Credit Union Relevance Requires Proper Steps in Tech Implementation

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to chug along, credit unions are seeking new ways to remain relevant and competitive. Tons has been said about how consumer behaviors are changing, from how they shop to how they purchase. What does this mean for your credit union and its technology?  

Many people still aren’t comfortable heading into a business in order to complete paperwork. So what do you do: Find ways to accommodate them or lose their business? 

We can build it; we have the technology. 

But there’s more to providing a real solution than a shiny new server (or Cloud Instance). Considerable effort is involved to efficiently leverage the tech dollars – member dollars – your credit union is spending.

Before signing a contract, talk to the teams who will be using the technology. Understand their pain points and whether the solution will address those, and how it’s going to affect your employees’ jobs. Take a look at how it will impact their workflow. Will it help? Are there new steps that will be added or removed? Also, make sure you work with your legal eagles and risk management teams to ensure compliance and security requirements are met.

During your evaluation of solutions, keeping these teams engaged is a great idea. Maybe have a couple groups testing potential solutions, giving you feedback along the way to help customize deployment, so the final product actually does solve the identified problem and not create new ones. 

Work with this team to document possible procedural changes that will be necessary. This can become the basis for support and training documentation.

Once you’ve chosen the solution for the credit union the real work begins. Integrating and configuring your technology, explaining why you’re making the change, and training your team to use the new tech. Taking the time to update your practices and procedures – based on the documentation created during the testing phases – will help ensure the credit union achieves the desired results.

Technology can be a powerful tool, but it change your credit union’s world. The best technology deployments take into account not only the digital side, but also the people side. Implementing technology that’s not right for your credit union or for the sake of technology will only set you backwards. No one wants to waste members’ money on half-baked solutions.