CUNA Technology Council Announces New Award Categories

MADISON, Wis. – The CUNA Technology Council is currently seeking nominations for its newly revised Best Practices awards. The awards, which were updated to reflect the current environment, recognize outstanding approaches to technology challenges with potential for universal application across the industry. A panel comprised of council executive committee members, past winners, and industry professionals will choose award winners. The categories are the following: * Technology Infrastructure – Describe the technical and procedural environment that allows the infrastructure to be safely accessed by authorized parties, how the system is monitoring this access, and the current/future storage management capabilities of the system. * Information Security/Privacy – Describe the technical and procedural environment that minimizes the possibility of unauthorized access to member information from both internal and external sources. Place emphasis upon the authentication, regulatory compliance, security, and privacy technologies employed. * Member Convenience – Describe the technical environment and system integration technology(ies) that allow new/existing members to open accounts/loans or receive information on existing accounts/loans across all delivery channels. * Sales Management – Describe the automated system environment that manages member information and creates personalized product offers based upon member data. Document how the system manages the member information database and creates, delivers and fulfills the offers. * Miscellaneous -This is the category for any technology success story that does not fit the other categories. It could involve an application, service to members or users, unique technology solutions, etc. Entries for awards are due by May 2. Descriptions and entry forms are available online at www.cunatechnologycouncil.org. Award recipients will receive complimentary registration to the tenth annual CUNA Technology Council Summit, Aug. 3-6, 2005, in San Diego, and must be present to deliver a 10-15 minute PowerPoint presentation pertaining to their entries.