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Case Study: River Valley CU gives card portfolio a boost with Trellance CPGS

Giving members more

In 2018 when Vermont based River Valley Credit Union was looking for solutions to boost its card program, the team reached out to Trellance to implement the Card Portfolio Growth Solutions (CPGS). “We marketed our credit card in house for many years and consistently added approximately 10-20 new accounts per month, but we were interested in finding a way to market our cards to new membership and boosting usage to existing cardholders,” explained Laura Paice, AVP, Consumer Lending at River Valley CU. She confessed that existing cardholders’ spending power was very tight because although they increased approval amounts for unsecured loans, they had not looked at credit lines within their card portfolio for a long time.

Trellance’s data-driven, implementation-ready CPGS was just the strategy River Valley needed to boost its card portfolio. Ann Farrell, Director of Portfolio Growth at Trellance, noted that “The program has been averaging 19% year over year in revenue for participating credit unions since we started the solution in 2016. We now have 120 credit unions who are benefiting from our pay-for-performance model and having payments expertise guiding them through their growth strategies.”

River Valley took advantage of CPGS’ 12-month marketing calendar that incorporates a Credit Line Increase Program (CLIP); New Account Acquisition Program; Skip a Payment, and six fully designed and funded marketing promotions.  Credit unions also receive two Balance Transfer Promotions, two Usage Campaigns, and two Employee Incentive Promotions that are implemented strategically throughout the calendar year. “Using these campaign strategies showed our cardholders that we have a lot to offer them just like the larger banks do but in a better way and utilizing their local credit union’s card!” said Paice. “Plus, our card rate was and still is better than so many of the larger banks that our members use. We still amaze people with our low rate and easy to work with folks,” she added.

Simple strategies, big benefits

Credit unions often underestimate the impact that seemingly small add-ons have on getting members interested and engaged in their products. “Offering statement checks, low rate balance transfer options & skip-a-pays rewarded our members with extra benefits,” said Paice. “By utilizing the New Account Acquisition piece alone, we opened 68 new cards! Based on our average monthly numbers, without the help of that solution, it would have taken us almost four months to get that many new accounts,” she added. Also, during the first year, they increased their Total Oustandings Balances by $1.1M (a 44% increase) and increased their Total Revenue by $85,000 (a 28% increase).

“Other CU’s looking to boost their card program should give this solution a try. It was far too daunting of a task to take on these pieces without the help of Trellance. We all wear so many hats day to day at the Credit Union we didn’t have the time or manpower to implement these initiatives without Trellance’s guidance,” Paice stated.

“It did take us a little bit of time to wrap our heads around all the moving parts of the solution, but we did it, and it has certainly been worth our efforts. Now that it is up and running, this second year has been much easier for us on the operational side of things. It has proved very successful for us. We are looking forward to seeing even more growth,” Paice added.

On her part, Ann Farrell emphasized that the success of the program and the strategies employed rely on data that credit unions already have. “Using data to drive decisions about eligibility of members, accounts that qualify and when is the best time for implementing strategies is half the battle and result in better growth metrics,” she noted.

For more information on Card Portfolio Growth Solutions contact Ann Farrell at info@trellance.com or growth@trellance.com.

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Jack Interviews Tom and Paul regarding Trellance and OnApproach

NACUSO was very excited to hear of the acquisition of OnApproach by our Platinum Partner Trellance. NACUSO CEO Jack Antonini sat down with Tom Davis and Paul Ablack last week to learn more about this amazing partnership.

Tom Davis, Jack Antonini and Paul Ablack at the GAC

JACK: Tom and Paul, Congratulations. This makes so much sense since it allows you to continue to bring significant benefits to credit unions where scale is truly beneficial (i.e., understanding data uses, trends, and combining more data for the benefit of all users), just as you did with payment cards! Brilliant move, and keeping Paul Ablack to continue product development of M360, with Trellance’s resources, should be a very big positive for the industry!

TOM: Thank you, Jack, we appreciate the partnership with NACUSO and the support you’ve given us over the years.

JACK: I know these deals don’t just happen and take a lot of work. What was behind the decision to move toward data gathering and analytics, that led to the talks with OnApproach?

TOM: As you know, we’ve been working alongside credit unions for over 30 years and during that time we’ve seen three pillars of growth – member experience, member growth, and operational efficiencies. And when we thought about the key drivers to realize growth in these areas and help our credit unions succeed, we came up with intelligence, insight, and foresight.

