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Make Optimized Digital Investments And Leverage Strategic Partnerships To Tackle the Competition

Start small to build big transformation in your credit union’s digital presence.

Credit unions have an opportunity to leverage their unique market position by making strategic, optimized investments in digital technology and strategic partnerships to tackle their competition.

Optimized digital investments will shift the balance in favor of credit unions.

Mobile/ omni-channel banking can be instrumental in helping credit unions maximize member relationships and offerings:

  • Expand beyond current region: Mobile is an important part of members lives. According to a CGI report, over 60% of account holders want their financial institution of choice to provide anytime, anywhere access to their accounts. By offering mobile banking, credit unions can straight away break the barriers of being confined to a certain region. Their members who travel and need banking services across the country can continue to use their credit unions offerings and not switch to other financial institutions for these desired services.
  • Offer omni-channel banking: Members prefer a seamless banking experience. A PwC survey found that 59% of respondents expect the importance of branch banking to diminish significantly as members migrate to digital channels by 2020. Yet, only 16% of respondents viewed themselves as very prepared for this shift. Credit unions and community banks have lowest level of readiness for optimized distribution. They can work towards a better distribution model with omni-channel offerings to attract and also retain more members.
  • Leverage digital to drive efficiencies: Mobile applications help, not only on the B2C side, but in B2E as well. The PwC survey found that a majority of financial institutions believe that there is scope of reducing costs (58%) and improving profitability (59%) by simplifying technology and processes. Credit unions can drive greater efficiencies and scale with the help of employee-focused applications

Although it may appear as though organizations must choose between continuing a traditional way of functioning and serving their members or bringing about digital transformational changes, an across-the-board change is not always needed.

You can start small, experiment with what’s working (and find out what’s not working), engage with experts in the digital field, and gradually build your strategy. The key here is not to create a huge disruption in the system, but to grow incrementally, start by offering simple products or solutions and then grow your digital presence with more complex product offerings. According to a report by N-iX, 67% of companies believe that a partnership with a digitally advanced vendor is a great way to start digital transformation.

A great example of such initiative is the collaboration between Partners FCU and Kony. Partners Federal Credit Union is the exclusive credit union that has served the members and the family of The Walt Disney Company (i.e. Disney Parks, Disney Cruises, Pixar, Lucas Entertainment, ABC, etc.) for the past 50 years. Kony is committed to helping credit unions Build the Bank of Tomorrow Today. With the industry- leading digital banking platform and a suite of integrated banking applications, Kony enables institutions of any size to deliver transformative outcomes without compromising what’s critical to you. Partners FCU has chosen Kony as its strategic partner for digital transformation.

Such alliances can enhance the position of credit unions as niche and connected banking service providers for members and provide robust competitive advantages resulting in retaining members and growing market share amidst rising competition from fintech and large banks.

Learn more at dbx.kony.com.

This article is sponsored by a recognized solutions provider in the credit union industry. Callahan & Associates does not endorse vendors or the solutions they offer, and the views and opinions offered here might not reflect those of Callahan. If you are interested in contributing an article on CreditUnions.com, please contact the Callahan team at ads@creditunions.com or 1-800-446-7453.
June 18, 2018

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