The $1.1 billion-asset credit union converted the weekend of May 15, opting to have its core hosted in Jack Henry’s private cloud environment. It was the first virtual core conversion for Symitar, and the first of four completed in the month.

SAFE’s planning for this conversion began more than two years ago. The conversion itself was set well before the COVID-19 outbreak and the pandemic created unique challenges for an already major initiative.

Michael Baker, CEO at SAFE, said, “Our executive team and board had the confidence and our employees had the energy to keep this project powering forward regardless of what was happening around us. We knew great things were within reach, and soon.”

The new core platform is the latest in a series of strategic technology updates SAFE has already completed this year as it looks to the future of technology to provide its members with better service and greater product innovation for the long-term.

For years, SAFE had been challenged with bringing new products and services to its more than 126,000 members due to the limited integration options available with its previous core. The credit union also needed to improve its efficiency by automating manual back office processes and better managing siloed disparate data, among other projects. SAFE found that Symitar provided a mature hosted core option that would support integrations to hundreds of other modern solutions. The open infrastructure would allow the credit union to be more adaptive to change, create a better operating environment for employees, and significantly improve member service.

Wayne Keels, director of continuous improvement at SAFE, added, “It was a wonderfully coordinated effort by our team, Symitar, and with the full support of our other vendor partners to make this conversion happen on time. We took what would be perceived as a weakness in this situation and turned it into a strength. Travel restrictions gave us more time with the Symitar team, even if virtual. Closed branch lobbies gave the SAFE conversion team additional resources to pour into the process. Everything was so tightly synchronized that it was never a question of this being the right decision.”

Moving to Symitar, SAFE has gained better back office functionality, a more flexible core, and a single source of data for the entire organization. The credit union is also eager to collaborate with its new peers in the Symitar community, particularly through the PowerOn Marketplace® to create and share custom workflows, external system interfaces, and to expand the power of the core.

SAFE also values that Symitar’s development efforts are not spread across multiple core platforms, that experience with large credit unions is clear and established, and that its conversion resources are vast. Symitar has more than 200 employees who focus on credit union implementations, conversions, and mergers. This large team allows the company to be flexible and provide additional support to credit unions during these significant events. Symitar has performed more than 800 core conversions to-date.

Shanon McLachlan, president of Symitar, said, “Above all else, Jack Henry is committed to doing the right thing. In the case with our new partner SAFE, as well as several other credit unions, that was moving forward with a conversion as planned despite outside influences that might have motivated them to postpone such an important event. This has been an encouraging display of true partnership, teamwork, and discipline, as well as a motivator for us all to be in constant search of new standards for excellence and success.”