Articles and Press Releases
Community Driven CU Converts Paper Documents with eDOC
Community Driven Credit Union based in Ypsilanti, MI with 57 million in assets recently converted all of their paper documents into digital files utilizing eDOC’s Paper Conversion professional service. Community Driven CU selected eDOC Innovations to assist with their electronic document storage conversion prior to their conversion to CU*Answers for their core data processing.
Linda Bartlett, acting CEO for Community Driven Credit Union comments, “When making the decision to switch core data processors, we didn’t take into consideration the electronic records that would need to be converted as well. It was a very reassuring when eDOC contacted us and offered to step up and take that burden off our shoulders.”
The paper documents were turned into electronic records which are stored on DVDs with a built-in search engine to allow easy access to the documents in the future. Community Driven Credit Union will be utilizing the eDOC Paper Conversion service in the future for further data conversion.
eDOC Collaborates With cuasterisk.com at inVest48
eDOC Innovations, CU*Answers, and CU*Network Services collaborated under the cuasterisk.com brand as exhibitors at the Ohio Credit Union League’s 2012 Invest48 Annual Conference held on April 23-25 in Columbus, OH. The cuasterisk.com brand represents a network of credit union owned CUSOs that have developed a capability for serving members in a whole new way. This collaborative leverages the power and effectiveness of a network of business partners committed to coming together to provide credit unions a variety of popular services at competitive CUSO prices. The footprint of this network reaches over 600 credit unions nationwide and is designed to provide credit unions the opportunity to roll out new services faster to market and at a lower cost.
The partners had the opportunity to network with over 450 credit union staff and volunteers along with other credit union vendors to discuss issues that are important to credit unions. eDOC also had an opportunity to discuss the innovative solutions eDOC offers credit unions to create to membership growth and keep up with the technology members expect from their credit union.
Kim Jobes, Loan Officer with Riverview Credit Union in Belpre, Ohio stopped by the eDOC and cuasterisk.com booth, and was the winner of the door prize, a $200 Visa Gift Card. In addition to the exhibit hall, education seminars and meetings, cuasterisk.com representatives took advantage of mingling with credit unions at the Welcome Reception and joined in on the festivities at the Hullabaloo at the Shoe Party held at the Ohio State University Football Stadium.
eDOC Supports CUES Council Meetings
eDOC Innovations is excited to announce their sponsorship with the Michigan CUES Council, the CUES Canada Council, and the KOMA Council. eDOC is also an exhibiting participant in the Southern California CU Alliance Conference. CUES Councils provide credit union executives a unique forum to share experiences and thoughts beneficial to the credit union movement.
Joseph Lao, Manager of Market Development at eDOC says, “Sponsoring CUES events are a great way to promote collaboration. eDOC is about the Credit Union movement, and what better way to collaborate than to participate in CUES Councils, where key issues are addressed by key credit union leaders, and stakeholders, that serve as sounding boards to the industry. CUES Councils act as drivers, attending to the issues and concerns of the credit unions in their respective areas”.
Michigan CUES Council has recently concluded their annual meeting in January, discussing economic forecasts, and what to expect in 2012. CUES Canada Council will be meeting May 6th and is Celebrating 50 years and an established council. The KOMA council will be meeting May 2nd through the 4th, and will cover topics such as name changes, and mobile payments. The Southern California CU Alliance Conference is May 14-15, 2012. This conference is jointly hosted by the Southern California Credit Union Alliance and Southern California/AZ CUES Council.. Joseph Lao, eDOC Manager of Market Development, will be at the eDOC booth.
CU*SOUTH CUSO Converts 6 Credit Unions to CU*BASE
CU*SOUTH, a credit union-owned service organization, announced that it had converted six credit unions to its CU*BASE® software platform in the past 12 months.
“Over 200 credit unions now use the CU*BASE system to serve over 1,500,000 members nationwide,” says CU*South CEO Leo Vaulin. “Over 150 credit unions are owners in one or more the CUSO’s that collaborate within our network. Just as member ownership and volunteerism drives credit unions to excel at providing financial services, the participation and investment of credit unions in the design and development of our software makes CU*BASE the best solution to drive credit union success.”
