OMNI Community Credit Union

OMNI Community Credit Union (OCCU) has been serving the residents of Southwest Michigan since 1951, and it prides itself on being truly committed to the betterment of its communities. The 40,000+ member, $420M credit union sees itself as “a thriving cooperative enriching the financial lives of those we touch.” It also notes in its mission statement that “we encompass this by providing selfless and compassionate service to our members, our team members and our community.” In its efforts to accomplish these goals, OCCU has partnered with Member Driven Technologies (MDT), a technology Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) that is equally committed to providing these same high levels of service to its credit union partners.

Jason R. Cain, Chief Information Officer at OMNI Community Credit Union, is uniquely qualified to discuss credit union technology due to the fact that he has over 18 years of credit union work experience in positions ranging from teller to facilities manager to IT professional. He is quick to point out that “MDT is essentially an extension of our IT Department where we can strategically offload virtually any task and know that they will reliably handle it for us.” Jason sees the role of his IT team as an enabler for the credit union’s key business initiatives. According to Jason, “I want our IT Department to be responsive, agile and consultative. What I don’t want is for my staff to be bogged down in important but mundane, repetitive core system maintenance tasks.” Not only is MDT able to assist OCCU in serving its members by hosting the award-winning Symitar Episys core platform for them, but OCCU is able to conveniently choose from a lengthy list of other MDT top-to-bottom IT solutions to fully round out those services.

While MDT is an expert integrator of solutions and its credit union partners are able to select best-of-breed products from their list of preferred partners or of their own choosing, their clients are also free to develop their own solutions or have MDT develop a solution for them. Case in point: OCCU’s in-house software developers built their own customized Loan Origination System. Jason notes that “MDT puts a lot of resources and talent at our disposal to assist in these projects, and Symitar APIs and tools such as SymXchange™ and PowerOn® provide us with the flexibility to build solutions that increase productivity for staff and deliver great service to our members.” These software tools help eliminate costly customization or integration initiatives, while simultaneously breaking down digital silos. Jason adds that “MDT’s technology infrastructure and software platform are extremely flexible – there is virtually no limit to the processes and functionality we can add.”

As for technical support, Jason characterizes MDT as “very responsive” and states that “customer service is the reason that MDT exists.” Because of MDT’s stellar support and the deep technical knowledge of MDT’s employees, OCCU is looking to outsource even more of its technology needs to the CUSO in the future. This will give Jason’s IT Department even more time to work closely with OCCU’s Operation Department to implement mission critical business projects. Jason confirms that “Our IT solutions wouldn’t be as expansive without MDT’s assistance and close cooperation. We really appreciate their consultative partnership.” He concludes that “MDT is crucial to our operations and any credit union would benefit by working with them because their number one priority is always customer service.”