We knew that to add real value, we needed to provide credit unions with data analytics solutions that lead to action and better business decisions for growth in the future. When we started looking for a company that could help us make a difference with data, we came across OnApproach and knew they were the best fit.

PAUL: Absolutely. We are very excited to be working with Trellance. It really is a natural fit for both companies, and we certainly see it as a win for the whole credit union industry. Analytics is driving the future of financial services, and by pairing OnApproach’s analytics platform with Trellance’s services and vision, it’s a whole new ballgame for credit unions and data utilization. Our mission at OnApproach has been to enable collaborative analytics, innovation, and revolutionary business transformation for the credit union industry. We’re off to a great start and joining forces with Trellance will only amplify and accelerate our ability to provide credit unions with powerful and effective analytics.

JACK: For those that are not familiar with M360, Paul, can you take us through this model?

PAUL: Your analytics are only as good as your data. It is crucial to ensure the data within your credit union is both connected and trustworthy. OnApproach M360 Enterprise is a system-agnostic solution designed to integrate a credit union’s various sources and ultimately create a reliable single source of truth for disparate data. This means credit unions have full access to their data to improve decision-making, member service, and operations. To take it a step further, it is an industry standardized data model, meaning data definitions are consistent across all credit unions using M360. This creates opportunities for credit unions to truly collaborate around analytics by seamlessly sharing reports/applications, benchmarking, data pooling, and more. By leveraging the efforts, resources, and expertise across the industry, we can advance credit unions along the analytics curve much more quickly, and ultimately create the best possible experience for members.

JACK: Tom, since making the transition from payments services to being a data analytics company, what would you say your greatest success has been so far?

TOM: Since the acquisition, we have been fully committed to ensuring that both our teams and credit unions have what they need.  We want to ensure that we listen to those around us to guarantee we have given everyone on the team what they need to be successful so that credit unions truly receive what they need to enhance their members’ experience.  This aids in collectively growing together, allowing for collaboration, innovation, and effective planning for the future.

With that comes being agile and flexible in our decisions so that we positively impact our credit unions now and in the future.

JACK: CUSOs are collaborators, and to have two powerful CUSOs decide to come together is a real success story. Where do you see Trellance in the next 5 years now that you’ve brought the power of OnApproach on board?

TOM: As an organization, we are constantly looking to provide products and services that not only aid in the growth of a credit union but that allow credit unions to remain relevant and competitive.  Also, to provide each member with a truly unique experience that is custom to their needs we believe that real-time predictive analytics is going to be the future for credit unions.

As thought leaders, we operate with the belief that there is always more to learn, and this allows us to understand the issues and opportunities we are facing.  We are continually motivated to learn more, grow more and research more.  Our desire to constantly learn keeps us humble and motivates us to continue to look beyond the horizon.

JACK: Your IMMERSION19 event looks pretty amazing, how do you plan to highlight this acquisition at your event?

TOM: Thanks, Jack. We will be hosting a roundtable discussion on Thursday, April 9th to talk more in-depth about the integration plan and what’s next as we put the power of data in the hands of credit unions. We will also answer any questions our attendees may have.

Additionally, we have secured a roster of relevant speakers within and outside of our industry, like Peyton & Archie Manning and Jim Nussle. Our agenda is full of educational workshops and informative sessions on data analytics, card portfolio growth, member experience, vendor evaluation, and fraud. So, we are looking forward to welcoming our credit unions and partners to IMMERSION19 in Fort Lauderdale.

JACK: Paul, congratulations on winning the NACUSO 2018 New CUSO of the Year Award. We look forward to seeing you both at the 2019 Network Conference in April in San Diego. Big Data and Data Analytics was our most popular break-out sessions track last year, and we think this year it will be even more popular as this is a very hot topic.

PAUL: Thanks, Jack. It is a real honor to have been named the 2018 New CUSO of the Year, and we’re proud to be working now with another CUSO to further our vision for credit unions. The NACUSO Network Conference is always one of our favorites, and we are very excited about what credit union attendees will witness and learn this year in the Big Data and Data Analytics track.