In the past 12 months, CU*South converted the following credit unions to the CU*BASE platform:
- Taunton Federal CU in Taunton, MA
- MUNA Federal CU in Meridian, MS
- Elizabeth NJ Firemen’s FCU in Elizabeth, NJ
- Birmingham Police CU in Birmingham, AL
- St. Joseph Broadmoor FCU in Shreveport, LA
- Glove Workers FCU (merged into First Neshoba FCU) in Philadelphia, MS
“With each conversion, we identified immediate benefits to the member,” says Mr. Vaulin. “In some cases, it was mobile and text banking, or a better membership reward program. In other cases, it was 24×7 loan approval or more self-service options through our online banking platform. It’s a great feeling for the credit union and the CUSO to know that we’re making a difference for thousands of new members.”
Press release…
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
CU*NorthWest Adds QualiFile by ChexSystems
CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Liberty Lake, WA announced the integration of a new risk assessment tool into their core software that will allow credit unions to streamline and improve their new account and membership opening.
The integration of QualiFile, by ChexSystems will eliminate the need for credit unions to re-key information from the risk assessment report. The purpose of the project is to streamline how credit union staffers use QualiFile to assist with decisions about approving new accounts and memberships.
With QualiFile, credit unions will have the ability to configure their core processing software to interactively pull a risk assessment report based on parameters chosen by the credit union. Mountain River Credit Union, of Salida, CO will be the first CU*NorthWest client to implement the new software enhancement.
CU*NorthWest is pleased to announce that they are offering this enhancement free of charge for all of their clients.
CU*NorthWest Conducts Test at SiteFour
CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Washington State, announced the completion of their annual disaster recovery test.
CU*NorthWest operates servers in both Liberty Lake, Washington and in Yankton, South Dakota in cooperation with new CUSO partner SiteFour.
The annual disaster recovery test is conducted to advance recovery strategies and assure that CU*NorthWest credit unions would be able to serve their members in the event of a disaster.
The test verified that the system and credit union data could be reproduced on the SiteFour hosted disaster recovery server and certified that credit union connectivity and functionality remained unchanged. The goal was to produce complete redundancy of hardware and software at sites outside of CU*NorthWest’s Liberty Lake headquarters.
Credit Union data verification was completed by two CU*NorthWest clients, Amicus Federal Credit Union and Firefighters Credit Union.
“We were pleased with the result of the test,” said Greg Smith, CEO, CU*NorthWest. “New processes were tested and our recovery plan proved to be well-documented. We hope never to have to use our disaster recovery plan but are confident that the procedures and infrastructure are in place to serve our clients always.”
CU*NorthWest Makes Debut at MWCUA
CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Liberty Lake, WA will make its’ first appearance at the Mountain West Credit Union Association (MWCUA) Annual Meeting, May 10-12 in Colorado Springs.
The data processing CUSO has already converted credit unions in Colorado but has not participated in the annual event until this year.
“We are excited to participate and provide a completely credit union owned option for credit union core processing solutions” said Greg Smith, CEO of CU*NorthWest. “Credit unions have many choices when choosing a technology partner but very few CUSO centric offerings”.
CU*NorthWest Expands Office Hours
CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Liberty Lake, WA has been busy adding new clients to their CUSO and now are expanding their hours to meet the varied needs of their customers. To better serve their clients, CU*NorthWest will be open an hour earlier starting Monday, April 16, 2012.
The new office hours of Monday-Friday, 7am-6pm PST will allow CU*NorthWest to deliver extended client support for their credit unions in both the Mountain and Pacific time zones. After hours support is also available to clients on an as needed basis.
“We are continually working on ways to expand our services. Our credit unions have staff members working various hours and we needed to make sure our business hours reflect that,” says Ann Joyce, VP of Operations, CU*NorthWest. “Our support teams seamlessly and effectively deliver a broad range of day-to-day, operational and technical services to ensure that our clients’ needs are met.”
CU*NorthWest Offers Tiered Services Classes
CU*NorthWest, a CUSO located in Liberty Lake, WA will hold a series of four classes during May 2012 on using Tiered Services, a relationship management tool that helps credit unions analyze member behavior and reward it.
Classes, held each Wednesday morning during the month of May, will teach credit unions how to set up “scoring systems,” reward programs and how to market and monitor the new offerings.
“We just set up tiered services for our credit union, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Wendy Gililies, CEO of Amicus Federal Credit Union in Spokane, WA. “I can already see changes in the behavior of some of my members and that is a good thing.”
Each class, which last about an hour, builds on the previous class with homework assignments to be completed by participating credit unions. As always, credit unions simply cover the cost of web based meeting facilities to participate.
CU*Answers Announces Collections Roundtable
CU*Answers announced that its next Collections Roundtable Session will take place at its Grand Rapids headquarters on May 22nd. CU*Answers said its Collection Roundtable represents an active group of clients utilizing its CU*BASE® processing system who regularly meet with a variety of CU*Answers Collections experts to review various CU*BASE features and industry topics of interest.
