A Dynamic look at our IT progress

Where are we and how did we get here?

"the Ideas of the Credit Union"

What are our members financial preferences and behaviors? Here are six key
attitudinal dimensions:

• Are they oriented toward savings (building for the future) or
  survival (making ends meet)?



• Are they confident about financial matters?



• What role does financial advice play in their decision-making,
  and how are an advisor's capabilities related to the consumers'
  own capabilities?



• What is the role of personal finances in their lives? Many
  people spend 10-15 hours a week working with their finances. Do
  they consider it a hobby or a chore?



• How confident are they in the new technology's ability to carry
  out financial transactions safely and reliably. Can they use
  that technology without wasting time or making errors?



• What is their comfort level with personal interaction? Is it a
  need or a value that reinforces how they perceive their finances
  and themselves?

We are well on our way to web based home banking. With full access of information and transactions over the internet. Although the Credit Union Philosophy is still the more grass roots approach. I would like to think that our members would rather come in and speak to us in person. That's why we feel in the greater picture, the internet should be utilized as yet another tool in our tool box, as opposed to being the easiest way to do business with us.

The most important thing we feel the members need to gain from our website is the ability to "manage their money" and in the process we will help them to better understand the way personal finance works.

FACT: Financial institutions are rolling out new service-delivery channels, and their customers are making more transactions.

What are we going to do to keep demand as high as possible, a marketing strategy is needed to push loans and enhance our long term commitment from members. From what I have gathered our attempts at aggressiveness have somewhat fallen short and the reason being is the lack of strategic planning. To merely follow up is not going to cut it. The demand from ease-in-lending will be at an all time high once the interactive web site is launched.

Now that our marketing team has begun working on a plan the next question is: What about advertising the new website? Great question! I think all of our services will receive praise and a multitude of exposure from the website but what about the website itself? This is the most crucial part of staying afloat in the world of web surfers. There should be some information on who our target audience is and what they're looking for.

• Our new loan rate sheets have the E-mail address line.(see attached)

This should help with the development of a virtual address book of our members.

• The near completion of the member questionnaire, "to better understand your needs"

Our next step should be to think about our delivery strategy. Marketing is only one of the many business challenges facing us. Our Plan of Action should also get us working on:

* Aligning information systems with a business strategy.

* Implementing an electronic, online banking infrastructure.

* Developing real-time information capabilities.

Implementing and executing a technology strategy is key.
Traditional planning and capital budgeting won't work. Planning technology is no longer a year long process, in one year the minimum platform for infrastructure could jump beyond our reach.

To make our tech strategy work:

* We need to ensure our tech investment objectives are clear, specific, and
aligned with our business strategy.

* Define measures for expected outcomes and manage the demands.

* Cultivate working partnerships with third-party information
technology (IT) professionals

* Review our past IT decisions.

Other critical success factors may include:

* Providing a secure platform for banking transactions

* If we do decide to outsource, we cannot abdicate our responsibility

for managing the member relationship and technology. Otherwise, our
resources won't be used strategically. We won't get customized
technologies to meet our unique needs. We need to negotiate future

technology deals. We must be very careful not to lose control of
process design in key customer value areas and the knowledge
associated with them.

Plans more important as CU e-commerce complexity grows

Simply having a Web site no longer makes a credit union cutting edge, according to Rick Taylor, vice president of credit union relations for CUShopper Inc., Glendale, Calif. Cutting edge today means Web sites that offer quick loan approval, auto purchasing, and wireless capabilities, he says.

Added complexity underscores the importance of making sure your credit union has an overall technology plan that's subordinate to the strategic plan and a marketing plan for each e-commerce initiative, he maintains.

The technology plan must have technology-focused leaders to carry it out, must reflect what members want (or are likely to want, based on research), and must have buy-in from the board, senior management, and staff, says Taylor.

Your e-commerce marketing plan should be tied to a specific release date. Taylor recommends setting the release date and then adding 30 days before beginning promotions--insurance against unexpected delays. Also avoid making promises you can't keep, he says. Promote your e-commerce initiatives wherever you can--newsletters, mail, online, e-mail, lobby ads, on-hold messages, ATM screens. And plan to keep on promoting them continually beyond initial release.

(Article: CUNA TECH SITE)

"The most valuable Web features are user friendliness and navigation, say 70% of Web users"

Features of proposed website:

*Secure Server (SQL)

*Access to statements

*Navigation Toolbar

*Newsletters

*Guest books

*Check Re-Order (LIBERTY)

*Keyword Search

*Links to our Affiliates

*On-line loan requests

*Help and tech support

TO GET STARTED:

12 steps to building a interactive website:

1. We need to take our site to the internet.

2. Our own Server or service provider(CUNA mutual group?)

3. Check internet connection speed- minimum speed required to run a successful site is 56kbps - t1(1,544 kbps)

4. We have a domain name : http://www.uselafcu.com/

5. Server hardware and operating system?

6. Select and/or install software

7. Write the site website(projected upload march 2001

8. Brainstorming required for folder hierarchy

9. Site enhancements include executable scripts and applets

-keyword searches

-Calculated results(loan calculator)

-database access

-feedback forms(tech support)

-internet applications for request of loans/credit

10. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

-Web administrator

-Web Author

-Web Script Developer

-Webmaster

11. Marketing and Advertising

12. KEEPING THE SITE UPDATED

6 steps involved with Planning the new website(See above # 7,#8)

1. What is our mission statement?

2. Finish survey and find out who will use it

3. Brainstorm for actual content of Website

4. Design the interface for human - computer interaction

-think about the overall layout, the colors, the graphics

- what type of features

5. Lastly formulate the web folder hierarchy:

-the information gained thru goal setting, brainstorming, and surveying.

-sketch out the initial web folder for site

Well now that we have looked at what it will take the next part of the operation will begin. That is the writing and composing of the web pages and the file/folder hierarchy. I have recently uploaded a free domain name and server, and I will be working on an updated and redesigned website for the march 2001 delivery. Comments and questions are welcome: [email protected]