by Hannah Barrett, on December 3, 2024
A Data Strategy Discussion with Credit Union Leaders
In this webinar recording, credit union leaders from TEG Federal Credit Union, Scott Credit Union, and Members First Credit Union discuss their data strategies and data journies thus far.
Revealing Data Never Explored
Jeff Meile, Manager of Core Systems and Data Analytics at Scott Credit Union explains that many organizations have data they've never fully explored or understood, but these can be revealed during steps like UAT (User Acceptance Testing), source-to-target mapping, and system go-lives. He shares examples like uncovering "charge-off dates" and more complex fields such as the NCUA category, which feeds into regulatory reports.
There’s always more. No matter how far down that rabbit hole you get, you will always find new use cases, and its really a matter of being able to prioritize which ones have the biggest impact” said Jeff Meile.
Prioritizing End Users
Victoria Arico, Business analyst at TEG Federal Credit Union shares her team's experience with detailed data mapping, revealing how seemingly straightforward fields like "charge-off dates" vary across sources. She also highlights a specific challenge with connecting consumer credit card applications across systems due to PCI compliance issues. She also highlighted the importance of prioritizing the end users of the data analytics platform.
The priority for me is really for the end users, who need to get information out of the system. Where can I come in and prioritize some of these problems that we’re trying to solve for so they can do their job a bit easier and in a more streamlined way?" said Victoria Arico.
Serving up Data for All Employees Across the Credit Union
Priorities and goals for the group have evolved since they participated on the Data Strategy Assessment (DSA) process with Arkatechture. Paul Launius, Data Strategist at Members First Credit Union reflects on changes in understanding data structures across platforms. Victoria notes that while her personal priorities have stayed aligned, her focus has shifted toward helping end-users access the data they need more easily. Jeff adds that the shift in focus from executives to departmental users led to a focus on automating manual processes and ensuring data access across departments.
You can see synergies in what we’re doing and what we will be able to provide for people. So one department has some similar frustrations as another department does, even though some of their sources are different, the data they’re pulling is different, there’s some similarities there. So that’s something we’re going to see work itself out once we go live with Arkatechture, and there’s no waiting on someone else to get that data, or a data team to pull it for you…it will give people more time to do ‘people’ things rather than ‘machine’ things." said Chesney Reeves, Employee Development Leader at Members First Credit Union.
The group also discussed the discovery of unexpected data enthusiasts within their organizations, and emphasizing the importance of elevating and engaging those individuals as champions for data initiatives at the credit union.
To learn more about these credit unions' data strategies and see the full panel discussion, check out the full webinar!
