BECU is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative offering consumer banking, lending and other financial services to more than 300,000 members. With its growing membership and strong customer focus, BECU has been rated by the National Credit Union Association as one of the top five credit unions in the nation.

The challenge: Building for the future -- without fail
Based on projected growth and the need to stay competitive by offering new products and services, BECU management recognized that its needs had outpaced its legacy system, which had supported its banking and lending services for more than 20 years. Over these years, the system had been customized internally, adding multiple solutions in an effort to meet growing needs. Going forward, these customizations would hinder BECU's ability to rapidly adjust to market demands and maintain a stable, scalable system.

BECU saw the opportunity to implement new technology and improve business processes that would support its growth. The goal? Gaining the ability to rapidly design, develop and offer new products and services to meet the demands of its growing membership and competitive environment. The concern? Preserving the trust of BECU's members while taking on the risk of building an entirely new technology platform.

Point B: Project leadership at every level
BECU knows a thing or two about managing risk -- which is why it turned to Point B for a massive conversion in which failure was not an option. We conducted a risk evaluation, which determined that BECU's original plan to replace only its lending system would significantly increase the risk of problems and failures across the entire banking system. As a result, BECU expanded its software selection process to include its banking services and a number of supporting technology functions, including a transaction processing system. Point B developed an overall approach for selecting and implementing a complete banking and lending solution tailored to BECU's needs.

As the project scope grew to include a full system replacement, we continued to support its evolving needs by bringing in experts in project leadership and execution. Point B associates worked alongside more than 60 BECU staff members in a number of diverse roles needed to get the project done successfully. In addition to hands-on activities, we also provided solution leadership on such issues as post-implementation support plans, information technology architecture, PMO skill-set development and IT staffing plans. Following the conversion, we stuck around to support to the post-implementation efforts for about four weeks and helped BECU plan for future releases.

Results: Massive change, minimal disruption, satisfied customers
On a three-day weekend in 2002, BECU successfully converted over $3 billion in assets from its legacy system to its new suite of systems, and changed all member account numbers in the process. This included more than 1.5 million checking, savings accounts, loan applications and loan accounts -- without a single error.

Knowing how longstanding members might feel about the change to new account numbers, BECU was prepared for a flood of calls. With the benefit of a smooth transition, call volumes returned to normal within just a few weeks -- a remarkable demonstration of a smooth conversion. This massive systems conversion, which touched virtually every system BECU had, was barely noticed by BECU's members -- which was just the way BECU wanted it.

The BECU conversion was named Conversion of the Year by the Cornerstone Group for 2002. Of course, the real winners will be BECU's members, who will reap the benefits of BECU's new technology investments for years to come.

"Point B's approach is uniquely effective because they always build consensus and momentum on a project by developing trust and forging real relationships," said Weldon "Butch" Leonardson, CIO at BECU. "Point B associates don't get tied up in positioning and visibility, but focus their energy on the things that are most important to a project's success. I have total faith in the company's three founders, and know that they hire only people of real character and integrity. I know that any Point B associate I work with will consistently represent the firm's values and provide a critical component of a project's success."

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