EWING, N.J. – Credit Union of New Jersey (CUNJ) is catapulting its sales and service culture into the 21st Century with the implementation of ResourceOne, an electronic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution provided by CoreTrac, Inc., Austin, Texas. The browser-based application, scheduled to be fully implemented by the end of next month, will enable the 30,000-member credit union to track leads and referrals, recommend products based on member pre-selected criteria, and set and track goals for all employees at its six branches, in addition to other CRM functions. The need for the browser-based automated CRM solution is the next logical step for $167-million, state-chartered credit union, which five years ago created a sales and service culture marked by employee incentives and resulting in loan portfolio growth of over 20% per year. The problem with CUNJ's current service-oriented, modus operandi is that it's paper based. “Sales leads and incentive tracking is a manual, and very labor intensive, process,” says Valerie Metzker, vice president of business development at CUNJ. With the CRM implementation, Metzker says tellers can input leads from members or prospective members into the ResourceOne application. The information will then be automatically accessible to marketing department representatives who can follow through on the information and contact customers. In addition, tellers can monitor the system to see if the marketing department has acted on the information. “Currently, we write leads down on paper and send them through interoffice mail. If the lead is being sent to a different building or branch, the information could take up to a day or two to arrive to its destination. This isn't the type of service we want to provide,” says Metzker. “ResourceOne will enable us to take things to the next level. It is the piece of the puzzle that is missing.” In terms of tracking branch and employee goals, the application allows credit unions managers to monitor how business is progressing on a daily basis rather than waiting for end of the month reports. “We will be able to see which employees are selling like gangbusters and which are not. We can then assist those who need help. It will help the credit union get the loan and employees put more money in their pockets,” says Metzker. According to Chris Ney, president of CoreTrac, ResourceOne also has a “Profiler” function, which uses member demographic data (based on parameters established by the credit union during the implementation period), plus the current credit union products and services they are using, and recommends other products the member may need. “It will make the teller seem very intelligent and more sophisticated in recommending products,” says Ney. This is only the second credit union implementation of ResourceOne, which was introduced this past January. Ney did not disclose the name of the first credit union implementation, but said 10 banks are up and running with the system. CoreTrac specializes in CRM solutions for financial institutions only. Since ResourceOne is specifically created for the needs of credit unions and banks, little customization needs to be done during an implementation. This is where tremendous cost savings to the client are realized. A SalesLogic or Microsoft CRM product would have to “built” or customized to a credit union with implementation costs running as high as $200,000 to $300,000, says Ney. A ResourceOne implementation costs between $18,000 and $40,000. “Credit unions are blown away by the price and the functionality,” he says. The application is being installed on a server (average cost $1,000) at CUNJ and will run on its internal network. “You can consider it an Intranet,” says Ney. Employees are given a password and URL to access the site on any Internet-based browser. According to Ney, financial institutions do not want the application to run in an application service provider (ASP) model, in which the program and data is stored on remote servers, for security reasons. “This sits on the credit union's internal network, behind their firewall. It is a totally secure system. They are not sending us any data.” On the same token, CUNJ employees cannot access the site from home in case they decide to telecommute. -

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