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Kingsville Community Federal Credit Union

The Kingsville Community Federal Credit Union (KCFCU) has a history as rich as South Texas – they were organized in 1937 and their charter number is 1879. Their field of membership includes employees of Union Pacific Railroad, Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg, City of Kingsville and Kleberg County and any individual that lives, works, or attends church in Kingsville/Kleberg County, Texas. KCFCU’s philosophy is to establish a service-oriented environment dedicated to providing prompt, efficient, convenient and friendly delivery of services and financial products through the realm of sound management policies and a professional code of ethics. Even though they are a fairly small - $11M in assets - they are able to provide a full range of products and services thanks to their partnership with core data processor Innovative Technology, Inc., also known as INTECH.

For over a decade, KCFCU was running an in-house core system that was adequate for their needs but not nearly as robust and cost effective as they would have liked. This prompted Armando Martinez, the President and CEO of the credit union, and his team to look for a new and more powerful data processing system. Their search led them to Credit Union Resource Group (CURG), a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), designed to help small and medium-sized credit unions acquire services at lower costs and provide a wider array of financial products and resources to their subscribers leveraging their collective buying power, without losing their local identity. Credit Union Resource Group in turn introduced the credit union to INTECH which specializes in helping credit unions under $250M in assets with their processing needs. This turned out to be a perfect fit, since in Martinez’s words “the cost of delivering the latest electronic innovative services to members can be very costly to bear for smaller credit unions.”

Of course, no credit union takes on a core conversion lightly, and Kingsville Community FCU was no exception. Martinez recalls “we went through about 9 months of research and 3 months of serious due diligence in our search for a new core system.” After all of these efforts, Martinez and his team concluded that “CURG in partnership with INTECH was by far the most cost effective system that we could implement. The differences between them and their competitors were significant – they really knew what they were talking about and have a great product that is ideally suited for smaller credit unions like us.”

After the decision was made to convert from their more expensive and less robust in-house system to the state-of-the-art Fiserv system running in INTECH’s secure Omaha-based data center, KCFCU set an aggressive conversion schedule: 90 days. Fortunately, INTECH was able to deliver according to contract. According to Martinez, “they were there for us at every step of the way from pre-conversion conversations and planning to pre-conversion employee training and the presence of actual onsite conversion experts. INTECH has always been there for us since Day One. Their support is tremendous whether it is in-person or remote.” As for the system’s functionality, Martinez relates that “it is a very robust system and has provided us with a tremendous level of new functionality that we never had in the past. All of our employees were impressed with the numerous modules that are available and the useful functionality for our member.”

The credit union’s members also noticed a positive difference. “We have received many positive comments about our online banking system” says Martinez. Members can view multiple linked accounts online, receive easy to read e-statements, and even get text alerts for a wide variety of customized scenarios to their cell phones and mobile devices.  Martinez confides that “this system has made a big difference for both us and our members. Now I see where Innovative Technology got their name!” With over a dozen financial institutions in their home county, KCFCU is now able to compete with these larger institutions. Martinez emphasizes that “INTECH gives us the ability to offer all of the same products and services, especially electronic services, as a billion dollar credit union.”

Naturally, as a small credit union with less than 2,000 members, Kingsville Community FCU could never afford to pay high fees for basic core processing services or extra modules such as Online Banking, Mobile Banking, Remote Deposit Capture, etc. But with INTECH’s pricing – which Martinez characterizes as “very reasonable” – they are able to roll out a full array of convenient services. Plus, the credit union is able to save on labor costs due to the fact that the Fiserv Spectrum system is able to automate so many common tasks. Martinez confirms that “Fiserv Spectrum is a big time saver for our employees and overall they have been very happy using the system.”

As an active member in the Texas Credit Union Movement – Martinez has received an appointment to the Texas Credit Union League’s small credit union committee, comprised of Texas credit union managers from around the state that is dedicated to finding ways to keep small credit unions stable and viable, Martinez and his employees rely on INTECH to help keep them informed of the latest technology trends affecting credit unions to remain market competitive. Martinez describes INTECH’s leadership as “great.” He especially enjoys working with Tim Erwin, INTECH’s president, who Martinez says “really keeps his organization focused and developing while keeping us informed and up to date on all kinds of issues and trends. We greatly appreciate his personal support and highly recommend working with him and INTECH.”

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