GTE Federal Credit Union

GTE Federal Credit Union is one of the oldest – formed in 1935 – and the largest – almost $2B in assets – credit unions in the United States. They are also considered by many to be one of the most technologically sophisticated financial institutions in America. They operate a state-of-the-art data center in Tampa, Florida that allows their 550 employees to deliver a full range of financial products to their 200,000+ members. With a primary membership base composed of telephone company employees, it is no wonder that GTE FCU stays on the forefront of electronic services in order to effectively serve their busy and tech-savvy members. It should also come as little surprise that such a high-tech and service-minded credit union would choose to partner with vendors with the same qualities and philosophies. Their choice for an account aggregation and funds transfer partner: uMonitor.

With an account aggregation system in place that was not quite meeting their needs, the credit union was looking for an easy-to-use solution that was backed by top notch support. Fortunately, Adam Gray, Vice President of E-Business at the credit union, ran across uMonitor’s CEO Dinesh Sheth at a credit union technology conference in New Orleans. “I was very impressed with uMonitor’s presentation and the versatility of the user interface,” remarks Adam. As a long-time technology veteran, though, Adam knew better than to go by appearances and demos alone. Thus began a two to three month due diligence period. During the course of doing his homework on uMonitor and their suite of online products and services, Adam discovered over and over that his first impressions were right on target. He explains that “I heard nothing but resoundingly positive remarks from uMonitor’s clients about their aggregation and funds transfer products as well as their support. The comments also extended to their usability and member adoption rates as well.”

Being a large credit union, Adam naturally worked closely with many other departments within the credit union on the project including: IT/Tech Services, Security and Compliance, Marketing and Member Relationship Marketing. According to Adam, “we were all pleased that there were not a lot of changes required on our end to implement uMonitor’s solutions – there was no need to ‘forklift’ any of our architecture.” The credit union followed the time honored path of Alpha-Beta-Quality Assurance steps that knowledgeable organizations pursue in their quest to assure a trouble-free implementation. When it came time to have the staff test and use the system, “there was a very positive reaction that was characterized by a ‘WOW’ factor,” recalls Adam.

In addition to the account aggregation and funds transfer applications, uMonitor’s highly experienced development team worked hard to achieve a single sign-on interface to GTE FCU’s CU@Home™ online banking platform. This ensured a seamless interaction between the applications and meant that members would not have to remember yet another username and password/PIN. Adam adds that “their sales staff and Project Manager made all of their resources at uMonitor available to us from the top to the bottom.” GTE’s dedicated Project Manager kept the communication channels open at all times which led to a precisely maintained project schedule. With ready access to developers and system experts, coupled with the credit union’s rigorous testing process, the rollout to members “was a very smooth process” in Adam’s words. 

With uMonitor’s straightforward user interface, it comes as little surprise that GTE FCU’s members have readily adopted the credit union’s ManageIt™ solution of account aggregation and funds transfer. “We have had very positive feedback from our members,” confirms Adam. “This is a major testament to uMonitor’s software and support,” he says. The credit union has found that single sign-on and the funds transfer capabilities significantly enhance the members’ online experiences. As for “wish list” items and enhancements, Adam is pleased to discover that uMonitor is “very responsive to our requests for enhancements. They provide great communication on changes and upgrades and we even receive e-mails from their senior management every few weeks asking for our input!”

Overall the implementation has met all of GTE’s expectations and has been a positive experience for everyone involved. “uMonitor’s attention to detail and customer service have been a huge factor in making this project so successful,” concludes Adam. It is obvious that both GTE Federal Credit Union and uMonitor are meeting their goals on this project. For GTE FCU, it is to provide a greater set of tools, functionality and convenience to their online members; and for uMonitor, it is to be the best partner that the credit union has ever worked with.