The credit union began the process of vetting new online technology providers two years ago, seeking assistance from a consulting firm and utilizing an RFP process. After evaluating four companies, the credit union signed with the Plano, Texas-based Alkami Technology, Inc. in February 2014. The on-premises online conversion process took 15 months to complete.

Achieva CU took its time during the switch, because it wanted to be certain members were completely informed, Wintermeier explained.

"We wanted to be sure we communicated [the transition] to our members," he said. "Internet banking from a rollout, go-live perspective is much more impactful to our member base than even a core system change or other major projects, because it is something they use every day."

Informing members was especially significant because Achieva CU's online banking users represent more than 55% of its membership.

The new system, which boasts more than 20 new features, went live on May 19, 2015. These features include budgeting tools, savings goal trackers and a quick transfer tool through which members can move money in four clicks. Other improvements include a faster page load speed, an enhanced help feature, customizable widgets and themes, an advanced transaction search and sort tool, and extended account history viewing capabilities.

"We are excited about the many new enhancements that we are now providing," Wintermeier said.

A core benefit of the new system is a consolidated account view, which allows members to access multiple accounts with a single login, as well as the ability to customize their dashboard to manage their accounts in real time.

"They can login and see all those accounts under one view," Wintermeier noted. "Then, under that dashboard they can move money between all those accounts and see and access everything. They love it."

Stephen Bohanon, founder and chief strategy and sales officer for Alkami, said the difference is significant for members.

"They converted from a member account-centric model to a user-centric model," he said. "That is what our system allowed them to do. We aggregate all those accounts across the core for the user and show them [all their accounts] in one unified login."

Alkami provides online and mobile banking solutions for both credit unions and banks; its flagship product, the ORB Platform, offers an open interface, intelligent content delivery system and customizable feature set. Alkami provides the ORB Platform as either a license or SaaS solution.

"The architecture is a very extension-able system," Bohanon said. "The way we've designed our system is to leverage third-party APIs and sync that data into our system. Now, they can very easily plug in other offerings and offer a single, integrated experience."

Read more: The new system includes numerous educational features …

Wintermeier added, "We have designed a brand new experience that provides our members with innovative tools and functions to manage their money and customize their banking needs online. This valuable new service upholds our mission at Achieva to provide financial solutions that help members simplify their lives and achieve their goals."

Achieva provides added security through multifactor authentication, and assists members with registering and converting to the new system through several educational features, including an online Quick Reference Guide and a video tutorial library containing 12 videos.

"One of the important things to recognize is that we had zero down time through this transition," Wintermeier emphasized.

To prepare for the conversion, Achieva CU remained open after hours and gained additional support from a third party. The credit union's branch, call center, IT department and supporting individuals were primed and ready for the switch, Wintermeier emphasized. He added that the credit union's call volume went up by more than 300% during the first week after the conversion, but the calls were mainly in regards to post-registration system inquiries.

"That tells me they liked what they got, and that they got into the system very easily," he said.

Member login rates speak to their approval of the new system.

"In the two weeks since we've been live, we've had more logins than we usually have in an average month, so we know folks are using the system more and we find they are having fun with it," Wintermeier said. "A lot of people are afraid of this type of transition, therefore they stick with what they know, and that is not in the best interest of the member base."

Achieva also takes pride in its business banking functionality and mobile banking system – the credit union's mobile app offers key functionality, including mobile deposit, account-to-account (A2A) payments and person-to-person (P2P) payments. However, the credit union is about to begin a project that involves moving toward Alkami's mobile platform in 2016.

Bohanon discussed recent chatter about online banking and bill pay being "dead," pointing to similar predictions that have been made about checking and branch use for at least the past dozen years. But, he says these services are still very much alive.

"Online banking and bill pay are going to be around even longer," Bohanon asserted.

In addition, the Alkami founder said while most people think of online banking as taking place on the desktop only, this is not the case.

"What we are seeing is that the stats show desktop users and mobile users are going up, but they are not switching one for the other," he said. "What we are seeing is that there are more logins happening than ever before, because people are accessing from the desktop and mobile device."

He added that Alkami has found that tablet use has peaked and reached a plateau, while smartphone access continues to grow and is in fact cannibalizing tablet access.

Bohanon added that in the age of "multi-screeners," users expect to seamlessly switch from one device to the next, all while accessing a similarly-integrated platform.

"I don't think online banking is dead, I don't even think desktop banking is dead," he said. "Mobile banking has been additive to that and not necessarily instead of – at least over the last year, year and a half."