Credit Union Nails Mock Conversion

In mid-March, the $1.64 billion, Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Allegacy Federal Credit Union successfully completed a mock conversion to the Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv’s DNA core in a remote environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By sustaining a thorough command-and-control process and leveraging collaboration tools, the Allegacy and Fiserv teams communicated as if they were located in the same facility, allowing them to smoothly carry out a mock conversion. The credit union is planning to go live on the new system this month.

“The technology upgrade takes place over Memorial Day weekend, including Saturday, May 23, Sunday, May 24 and Monday, May 25. All updates will be completed by Tuesday, May 26 when we go-live on DNA,” Annette Knight, chief experience officer for Allegacy, told CU Times in an earlier interview. “Allegacy is moving from an in-house/hybrid solution to a hosted solution. We are committed to providing the best, most secure financial experience possible for our members.”

In addition to using DNA from Fiserv, Allegacy will implement many of Fiserv’s surrounding technology and new third-party systems, all with the goal of enhancing its ability to deliver more efficient service to membership and ease processes for staff.

Chris Bacon, COO, Open Solutions for Fiserv, said, “As the novel coronavirus spread and Fiserv implemented a travel-by-tech policy, it became clear several weeks before the mock conversion that we needed to prepare to conduct both the mock conversion and go-live conversion remotely.”

Bacon pointed out Fiserv took the playbook that was used for normal implementations and broke down the components that usually took place onsite. “We identified the workflows, tasks and communications channels commonly used, and were able to work with Allegacy Federal Credit Union to replicate those in a virtual environment.”

Knight emphasized the Allegacy team worked extremely hard for the past two years to plan, prepare and test DNA, which she said will allow the credit union to serve members better and faster with enhanced products, and includes security features to keep members’ finances safe. This preparation set the stage for the mock conversion.

Bacon said, “Really, we over-prepared in many ways – but that level of preparation on the front end proved to be crucial to our flexibility in executing the mock conversion remotely.” Fiserv established a virtual command center (similar to a help desk) that was staffed 24/7 with key personnel from Fiserv and Allegacy to answer questions, troubleshoot and provide guidance. “We also established virtual work streams using concurrent WebEx bridge lines and videoconferences for the major conversion teams – deposit accounts, loans, finance and operations.”

The coronavirus impacted their plans, however. Knight said, “For mock weekend, we shifted much of our staff to working remotely, while the remaining onsite staff practiced social distancing at each financial center or headquarters.” The credit union’s IT team set the entire staff up to work on the new systems remotely from home.

“That was the greatest challenge for our team, but we are extremely proud of how well things went,” Knight noted. In addition, they had to communicate effectively with folks in many different locations, some who did not have access to their Allegacy email or phone number. “We utilized our business continuity plan to alert all staff, and requested teammates to update contact information in our HR system to ensure we had accurate email addresses to utilize work and home emails during our communication efforts.”

Knight admitted, “While our mock weekend didn’t ‘look’ like we originally intended, as we limited the number of people at each site and readjusted work spaces for the security and safety of our teammates, we can’t thank our team and partners enough for the way everyone adapted and performed, and for the incredible results we all achieved.”

She added, “In addition to having incredible talent to meet the challenges, Allegacy has had to address moving all the conversion training to virtual training.”

Allegacy’s learning and performance team of five took the in-person training curriculum and worked swiftly to repackage the material to deliver it virtually; that process is still ongoing.

Bacon also offered some observations from the virtual mock conversion:

• The ability to expand the field of participation on both the Fiserv and Allegacy sides allowed the teams to troubleshoot quickly and increased their level of awareness.
• Working remotely led to time savings. It was also more convenient to jump from one conference/group to another virtually; this was almost instantaneous with the level of engagement already being so high.
• A remote model enabled managerial efficiencies.

Of course, the coronavirus outbreak changed more than Allegacy’s mock conversion plans. In addition to moving a large number of staff members to working remotely, the credit union closed all lobbies to foot traffic (they were open by appointment only); pushed all transactions to drive-thrus, ATM/ITMs, online and contact center phone calls; moved a large percentage of contact center staff to work at home; increased security officers at financial centers; conducted daily calls with its pandemic team; provided safety gear (masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, sneeze guards, etc.) to frontline staff; amped up cleaning/disinfecting routines at financial centers and headquarters; implemented the Emergency Family Leave Act and pushed out WebEx Meetings and Teams to enable better staff communication.

Fiserv has also provided special services to credit unions during the coronavirus crisis, such as supporting those offering SBA Paycheck Protection Program loans by hosting PPP-related webinars and developing streamlined capabilities for processing PPP loan applications.

“We are closely monitoring the situation. If we are able to have some of the Fiserv team members onsite in a safe, responsible way, we will,” Bacon said. “If the go-live in late May needs to be remote, we’re fully prepared for it.”

Bacon pointed out spring 2020 will leave a legacy of sorts. “In a professional sense, my team and I will remember it as a unique inflection point where we were able to quickly adapt an incredibly complex process and help our credit union clients move forward.”

Bacon added, before this season of social distancing is over, Fiserv will likely complete around a dozen mock and full core conversions across its businesses.