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Ent Credit Union powers secure member interactions by voice, new Alexa skill certified by Amazon

TAMPA, FL (September 3, 2021) — Best Innovation Group (BIG), a technology and financial services innovator, is pleased to share that Ent Credit Union ($8 billion in assets; 420,000 members; Colorado Springs, CO) has received Amazon certification for its first conversational banking application hosted on BIG’s FIVE Conversational Banking Platform. The Amazon Alexa Skill created and hosted by BIG enables touch less, voice-controlled banking services to credit union members across a wide spectrum of Alexa-enabled devices and apps. The FIVE (Financial Interaction Voice Experience) Platform now enables members to complete dozens of financial interactions and transactions with their voice.

“Ent’s commitment to our members and the communities we serve extends beyond branches and ATMs.” says Tanan Miles, SVP, Electronic Banking at Ent. “As our members have gotten more comfortable with online and mobile banking technology, they’ve also embraced the ease and convenience found through smart speakers and assistants such as Alexa, Google and Siri in other areas of their lives. We’re committed to creating secure, accessible channels to connect with our members, providing them with the tools they need to manage their financial lives, whenever, wherever, and however they want to interact with us.”

FIVE’s conversational banking-as-a-service platform enables BIG to provide a unique experience tailored to each credit union’s brand while maintaining a consistent and supportable implementation. Voice applications are built with ease of use for members at the forefront, including a voice access code for security and an intuitive user experience.

For credit unions, the platform creates a central repository enabling easy extensibility to back office data and a single source of content that can easily be maintained by the credit union after the initial deployment. The conversational banking capability works on Alexa-enabled devices and the Alexa mobile application. The credit union is also preparing a Google Assistant Action for release.

“Forward-thinking credit unions, like Ent, understand the pivotal role that voice interaction plays in improving accessibility, availability and improved member experience,” says BIG’s CEO and Co-Founder, John Best. “Transactional voice interaction is no longer the future of member experience, it’s here now. BIG is working hard to ensure that every credit union has the ability to engage in this transformational technology.”

FIVE currently integrates with a variety of core systems and online banking platforms, including Symitar’s Episys® used by the credit union. Ent joins a rapidly growing list of BIG clients receiving certification of their fully integrated, transactional voice applications for banking.

As the market leader in voice applications for financial institutions, BIG offers a variety of voice-first services and pricing models to put voice interaction within reach of every credit union, including informational voice applications available through its Voice Name Registry system. There are more than 50 live voice applications across the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant marketplaces being hosted by BIG on behalf of dozens of credit unions. These voice applications now offer more than a million credit union members the power of voice.

John Best

About Best Innovation Group (BIG)

Founded in 2014, Best Innovation Group (BIG) was created to provide clients with the resources to quickly implement digital solutions and adopt cutting-edge technologies. BIG provides research and development in areas including voice banking, distributed ledger, and machine learning, as well as a wide array of consulting services. For more information, visit www.big-fintech.com.