Best Fit MCIF

FORUM Credit Union chooses system based on data integration capabilities

by Karen Bankston

Data integration capabilities topped the priorities for FORUM Credit Union when it went looking for a new marketing customer information file system. The $940 million Indianapolis credit union wanted to efficiently bring together information about its 110,000 members’ personal and business accounts, credit card data, mortgages, credit scores, enrollment in online account access and bill-pay, and demographic details from other sources.

Ease of use, ability to develop and share useful reports with other departments, including finance, retail and lending, and a reliable profitability model were also on the list of features that ultimately led FORUM CU to select the iNTEGRATOR MCIF system from CUES Supplier member Raddon Financial Group, now part of Fiserv. An “additional win” was the fit between the data analytic and segmentation capabilities of the MCIF system and Raddon’s research and consulting services to which the credit union already subscribed, says FORUM CU Chief Operating Officer Andy Mattingly, CSE, CCE, a CUES member.

The credit union started implementation in January 2012 and went live in April. “It was very quick,” Mattingly says. “The implementation team from Raddon was very knowledgeable about their product and the integration of data, so it was a very smooth process.”

Implementation included three days of on-site training with the credit union’s marketing and research staff, the primary MCIF users. The system integrates not only with FORUM CU’s core data and business account processing systems but also with its in-house-developed CRM system, which “sits on top of the core system,” Fiserv’s DataSafe. The MCIF identifies “next best cross-sell” opportunities for branch and call center staff, with those suggestions delivered through the CRM system.

A key measurement of the effectiveness of the new MCIF system is a simultaneous “bump in response rates and a reduction in the number of pieces we’re sending out” via direct mail, email, and messages via the home banking system, indicating more precise targeting of marketing messages, he says. “That piece we can quantify.

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