Editor's note: Direct Federal Credit Union is a one-branch, $750 million credit union located in Needham, Mass. It is undergoing its first core conversion since 1984 and has partnered with CU Times to document its journey until the new core is anticipated go live in 2021. Contributing authors will be members of the project team and each article will tell a story from a different point of view. Read previous articles and continue to follow along at cutimes.com/instantinsights.

Direct Federal is ambitious. We put an incredible amount of time and effort into all areas of our business, from member service to vendor selection to strategic planning. You might have read one of our past articles in this publication regarding Direct's core and digital conversion journey. Converting online and mobile banking and a core system at the same time is a daunting task for any financial institution. To make it truly ­ambitious, we added a debit card conversion to our list of 2020 ­conversions.