Product innovation key to CUSOs, CU industry's future

<p>CUSOs have begun to enjoy success in many areas, most notably investment and insurance sales to their members. Several have also found that they can advance the overall industry by providing services to other credit unions in data processing, credit cards and even consulting. To do this they need some unique expertise and commitment beyond serving the members of their credit union owner. There are many examples of credit unions forming CUSOs for the common good of other credit unions, especially in the areas of ATMs and shared branches. Recent changes by the NCUA regarding CUSO powers have further expanded the opportunity for the industry’s service organizations. Utilizing proven expertise from within a credit union’s organization and transferring it to a CUSO presents some great opportunities that thus far have been largely overlooked. As credit unions’ boards of directors and management gain greater insight on how to leverage their own success and transfer it to others, we will begin to see more advancement in evolution of CUSO operations. F&A Federal Credit Union has long prided itself on operational and technical expertise. As a $550 million institution with just 70 employees and one branch, efficiency is the driving force behind the success of the organization. In order to continue to advance the effectiveness of the credit union, much effort was spent on data mining and membership analysis to gain a better understanding of the membership – both individually and of the entire member base – and to find the best marketing opportunities. The arena of data mining/analysis offers immense potential but is usually quite costly in time and money, and the results can be difficult to gauge. F&A’s management team worked extensively through a variety of technology research groups and extensive internal investigation to determine the necessity of this advanced analytical information. This coupled with nearly two decades on the Ultradata system, made it clear that we could create the programs needed to accomplish the task at hand. When the software was put into use at F&A, it quickly became evident that there would be some value to others if they were able to use this type of software. With the understanding that we could help advance the success of other credit unions’ marketing efforts by putting together a series of programs to assist them in extracting the immense amount of complex information that they have in the host Ultradata computer system, the credit union transferred the license to offer the software to others to its CUSO – FAFCU Financial. The t-Extractor would be our initial product. Based on past knowledge and experience, it was clear there would be difficulty attracting other credit union interest to this innovative set of products. To help overcome this, we decided to work closely with the Raddon Financial Group, based in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. Their addition of transaction activity data into the iTERGRATOR MCIF (Marketing Customer Information File) system and their analysis products proved the perfect opportunity. Although the software will work with nearly any MCIF system, t-Extractor was designed with Raddon’s product line in mind. Working with RFG in beta test, we learned how our customers use our software and what additional features were needed. The software we created extracts member transactional-based information and summarizes it on a per account basis. This critical additional information on a member enables the institution to determine the actual activity of each member, which enables them to better understand their members, and can result in more effective target marketing by reducing costs and increasing effectiveness. This data can be imported into a credit union’s MCIF system and is a significant advancement over current systems. As an example, most MCIF systems will tell the user who has a debit card and profitability analysis models will disclose the average number of transactions and total amount for each member who has a card. However, these systems do not tell you the actual number of transactions or total amount by each specific cardholder. For instance, if a credit union has 1,000 cardholders with 5,000 transactions for a total of $200,000, the analysis tools, before our software is utilized, would tell the credit union that each cardholder did 5 transactions for $40. This is used to calculate each member’s “profitability” value. In reality, one cardholder could be inactive while another did 10 transactions for $400. The averages are the same but each cardholder requires different marketing techniques. This form of data extraction is essential to the future of credit union marketing and represents a significant advancement over traditional point-in-time MCIF systems. This form of data extraction is essential to the future of credit union marketing and represents a significant advancement over traditional point-in-time MCIF systems. Now advanced membership analysis can be performed on actual member activity, thereby providing a better ability to discover new behaviors, relationships and opportunities. This same concept of utilizing the credit union’s unique expertise and partnering with other recognized organizations could work for other credit unions. It can also prove beneficial for the entire credit union community, as there is no other industry so willing to share and cooperate as credit unions. It is also a major plus when the end user is actively involved with the developer of a product or service. These types of products and services often prove to have more value to a credit union than those developed for other industries and then adapted for credit unions. With expanding product lines and diverse, growing field of membership of many credit unions, advanced marketing capabilities are growing in importance. This is the future of credit unions and their marketing. As technology and competition increase, credit unions and their CUSOs must, and will, continue to find new and innovative ways to advance the industry, improve efficiency and help members to receive superior financial products.</p>