The $721 million, Deer Park, Texas-based Shell Federal Credit Union selected the Episys core platform from the Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry & Associates' Symitar® division, which had led to more simplified, open processes and productivity gains for the credit union, Shell FCU said.
The credit union prides itself in delivering exceptional member service and required a platform that would allow it to continue raising the bar, Elizabeth Monroy, chief financial officer for Shell FCU and a CUNA Certified Credit Union Executive (CCUE), explained.
"We are looking at this conversion as a better way of doing business," Monroy said. "Selecting Episys is pivotal for providing the best service possible from a technical standpoint."
Shell FCU no longer operates in a restrictive environment, she added.
"We do not have to create workarounds for everything; this has a direct impact on our bottom line," she said. "The better service we can provide, the more we can grow."
Previously, Shell FCU employees had to work through various fields and pages to complete simple transactions.
"With Symitar, processes are much more intuitive," Shell FCU president/CEO Jose Rodriguez noted. "The information and prompts all come to you, which will result in substantial productivity gains. Making key operational improvements will not only help drive down back-office costs and workload, but will also take us full circle to focus more on our primary asset, the members."
The system integration also offers the option to add on complementary products, the credit union said.
Shell FCU said it performed its due diligence when researching new core platforms, including attending the Symitar Educational Conference (SEC), held every summer in San Diego. Speaking candidly with existing Symitar clients at the SEC reaffirmed the strong partnerships between Symitar and its credit unions, as well as the group's strong efforts to work together and help one another, the credit union said.
Symitar supports a variety of efforts to encourage credit union collaboration, including the PowerOn Marketplace, a collaborative environment for its clients to securely exchange custom-created programs and applications that improve Episys' functionality and performance. The PowerOn Marketplace, introduced in August 2012, is a centralized, shared resource fully maintained by Symitar that enables credit unions to upload their custom programming solutions; access, download, deploy and rate other credit unions' solutions; and share and adopt ideas. The resource has drawn 2,178 active credit union professionals and more than 8,000 custom programming solutions have been downloaded to date.
Most of the customization created through PowerOn falls into one of six areas: Data integration, workflow scripting, peripheral integration, data entry and transaction validation, email generation and NetTeller Online Banking customization.
"Shell FCU is dedicated to the credit union movement, a culture and business model that we support in all of our efforts," Ted Bilke, president of Symitar, said. "Episys boasts the most client credit unions with assets exceeding $50 million on a single platform, and we are pleased to welcome Shell FCU into this strong, diverse community."
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Roy Urrico
Roy W. Urrico specializes in articles about financial technology and services for Credit Union Times, as well as ghostwriting, copywriting, and case studies. Also: writer/editor of a semi-annual newsletter for Association for Financial Technology since 1997 and history projects funded by the U.S Interior Department, National Park Service and Warren County (N.Y.).
