By Rhiannon Stone
In the digital age, credit unions must be positioned to seamlessly integrate technologies that meet their members’ specific needs. As the financial industry continues to grow rapidly, it’s imperative that your credit union provides the latest and greatest solutions to differentiate itself and compete with other institutions. Through modulization, your credit union will have a strong foundation from which it can incorporate a variety of technologies that satisfy your members’ dynamic preferences. While connecting separate systems seems like an onerous task, credit unions should rely on a trusted technology partner to deliver support and mitigate any issues that may arise.
So, how can you modularize your credit union to facilitate easy and ongoing technology integration, thereby optimizing back-office efficiencies, increasing productivity and improving the overall member experience?
Prioritize the member experience. To improve it, you must first prioritize it. When deciding to modularize your credit union, you should assess what system will provide a framework to satisfy consumers’ technological needs today and into the future. Considering this, what type of system passes the test? In its 2018 Global CIO Survey, Deloitte spoke with "more than 1,400 global executives across 23 industries." When asked “What are the primary focus areas of enterprise platforms within your organization?”, 64% of the executives stated their organizations "are rolling out next-generation ERP or modernizing legacy platforms to address the limitations of existing systems."
Clearly, existing legacy systems are imposing severe restrictions on companies’ abilities to adapt and thrive within their industries. Because they weren’t designed with a consideration for future technologies, legacy systems don’t have the necessary flexibility to integrate with the latest innovations.
This becomes a huge problem for credit unions using legacy systems, considering the ever-increasing amount of fintech available, such as payment apps. Put simply, legacy systems can’t provide the user experience of today’s technologies. So, what should credit unions do?
Implement an open architecture core system.Open architecture affords you the ability to easily and efficiently connect to the newest technologies the industry has to offer. Unlike outdated legacy systems, open architecture cores allow credit unions to stay ahead of the digital curve and remain relevant to members in an increasingly competitive fintech landscape.
Additionally, updates are less time-consuming and burdensome for employees, which ensures credit unions are focusing on the most important part of their work – the member relationship.
As emerging technologies continue to be developed at lighting speed, an open architecture core provides credit unions the necessary agility to deploy technologies that satisfy member needs.
Choose the right technology partner. Does your current core already offer an open architecture and seamless integration with other technologies? If so, you must next ensure that you are working with a technology partner that is trying to create the maximum benefit for your credit union and its members.
Whether tailoring their offerings to meet your unique needs or integrating a superior proprietary or third-party solution, a technology partner that prioritizes what is best for you and your members is a partner worth working with.
In the 21stcentury, technologies are constantly being transformed, updated and reimagined to give consumers the best experience possible. Consequently, to compete in the financial industry, credit unions must be flexible and responsive in providing members with the technology they demand.
Modularization gives credit unions the innovative structure necessary to supply members with access to the newest technologies – all in one place.
Rhiannon Stone is COO at EPL, Inc. For info: www.eplinc.com.