses" is hard for many credit unions. Many are falling behind, according to Lumin Digital President Jeff Chambers.

"When you look at the credit union industry…some of the credit unions build it themselves when they're big and they have the resources. Some credit unions will outsource to an established vendor, a big digital banking vendor. What we are finding is that a lot of the credit union implementations of digital banking, those digital interactions — they just aren't competing. They're not competitive with what a consumer can get with Chase or a B of A," he said.

Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Consumers Credit Union is one of Lumin Digital's latest customers. The $1.1 billion credit union, which has about 94,000 members, is planning to move to the company's platform in the fourth quarter of this year — in part so that it can unify its desktop and mobile experiences.

"Some things aren't available on our mobile app because the platforms are different. That's a member service situation, and it's an employee situation because now we're training our employees to train our members that if you want to do x, y, z, you really need to go to the desktop but everything else is available on mobile. So [having] that single platform that's available across devices is so very, very important, and I'm confident that our members are going to see the benefit in that," Consumers CU Vice President of Operations Lindsay Land explained. The prospect of speedier load times will also boost member satisfaction, she added.

The platform's integration with data analytics is another step forward for many credit unions, Chambers said.

PSCU is able to merge card-transaction and consumer-spending data with digital banking data so that credit unions can predict which members are more likely to have an interest in particular products, he noted. That can give members more customized experiences when they use a credit union's digital banking offerings.

Chambers also said Lumin Digital has designed its platform to run in the cloud. That provides a few big advantages, he noted. One is that updates are more automated, reducing the need for credit unions to disrupt services.

"It's all happening dynamically inside of the software," Chambers explained.

Speed is another advantage of running a cloud-based system, he said.

"We can pay for large amounts of compute when we need it, and we don't have to pay for it when we don't need it," Chambers said. "It lets us increase the amount of compute that's needed to offer the member a consistent experience, whether they're logging in at peak times or they're logging in at two in the morning."

Upgrading the digital experience is a major win for most credit unions, but execution skills are key. Switching platforms takes time, and it can require formulating comprehensive communications plans for members, retraining employees and even asking members to establish new login credentials.

"We have a very choreographed process," Chambers said.

"We try not to change the credentials," he added. "We have found that if you change digital banking platform, the number one call into the call center is going to be a problem with credentials."

Chambers wouldn't disclose Lumin Digital's pricing, but he described the model.

"We don't charge the credit union by how many times the member logs in," he said. "We charge the credit union a price structure that kind of approximates how many members would be using the system in a given month, and then our costs are variable."

Price is only part of the discussion credit unions across the country are having as they carefully evaluate whether and how they will meet their members' digital expectations.

"If the credit union determines that digital is important… Then what I would say is look at your peers," Chambers said. "Who are your peer-level competitors? Is a regional back down the street? Is it Chase? Is it Capital? And then look at what those digital offerings looks like, do a side-by-side comparison… then I would take it one step forward and say now go survey your members and find out what your members think about digital banking, your digital offering. Is it great?"

For Land, that consideration underscored a realization that many credit unions have come to in recent years: a dollar invested in digital is could be worth more than a dollar invested in branches.

"It's interesting the way that we're thinking about the digital channel. We invest pretty heavily in brick and mortar as we open new offices and even maintain our existing ones, and I think our mind-set on the digital channel needs to shift a little bit to that. Because it's now become an acquisition and retention tool and really that first line with our members," she said. "I can just tell you it was very important for consumers to make sure that we have the latest technology out there so that we can compete with the fintechs of the world."