Over the last few years, the importance of flexible, efficient and modern technology has risen up the agenda for many credit unions. 2020 has made this even more pronounced, as the ability of organisation to serve members effectively while staff are remote from members (and each other) has been given a severe test. Sometimes credit unions come to the conclusion that their strategy cannot be delivered with the constraints of their current core processing and accounting system. But replacing this component of the business is daunting and can be compared to major surgery – expensive, painful and risky. Yet still critical to survival – so what to do?

Todd Proulx, a consultant with vast experience of core system replacement projects, has written a paper for CFCFE on how to approach this vital issue. In ‘When it Hurts More to Stay Than to Leave: Time for a New Core System?‘, Todd offers wise advice on what might drive a credit union to switch providers, how to conduct a robust procurement process and some of the key functionality that a solution needs to be able to support. Todd concludes with the reminder that “a core system should never dictate or limit credit union business strategy.” Download the report here.