They said that clients will be able to choose from two separate sessions, and are able take advantage of these sessions to interact directly with peers, learn new Collections techniques, and discuss the on-going impact of regulations.
The Collections Roundtable is designed to provide an open forum discussion for reviewing a variety of issues, including collections laws, internal procedures and CU*BASE processes. CU*Answers added that its internal team has over 66 years of collection experience, and has worked directly in the consumer collection industry for both credit unions as well as other financial institutions. They said their experts’ responsibilities include a broad range of expertise as general collectors, repossession, legal, bankruptcy, foreclosures, and asset disposition all the way through department heads.
CU*Answers concluded by stating this Collections Roundtable represents an on-going client Focus Group strategy for clients to have a direct, meaningful voice by participating directly with CU*Answers development team leaders in the on-going development of the CU*BASE system.
CU*BASE® Expands Search Capability
CU*Answers, the West Michigan-based CUSO, announced a recent enhancement to its CU*BASE® data processing software that improves on its global search function. Previously, staff had the ability to search for an account on the last four digits of the member’s credit card; the enhancement now enables staff to search based on ATM and debit cards. The search results will indicate the type of card and when the card was last used. The global search tool also conveniently indicates the hot card status on the card by highlighting the record in red.
The CUSO added that expanding the software’s capability to search by any type of card allows tellers to more quickly and efficiently serve members.
CU*Answers Helps Credit Union Board Members Ask the Right Questions
CU*Answers, the 100% credit union-owned CUSO, has launched a new website called Asking the Right Questions (http://asking.cuanswers.com/). The site was designed to educate board members and credit union management. Board directors use the site to make sure they are asking the right question and staying engaged; while CEOs and management make sure they are answering the right questions and are prepared for an interactive board meeting.
Randy Karnes, CEO of CU*Answers said, “In today’s credit union board room, it is harder than ever for our volunteer directors to stay abreast of regulatory, procedural and fiscal matters. We want to provide both sides of this important conversation a place to collaborate and learn from peers.”
CU*Answers added that the website is available to all credit unions, and is not limited to only those on its data processing platform. Interested credit unions can review questions directly from the website and even order the questions in a book format to hand out to board members at their next meeting, at a convenient low cost.
CU*Answers Attends ICUL Annual Trade Show
CU*Answers, the West Michigan-based data processing CUSO, attended the 82nd Annual Illinois Credit Union League trade show in Schaumburg, IL on April 26-28. Staff members exhibited the CU*BASE® core data processing software platform to credit union staff, and participated in workshops with attendees.
Scott Page, EVP of Sales at CU*Answers added, “Our presence at the show ensures our staff is learning the same things as credit union managers, and allows us to introduce more people to the power of our collaborative CUSO network.”
CU*Answers Accounting Team Offers Unique Invoice Tool
CU*Answers, the 100% credit union-owned data processor, recently re-iterated that its Accounting Team website is receiving excellent reviews. The site was built to provide clients with a detailed description of every invoice line item, as well as instructions on how to reconcile the invoice to the core platform.
They said a primary goal in providing this Accounting site is to allow clients to verify pricing questions, and also explain CU*Answers overall pricing philosophy. They added a link that explains how a client may set-up and pay their invoice via ACH monthly, and included another link that provides CU*Answers Quarterly Financial updates.
CU*Answers said it had provided this site to be a helpful tool for clients who have questions on their invoices. They added that the site was designed with the client in mind, and hopes it to be a unique and useful information tool. They emphasized that for items generated via CU*BASE®, clients will even be able to find detailed instructions on how to reconcile those items to data on the core platform.
They concluded by stating that in addition to all the information a credit union can find on each billing code, it has also provided its clients with quick access to all related CU*Answers Pricing Guides, information on making their payments to CU*Answers via ACH, and a news section where clients may keep up to date on any accounting specific changes. Their goal is to continue to add more information to the site, and making each client’s invoice reconciliation an easier job.
CU*Answers Debuts New e-Statements
100% credit union owned CUSO, CU*Answers, recently announced the release of its newly redesigned e-Statements. The new e-Statements were designed in partnership with eDOC Innovations to help streamline the experience for credit union members who have signed up for e-Statements. The new style improves the visual presentation by sharpening images and implementing additional interactivity. Members will be able to click on various sections of their e-Statement for quick navigation to the relevant section, and will also have the ability to highlight any transaction history line item for easier viewing.
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