The credit union serves the close-knit community of Osoyoos, British Columbia. Its commitment to its members - as well as the huge swell of summer residents in the resort town who require away-from-home banking services - factored heavily in the decision to choose TCCUS: DNA and Open Solutions, according to General Manager D.W. (Bill) Collins.

"Our basic goal is to provide the same or better service to our members that they would receive if they were anywhere else," he said. "The town is mostly a retirement community. New residents to the community are sophisticated consumers who expect the same service here that they would get in Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton."

Collins and his staff expect it will be easier to provide that level of service with TCCUS: DNA, which employs a powerful Oracle® relational database and open architecture platform. The solution will help the credit union streamline both front- and back-office applications, as well as provide a centralized relationship-based view of members, accounts, products and services, enabling the credit union to find the best financial fit for its members.

"The CRM program looks like a far simpler and more valuable method to doing the proper analysis of our business," said Collins, who added that another factor in the credit union's decision was the simplicity of TCCUS: DNA. "Ease of use was very important. TCCUS has the simplicity of things like drop-down menus, slide outs and the look and feel of a Web-based application. Then there's the simplicity of training: In a day or two, a teller or MSR is very comfortable processing a job."

The credit union participated in the selection process with seven other credit unions in the Okanagan Valley, all of which had contracts coming up for renewal. Collins said the combined efforts and skill sets of the group allowed them to more thoroughly review their options than if they had each undertaken the vetting process alone. In addition, Collins made sure his staff was heavily involved in the search because they would be using the system every day.

"My staff was more comfortable with (the Open Solutions product)," he said. "They said the new TCCUS system was easier, it met our needs and will meet our future needs. We didn't want a piecemeal system. We wanted one that gave us everything we needed instead of using plug-ins or workarounds because we don't have the time or the technology background to do that."

The credit union's existing system is Visionwest, a product of Datawest Solutions Inc., which was acquired by Open Solutions in 2004. Collins himself had been a client of Datawest for many years at various financial institutions and said that long association factored into the decision to recommit to the company.

"I've known people at Open Solutions for 20 or 30 years. That came across for the staff - if there's a problem, they can call them up and know who they're talking to. We have a really good relationship with the help desk and the other people we work with. So we made the decision because of the system's ability to meet our needs and future needs, but also because of the people and the relationships we'd built."

"We're very pleased to have re-earned Osoyoos Credit Union's business and continued partnership. They took the time to thoroughly research their options and compared their needs to our capabilities," said Louis Hernandez, Jr., Open Solutions chairman and CEO. "The fact they signed a multi-year contract with Open Solutions speaks to the closeness of our relationship and reinforces the great efforts we have made to meet their ongoing needs, provide them with the best in technology, and the best in client care. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Osoyoos to help them meet their ongoing objectives."