As a community-chartered credit union with more than $1 billion in assets, South Carolina Federal supports more than 148,000 members, who own and belong to the nonprofit financial cooperative. According to Bonnie Ciuffo, CIO for South Carolina Federal, "We searched for a business partner that not only understands CRM, but also that understands our industry, who we are, and what we want to accomplish. The Onyx team 'had us at hello.' From the original proposal to follow-up presentations, they just 'got it.'" Ciuffo added that of all the CRM vendors South Carolina Federal considered, Consona CRM (and Onyx) met the greatest number of vendor attribute and desired functionality requirements.

"The financial services industry has always been a key competency for Onyx CRM, with nearly 25 percent of our user base falling within this industry," said Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona CRM. "A great deal of the functionality that appeals to this market, such as the concept of a member PowerPage, which consolidates all important member and external financial system information into a single screen, has been developed using the input and feedback of our customers. Our solutions are essentially refined year after year by the leading companies that use them."

"Our portfolio of proven CRM solutions meet the unique market specifications of several service industries because we have a very focused strategy around product fit," said Pete Strom, general manager of Consona CRM. "We start by building and buying industry-specific but highly flexible software applications, and we protect our customers' investment in our solutions by using their input to guide the direction of future releases."

South Carolina Federal plans to implement the sales, service and marketing functionality within Onyx CRM v6.0. As part of the implementation, South Carolina Federal will enlist the Onyx professional services team to build integrations between Onyx CRM, and several of the organization's existing business systems, including PSI's Account Desk; Summit Information Systems' Branch Suite, Spectrum, a system used to retrieve account and member profile information; and the company's Nortel telephony system, which when integrated with Onyx CRM, will provide call center representatives with a screen-pop of member information as soon as an inquiry is logged.

South Carolina Federal's use of Onyx will center around a comprehensive member profile, which will capture, record and synthesize critical member data, including financial accounts, personal relationships, service cases, and sale opportunities. "Although, our sales and service employees do a great job, Onyx CRM will provide tools that will allow them to be much more efficient in their jobs, resulting in an increased focus on members and their needs," said Ciuffo. "With accurate and relevant data at their fingertips, our staff will be able to stay one step ahead of the members' financial needs and, essentially, that's our mission here at South Carolina Federal."

Ciuffo said that the most key measures of return on South Carolina Federal's investment in Onyx will be improved member relationships and forging a more consistent member experience from branch to branch and channel to channel. "We want our members to have a consistent, productive and efficient experience with South Carolina Federal, no matter how they choose to do business with us," she said.