Trellance Expansion Underscores Emerging Industry Priorities

Data analytics and consulting company Trellance has announced it is expanding its investment in credit cards and data management, which are increasingly top of mind for many credit unions — especially these days.

The Tampa, Fla.-based company said last week that it has added a new credit card account acquisition program to its offerings and expanded its consulting services in data management.

Part of the idea is to help credit unions attract more credit cardholders and higher conversion rates. The card acquisition program involves a custom-designed website, cardholder messaging prequalification processing and real-time notifications, the company said. Trellance also said its consulting practice will now cover seven disciplines in data management: Data governance, data architecture, metadata, data quality, data lifecycle, analytics and data privacy.

“Using data and market-based insights can be time-consuming for credit unions,” Trellance SVP of Managed Services Bill Lehman explained. “But this is how the best results are being achieved, and the professional services group makes this both easy and cost-effective. Clients using these services are able to demonstrate quantifiable success, and the initial group of credit unions running the new account acquisition program is already beating industry averages.”

The expansion came a little more than a year after Trellance acquired the Plymouth, Minn.-based data consulting company OnApproach. That purchase incorporated a platform on which Trellance has built many of its data analytics offerings, according to the company.

Formed in 2017, Trellance was originally the brainchild of payments processor and CUSO CSCU. At the time, CSCU said the new company’s purpose was to focus on offering innovative ideas, programs and services to help credit unions grow and compete. Just days later, however, Trellance divested CSCU.

Data analytics and data management have become top priorities in the credit union industry, and card programs have become an even more important source of income and brand-building as credit unions increasingly find themselves competing with fintech providers for eyeballs, engagement and data. In addition, in recent months, card programs have become an issue adjacent to the ongoing debate about the cleanliness of cash versus cards, as well as rapidly shifting consumer shopping preferences.

Trellance said back in December that it had nearly 2,000 data fields mapped across the most prevalent core financial processors.

“Technology has accelerated the maturity of data management practices in the financial services industry,” Trellance President/CEO Tom Davis said at the time. “With continued product investment and delivery, the amount of data and the number of clients on the platform have both risen rapidly. We are seeing significant interest among credit unions who view data as an essential part of their growth strategy.”