WCCU

WCCU sought to eliminate manual effort from its workflows to reduce the opportunity for human error and provide better access control and data security. Leadership also desired improved tracking and accountability throughout the organization. WCCU had employed some automation in the past, but it was rudimentary in functionality and didn’t provide management with the alerts or real-time monitoring that it needed.

“We were running Windows scripts and task schedulers to transfer files in our network to a server where we could then use FTP to deliver them to a vendor,” says Sheri Strangstalien, Application Development Manager at WCCU. “It wasn’t nearly as sophisticated, reliable, or timely as OpCon is in that process. We would write a script to create a file, place the file in a network folder, and send it, but we didn’t have a way to monitor the success or failure of the transmission.”

The Credit Union faced a similar challenge in its mortgage servicing area. The Credit Union uses FICS as its mortgage processing system, and the team was struggling with ensuring that records were balancing properly between FICS and the core—a process of reconciliation that could take hours each day.

“The mortgage team really considers FICS their core system,” Strangstalien explains. “That’s where they service their loans and manage loan payments, but they still have to transfer data to Episys as the system of record and ensure the two systems balance. OpCon assisted us in improving the balancing process so that the processors now have an efficient process they can control.”

WCCU sought to address these challenges by implementing a comprehensive workload automation solution that would improve efficiency, eliminate manual processes, save time, and reduce errors in its operations. In addition, the solution had to integrate cleanly and completely with Symitar.

To meet these criteria, WCCU selected OpCon from SMA Technologies, which offered a comprehensive, direct integration with the Symitar core processing system. The Credit Union implemented OpCon concurrently with its core conversion project, beginning five months before go-live.

The project scope initially included the automation of all ACH processing files, as well as the Credit Union’s goodnight processing. But the scope quickly evolved well beyond the core, ultimately including conversions of a wide range of complex systems and vendor integrations, from remote deposit capture and bill pay to online loan applications and BSA/AML compliance.

“When we did a core conversion, we didn’t just do the core,” says Kathy Aspenson, Operations Manager at WCCU. “We converted virtually every system our credit union had. I don’t think there were very many that stayed the same. The team from SMA was really good at helping us figure out what needed to go where, and they were patient with us.”

“During our core conversion, we also converted 18 other software products, many of which are integral systems in our environment,” Strangstalien agrees. “OpCon was able to provide automation opportunities in nine of these systems. It was a major undertaking.”

Right from the beginning of the core conversion, WCCU decided to engage with SMA’s Managed Automation Services (MAS) team to ensure it got the most out of OpCon’s workload automation and orchestration capabilities. According to Aspenson, it was “one of the best decisions we made.”

“They know this product so thoroughly that the transition was smooth,” Aspenson says. “We would describe our issue or need, complete a very simple form, and then work together to implement and test the new automated solution.”

After deploying the OpCon workload automation system throughout its operations, WCCU has achieved the following outstanding results:

• Automated Processes Within and Beyond the Core: From remote deposit capture, check imaging, and bill pay to loan pricing, mortgage processing, and BSA/AML compliance, the Credit Union successfully migrated and automated processes involving nine discrete systems, both within and outside the core.
• Reduced Errors and Fewer Job Fails: With real-time, 24/7 monitoring, OpCon ensures that jobs run on time, every time. OpCon also delivers timely alerts right to your email, warning of missed or incorrect files before they become a problem
  “We’ve had jobs fail because the file name wasn’t right,” Aspenson says. “SMA’s watch program will wait and look for a file. If the file isn’t found, it sends an email to alert staff. This feature keeps our files processing in a timely manner.”
• Gave Time Back: OpCon workload automation creates efficiencies in every department, awarding time back to staff, so they can work on higher-value projects.
  “OpCon saves our operations department two hours a day, or roughly 500 hours each year,” Aspenson says. “They also save us from duplicate file posting. Along with the file movement, OpCon is watching for the file, so a staff member doesn’t have to routinely spend time logging in to various sites or programs to watch for when a new file becomes available. This is a huge time savings!”
• Streamlined Mortgage Processing: WCCU deployed OpCon in its mortgage operations to streamline transfers between its FICS mortgage processing system and the core, creating new efficiencies and saving more than 125 hours annually in staff time spent balancing the systems.
  “Our mortgage servicers worked with SMA to automate our FICS processes,” Strangstalien says. “This includes files transfers; real-time services (monitoring and stopping); and end-of-day, end-of-month, and end-of-quarter processes. They feel these efficiencies save them 30 to 45 minutes on a daily basis, as opposed to what could be hours spent balancing and reconciling the two systems.”
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: With OpCon’s innovative Self-Service buttons, WCCU created automated sequences so that an employee could simply push a button, and complex, multi-step file transfer and report generation jobs would run on autopilot, reducing the opportunity for error or data leakage. It also enhances security by limiting user access to only those process steps they need to perform.
  “When our tellers would balance at the end of the night, they sometimes needed to run a report in Episys to get information,” Aspenson says. “We were not comfortable with allowing access for all our MSRs (member service representatives) to be able to run a job. SMA created a Self-Service button that provides MSRs with the report they’re looking for without requiring them to have direct access to that area. That has worked out amazingly well.”
• More Peace of Mind: Prior to implementing OpCon workload automation, WCCU would occasionally have jobs fail because of incorrect naming conventions or other data entry errors. With OpCon, the system automatically monitors jobs and file transfers and alerts staff anytime something is off track.
  “When an error occurs, we’ll get an email that says, for instance, ‘Share Draft posting has not been completed,” Aspenson says. “SMA monitors for that in a couple different ways,” Strangstalien says.
  “For example, we have one job where we may receive the daily file at 3:30 am, but on some days it might not be there until 5:00 am if system maintenance is being performed. And if we get to 6:00 am and it’s not there, then I get an email to alert me. It helps alleviate a lot of the stress and worry because we know there are processes in place to remind us if a scheduled process fails to execute.”
  Compared with other vendors that WCCU has worked with, Strangstalien finds SMA to be extremely responsive.
  “With other vendors, we can open a ticket and we may have to wait a couple of days,” Strangstalien says. “That does not happen with SMA. We always receive a timely response. Always.”