TOM: We are looking forward to being in San Diego at the Network Conference and connecting with credit unions that we can partner with to drive real growth with predictive analysis. Along with the data analytics track powered by OnApproach and a break-out session on “Using Data to Create a Unique Member Experience” led by our AVP of Product Development & Thought Leadership, Lou Grilli, our team will be in the Network lounge answering any questions credit unions may have. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

 

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TRELLANCE ACQUIRES IRONSAFE CUSO PLANS TO DRIVE GROWTH TO CREDIT UNIONS WITH DATA ANALYTICS

Trellance, the Tampa-based CUSO that is on a mission to deliver end-to-end products and services to realize growth and profitability for credit unions, announced its acquisition of IronSafe, an Illinois-based software company that offers data analytics. President & CEO of Trellance, Tom Davis, said, “We recognize the importance of data analytics in providing insights to drive results today and into the future. With this acquisition, Trellance will give credit unions access to an integral resource to navigate the financial landscape. We will put the power in their hands to unlock data that was not available to them.”

IronSafe offers data analytics with a unique extraction capability to its customers and some of its functionalities are already in use by over 2,300 credit unions. Trellance will benefit from the expertise of the IronSafe staff and powerful dashboards that will help credit unions to integrate data from different sources and arm them with insights that will enhance how they serve their members.

The CUSO plans to leverage the data analytics capabilities of IronSafe’s proprietary platform and the expertise of the staff in its existing suite of products and services. “We see the benefits of this acquisition as two-fold”, said Bill Lehman, SVP of Managed Services at Trellance. “The Trellance team will become more effective to credit unions in our consultations as we use data to drive our conversations; and our credit union members will also have access to meaningful data to help them work smarter and more efficient in executing targeted initiatives to realize growth across their entire organizations”, added Lehman.

About Trellance:

With over 30 years of experience in the payments industry and partnering with credit unions, Trellance continues to work towards ensuring that all those served by financial service cooperatives have access to exceptional products and services, while maintaining our commitment to foster growth. Being processor-neutral allows us to offer unbiased guidance and set us apart from our competitors.

 

Learn more about us at www.Trellance.com, visit us at www.thepaymentsreview.com for industry insights and our perspective on the future, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter @Trellance.

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OnApproach Makes Strategic Investment in Data Analytics CUSO, CU Rise

CU Rise Analytics, a Virginia-based, global CUSO providing data science and technology advancement solutions to credit unions, is pleased to announce its strategic partnership with OnApproach, the leading provider of data/analytics solutions for credit unions. This strategic partnership offers the credit union marketplace an end-to-end solution for data storage, analysis and actionable insights.  

“The growing abundance of data can be overwhelming for credit unions today. Our strategic partnership with CU Rise Analytics presents an opportunity to provide credit unions of all sizes with the ability to transform credit union member data into valuable and actionable information to drive decisions,” stated Paul Ablack, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), OnApproach. “As the only collaborative analytics CUSO, we have a mission to build analytics competencies for as many credit unions as possible. Strategic partners such as CU Rise advance that mission by further enhancing opportunities for credit unions to take control of their data.”

With over 30 years of collective financial services, strategy and data analytics experience, Karan Bhalla, CEO, and Suchit Shah, COO launched CU Rise Analytics in March of 2018. Through this strategic partnership with OnApproach, CU Rise Analytics now has the opportunity to provide data science and technology services to a greater number of credit unions, furthering the CUSO’s mission to help credit unions better understand, serve, and support their members in the most effective and efficient manner.
“To be successful in the highly competitive banking environment, it is crucial for credit unions to maximize their data,” said Karan Bhalla. “CU Rise Analytics’ strategic partnership with OnApproach expands our ability to help credit unions leverage their member data. Through business intelligence and advanced statistical models, credit unions are able to better understand their data and then act on it in a way that positively impacts the credit union and, ultimately, their members. This is in-line with our broader mission.” 

About CU Rise Analytics

CU Rise Analytics is a Virginia-based, global CUSO that was started with the sole mission of helping credit unions better understand, serve, and support their members in the most effective and efficient manner. CU Rise’s service offering centers around data science and technology. Our core competencies are data analytics, predictive modeling, business intelligence, and technology services. Learn more at www.cu-rise.com.

About OnApproach

OnApproach is the only CUSO dedicated to credit union success through a collaborative analytics ecosystem. By providing a secure and frictionless data experience, OnApproach empowers credit unions to take full control of their own data and their own futures. We exist to serve the credit union movement with technology and expertise required for the digital transformation of the industry business model. OnApproach’s collaborative ecosystem enables communities of users, data scientists, and application developers focused on analytics innovation. Learn more about OnApproach at www.onapproach.com.