By W.B. King
As a deposit heavy financial institution catering to teachers, their family members, and others invested in the education community in Idaho’s Treasure and Magic Valleys, CapEd Credit Union looked for an innovation that would offer members multiple ways to complete transactions in-branch.
“Integration of self-service options is an important element of our service delivery model,” said Anna DeLeon, a business analyst at the $1.3 billion Meridian, Idaho-based CapEd Credit Union, which supports more than 103,000 members at 11 branch locations.
“Empowering our members with the option of self-service or assisted self-service allows the credit union to take advantage of technology and also deliver service with a personal touch,” she added.
To achieve its desired goal, the credit union adopted a “Member Convenience Center” model that was outfitted with ATMs. The problem was these machines weren’t connected to the credit union’s core system, which limited transactions to cash withdrawals and deposits.
Additionally, DeLeon explained that tellers were experiencing frustrations “trying to use shared cash machines and mixing up deposits.” In short, the cash was dispensing out of the machine “faster than the teller could get to it, placing deposits on top of deposits and causing potential mix-ups.”
Unlocking New Services
Understanding the need for outside help, CapEd Credit Union turned to Kinective. The Gilbert, Ariz.-based company helps financial institutions “break down barriers, unlock new services, and enhance their competitive edge,” explained Product Marketing Manager Josie Janders.
“They knew they needed a solution that was innovative and progressive for their new centers but was also directly integrated into their core so they could offer more transaction opportunities at a self-service machine,” Janders told Finopotamus. “And they were looking for a queuing solution for their recyclers that could reduce the risk of comingling cash, putting their member’s money at risk."
After further investigation, it was determined that Kinective’s GENIX and NOMADIX solutions would help the credit union fulfill its vision, which resulted in CapEd Credit Union being awarded the 2023 Finopotamus Tekkie Award for Self-Service.
“With GENIX, a direct self-service kiosk integration to Corelation’s KeyStone core processing platform, members could do nearly any transaction on their own, including deposits/withdrawals, cashier’s checks, bill and loan payments, and more,” noted Janders. “And if a member needs help, associates are armed with a portable Microsoft Surface Pro device, powered by NOMADIX, so they can step in to assist or provide full service.”
What made the implementation unique was it was Kinective’s first Corelation client in a production environment and CapEd Credit Union was the first client to implement Genix with a SourceTech Series 10 kiosk.
“Given these two firsts, the implementation from contract to go-live was a bit longer cycle as CapeEd Credit Union helped us pave the way to bring Genix and Nomadix to life in a new core market and with a new hardware device,” Janders shared. “This took about one year from contract sign to go-live.”
The process included development efforts and working sessions with CapEd Credit Union, which Janders said, “ensured business operations were properly supported through the core integration, creating customized implementation and training plans, and a period for beta testing to ensure overall success.” In addition, CapEd Credit Union, she added, was also building its new branch location where Genix and Nomadix would be at “the forefront of the member experience.”
Giving Choices to Members
As highly customizable solutions, Genix and Nomadix are tailored to each credit union, requiring assets from the financial institution’s staff, in multiple departments to build out the product, Janders explained. To assist in the effort, each credit union is assigned a project manager that creates a project plan.
“This allows us to work through a series of information gathering sessions in order to create roles within the core system, gather business logic, marketing assets for branding, as well as a hand full of IT items that run the back end of the solution,” Janders continued. “We then turn to our in-house quality assurance (QA) cycle where we will work in tandem with the financial institution, testing each transaction for accuracy and compliance.”
The next milestone is delivery and installation of the physical kiosks by the selected hardware provider. At this point, Kinective deploys the software and conducts training sessions.
“During this time, we transition the testing environment used for the QA cycle to the physical kiosk in branch for hardware testing as well as our in-depth training of all things Genix and Nomadix,” Janders noted. “After training is completed, we redirect the traffic to point towards your production core system and perform additional testing. Once the solution is implemented in the production environment the credit union has access to our incredible support team to resolve any issues that arise.”
Since rolling out the solution, CapEd Credit Union members can now do nearly any transaction on their own, including deposits/withdrawals, cashier’s checks, bill and loan payments, among other banking tasks.
“If a member needs help, associates are armed with a portable Microsoft Surface Pro device, powered by NOMADIX, so they can step in to assist or provide full service,” Janders noted.
“Queuing up cash transactions also has become a breeze, and they can now be completed on the self-service kiosk via RTA, known as remote transaction assist from Kinective,” said DeLeon. “This enables CapEd to run on a leaner staffing model, which helps full-time equivalent (FTE) spend, and allows the sharing of hardware. Instead of a one-to-one or two-to-one ratio that normal cash machines have, these machines could serve many associates to one machine, thus saving significant hardware spend.”