SOUTHBEND, Ind. – When it comes to loans, Communitywide Federal Credit Union can shout, "What a difference automation makes". In 2001, the $84 million credit union managed to increase its loan volume by more than 50% to over $60 million. "Two factors have made our rapid loan growth possible," said CFCU President Loren Roth. "One is the extensive network of partnerships our credit union has established with local businesses over the past two years to provide financing. The other is our custom loan automation system, CRIterion. Quite frankly, we would not have been able to handle this significant increase in loan volume without CRIterion." Designed by Atlanta-based Creditor Resources, Inc., a supplier of credit insurance and related technology products, CRIterion is a networked "front-end" system that is comprised of credit union modules for loan services, member services, and cross selling. Available in a 32-bit or Windows-based version, these modules are functional in standalone or integrated environments and provide users rate comparisons, competitive information and "what-if" scenarios. For the past three years, CFCU and CRI have worked together to create a wish list of features including custom forms and tailored reporting and documentation functions and as needs arise they tweak the system accordingly. "We probably pushed the envelope as far as we could to make CRIterion work the way we wanted," said Roth. As CFCU's loan volume continues to grow at a rate of about 25% to 30% annually, Roth says the credit union has plans to upgrade to the Windows version.