Sligo Credit Union - A Customer Story

Sligo Credit Union is a member-owned cooperative set up over 50 years ago with the sole purpose of serving its members, giving them choices and control over their financial affairs. Every member enjoys an equal opportunity to vote and participate in decisions, reflecting the person-focused, transparent, and trustworthy values of the Credit Union. Sligo Credit Union is part of a heavily regulated sector, which governs many of the Board's decisions on behalf of its members. Following the introduction of the new Credit Union Act, and legislation covering areas such as Anti-Money Laundering and Data Protection, Sligo Credit Union has made great efforts to keep pace with an evolving business environment, increasing regulation and scrutiny, and growing member requirements.

Challenges

Complying with regulation and ensuring staff and Board members have a clear understanding of their risks and the decisions they need to make is crucial for an organisation to move forward. The challenges identified by Sligo Credit Union around meetings and risk management included:

• Management of the agenda was operationally time-consuming and becoming difficult to manage, by both management and board members.

• A need for increased security to manage and distribute meeting documentation both inside and outside the organisation.

• Lack of an effective tool for managing risk, making it difficult for users to be engaged and proactive.

Carmel Mullaney, Risk & Compliance Manager, explains: “In terms of our Meeting software, we changed our IT supplier, which had a knock on effect for our board meetings. Our then IT based meeting platform disappeared. Our option was to revert to a manual process or find a suitable alternative suppler. Data Protection was a priority and costs were equally important.”

"Our software for managing Risks was extremely clunky. For example, if we were to make a change by adding in a risk specific to us, we had to apply to the software provider, who had to apply to the software company to make that change. You can't operate like that. It meant the Risk system wasn’t ours; it belonged to the IT company. We moved back to Excel as it was easier to use but certainly not ideal."

Something Had To Change

Having invested heavily in upgrading their software and IT platforms, Sligo needed to manage the security of their board and committee meetings and the documents which were attached to these meetings. It was also essential to own the risk register and its upkeep themselves. The other consideration was that the Board needed to be able to use it; simplicity was key. Carmel explained,

"Like other CUs we developed our risk management from infancy with our first attempts recorded and managed on Excel spreadsheets. To ensure our compliance with the CU act of embedding and integrating risk into our day-to-day operations we knew we needed to evolve from excel and invested in a risk software system. This again was an improvement on where we had started from, but we found we were hampered by software constraints and subsequently we could not demonstrate that the risk management system was our risk management system, we were at the behest of the software provider. We knew we needed to look for a more dynamic system, but importantly front-end user friendly.”

“Also when we changed software provider we lost our platform for secure board reporting, as change brings opportunity, again we knew we had to find a solution to secure board pack management, and we found it in Decision Time.”

The Solution

After hearing about Decision Time from fellow Credit Unions and the benefits they were getting from it, Sligo participated in a workshop at the CUMA conference. It quickly became apparent that the software would offer them the control they needed in a way that suited both the staff and the Board members.

"The interface is clean and simple, and you don't need a database qualification or to be an IT expert to use it. That’s also true of the Risk system; it's straightforward to use and looks good. The metrics are there for everyone to see. It is as simplified as it can be."

"The Chair was particularly positive; a demo was arranged for the Board, who were also very happy with it. They could see the benefits and how easy it was to use. Following that, an implementation plan was put in place, and training was set; it was all effortless."

The Outcome

Meeting organisers quickly found the collating of the agenda and uploading documents so much quicker and easier, along with the peace of mind that access to the documents was much more secure than before. Making the whole process less time-consuming and less stressful. Board members, and the Chair, in particular, found it added structure to the meetings.

Adding time slots to the agenda has meant the discussions are much more focused while also improving the overall quality of the meetings.

"Setting up the Board meetings and management of those meetings is poles apart from what we were doing. Reports which have been submitted late can be added without affecting the agenda or the indexing. It wasn't easy to manage or for the board members to find what they needed before using Decision Time. The indexation and management of the agenda have been the top differences from organising the meetings."

"The Risk Management software has also been a real asset for the organisation. It's straightforward for the Board to visualise and understand the metrics, so deciding on controls and actions is much easier."

The Support

During any new technology introduction phase, first-class product support is especially critical to the initiative's success. The experience of Sligo Credit Union clearly illustrates the commitment that Decision Time has to provide clients with the best customer experience possible. Carmel sums up her experience;

”The training and the support we have received has been excellent, and I really couldn't fault the experience."

"When I sent in a query, they got back to me really quickly. I had regular follow-ups about how I was getting on with the system and did I have any suggestions for changes. They were always willing to listen, help and take onboard any suggestions we had. Nothing was ever a problem."

"From an organisational management perspective, the software and the support has worked very well. We have been delighted and would recommend it without a doubt."