The Black Hills Federal Credit Union continues to detail its meticulously plotted core system overhaul in the second in a series of articles documenting its conversion process.
BHFCU, the $1.07 billion, Rapid City, S.D.-based credit union, revealed its pre-conversion choices from developing a strategic initiative through RFPs, vendor interviews, scorecards, gap analysis, and negotiation to making a core selection.
The core project officially kicked off in January with the selection of the Chino Hills, Calif.-based Samaha & Associates to help with analysis, planning, implementation, and documentation.
Now having completed the RFP and the interview/demo segment, the credit union is in its stretch run in the core decision-making progression with the scorecard and gaps analysis.
“The scorecard process is where we create objectivity to what would otherwise be a subjective decision,” BHFCU SVP of IT John Buxton said.
“This phase of our process is critical as it reveals issues that would otherwise manifest themselves following contract signing and during the implementation. Or, worse yet, after conversion,” Sabeh Samaha, president and CEO, Samaha & Associates, explained. “It is through this phase that we are able to render the entire process predictable and transparent thus providing lift to the Credit Union, its team, and most importantly its members.”
In June, the core conversion team asked vendors onsite for the interview stage to elaborate on and conduct demonstrations related to issues, questions, and concerns. “We call them interviews, unlike a demo where you sit back and grab a Coke and popcorn and just listen,” Samaha & Associates Managing Consultant Adam Denbo said.
Every department in the organization is involved in the scorecard process. Senior management decides on the weights that each category and sub-category maintains.
The next phase consists of a detailed gap analysis. Denbo pointed out that all system have gaps, especially when third-party providers are involved. Samaha & Associates works closely with the client to hunt down those gaps and find resolutions.
Read the second installment in Black Hills Federal Credit Union’s core transition article series in the Oct. 5, 2016 issue of Credit Union Times.
