Technology strategy has become a necessary concept for today’s banking industry. Platforms are more complex to manage, regulations are more stringent to follow, and IT professionals are more difficult to hire and retain. Faced with the decision to renew its contract for in house processing, which it had been doing for decades, The Blue Grass Valley Bank completed an in-depth evaluation of its IT enterprise-and made the decision to go an entirely different route.
The executive at Blue Grass Valley examined the pros and cons of in-house processing versus a service bureau offering, and they decided that CSI NuPoint, a cloud-based core platform, delivered a competitive advantage.
According to Anthony Crane, the bank’s CEO, “moving to a data center allows us to offer better services, give customers better access to information and create internal efficiencies.”
Removing “In-House” Barriers
As any banker knows, resources are limited. And Blue Grass Valley was finding that in-house processing was requiring too much time, money and expertise just to manage IT. For instance, the bank needed a backup site due to regulatory requirements, not to mention employees who had the expertise to manage both it and the in-house platform.
“When we migrated to NuPoint, we eliminated our backup challenges and our staffing difficulties,” Crane says.
“Moving to a data center allows us to offer better services, give customers better access to information and create internal efficiencies.”
Anthony Crane
CEO of The Blue Grass Valley Bank
Besides having redundant operations, the cloud-based platform allows system enhancements to be installed globally by CSI. And beyond the ease of operations, the bank also eliminated several indirect costs associated with in-house processing. Crane states that, during the review process, the bank discovered it was paying for things it didn’t need, as well as the hidden costs of deprecation and maintenance that were associated with other budget lines.
Getting Better Technology
In-house barriers aside, Blue Grass Valley found that NuPoint offered the bank better technology. The bank can customize screens by user, and CSI is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, which Crane says simplifies customer research. Also, the reporting options available through the platform make it easier to locate customer information, run reports and make strategic decision.
“I can arrange the columns for loan information any way that I want,” Crane says. “I also can bring up six months of deposits information and report that to the board to complement a loan application.”
Plus, the platform itself is easy to use. With various help features throughout, NuPoint enables employees to find answers to questions within the platform itself; or, all users have access to CSI’s customers resource center, a 24×7 support center, in which trained associates can help with questions and issues.
Offering Strong Service
Moving to a data center environment has allowed The Blue Grass Valley Bank to not only leverage better technology, but also offer stronger service. The reduction in time needed to simplify maintain in-house operations has freed some employees to work on more strategic projects. Plus, according to Crane, NuPoint improves both customer service and employee productivity.
“Now that we’re in a service bureau environment, it’s easier to research for and find data when a customer calls in,” Crane says, “Or, when customers visit our branches, we can locate data in the system much faster, which makes us much more efficient.”