At the recent Great New England Credit Union Show, CMC’s Northeastern Regional Marketing Manager was interviewed by show sponsors regarding Mobile Banking. The interview offers insight into the status of mobile banking in our industry, the unique benefits of deploying such services on the FLEX platform, and the value introduced to credit union members by this exciting new service. The interview can be found on the Banker and Tradesman website via the following link: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/archive/podcasts/CMCFlex.mp3

Images of Hurricane Ike tell only a small part of the devastation left in its wake on the coastal community of Galveston, TX. The island’s largest credit union, Coastal Community Federal was arguably the hardest hit in the region where Carol Purdy-Gaylord serves as CEO. Two other FLEX credit unions impacted were Port Arthur Community FCU, managed by Sabrina Miguez, and Houston's C-E Federal Credit Union led by CEO Mark Wright.

Following the gulf region hurricanes of 2004 & 2005, Coastal Community opted to implement CMC's managed hosting solution, a hybrid in-house/on-line solution which allows credit unions to maintain the benefit of ownership and control over member information without the responsibilities of system management. With their server housed at CMC's corporate headquarters in Sandy, Utah, the 8,300 member Coastal Community FCU did not experience any down time despite the devastating impact the storm had on their main facility, branch offices and the rest of their community.
Carol reported that their two primary locations in Galveston were flooded with four feet of water. Included was her main office which was originally constructed approximately six feet above street level in order to protect against potential flooding. At peak surge of the hurricane, the area surrounding her main office suffered a delugeof over ten feet of water. “We were fortunate that we were allowed to set up an emergency office alongside other city service providers that included police, fire and other emergency response teams from within the San Luis Hotel. Our use of CMC's managed hosting gave us uninterrupted service. In order to serve our affected members, we were able to obtain cash from the mainland which was accompanied by police back onto the island.”

She continues, “We have members arriving at our front doors in taxi cabs after losing everything.” Nevertheless, she remains optimistic. “There are many on the outside to whom we owe the deepest degree of gratitude. Our credit union's shared branching network as well as CMC have both been extremely instrumental in helping us to survive this event.” As of this report, the only wired office operating is the LaMarque Branch location. Carol indicated that her main office is now operating using wireless air cards via an internet-based VPN connection. “We anticipate having fiber restored to our main facility within the next couple of days.”

Ike also affected Port Arthur Community Federal Credit Union and C-E Federal Credit Union, both initiating their disaster service arrangement with CMC within hours of the storm. Both operate CMC's in-house FLEX System and were restored to full operational condition using stand-in systems located at CMC's headquarters in Sandy, Utah, within two hours of receiving their data. Mark Wright remarked, “The transition was extremely seamless and surprisingly fast. CMC's preparation, constant communication and concern for us all was most evident.”

Sabrina Miguez of Port Arthur continued, “Josh was a blessing. He gave me his cell phone number and made himself available all weekend. In fact, everyone at CMC was great. The following work week the receptionists knew who we were, what we had been through and expedited our calls accordingly.”

Our thoughts and prayers remain with all those affected by Ike's devastating impact.

In 2008, CMC celebrated 30 years of data processing services and, much to the dismay of competitors and pundits alike, stands alone as the credit union industry's largest and oldest core processing service provider that has not experienced a change of ownership since its inception.

In February 1978, Fred Holcomb organized and incorporated Computer Marketing Corporation. Leveraging his experience, knowledge and affection for the credit union industry, Mr. Holcomb partnered with a Salt Lake City area credit union to develop an in-house credit union data processing solution built on IBM's mid-range (or mini) business application computer platform, the System/34. By 1986, CMC's credit union solution evolved, adopted the name FLEX for its scalability and usability for credit unions of all sizes and served as the beginning point of CMC's exclusive service to the credit union industry.

From the humble beginnings of two small offices, today's CMC is made up of over 120 employees occupying its own, newly constructed 40,000 square foot building. Staff members provide various services to over 260 credit unions in support of the FLEX core credit union information management solution. During the course of this celebratory year, forthcoming issues of CMC's newsletter will profile many of the employees, people and credit unions that have made CMC the great company that it is today. To our customers we express our continued commitment of service and say THANK YOU!!!

Columbus, GA - Commonplace among our nation's community of educators is an overwhelming attraction toward Apple/Macintosh technology. For the MEA Federal Credit Union, serving the financial needs of educators from across the greater Columbus, Georgia and Phenix City, Alabama region, such an attraction comes as no exception. "Upon learning that the current version of JUICE would indeed run on Apple's OS X, I was ecstatic. For years I have managed our systems using my personal notebook computer, now upgraded to a first generation MacBook Pro, and have four other Mac users in our organization. Although various terminal emulators were available, these did not provide the ease of use I needed for most of my users. With JUICE, I can now migrate more users to the Mac platform, and can easily support my current Mac users with native applications. As of yet, I have not found any other core processor that supports a non-Windows environment", commented Jesse Hart, IT Manager of MEA.

Over the past few years, CMC has been engaged in one of the industry's most intensive re-engineering efforts of their core credit union software offering - FLEX. Code named JUICE (JAVATM, User Interface Control Environment) the user interface has been distinctively designed to achieve that which other Window's or browser-based solutions simply cannot deliver. Numbered among these achievements are graphically rich 132 column platform independent frame based client that is seat license free and provides the user with automatic dynamic updates each time it is launched from the desktop. Said Gary Eberhart, JUICE project manager, "I may be biased, but I have been a software engineer for 20 years and can confidently say that no Windows or browser-based credit union solution can touch the sophistication and ease of use offered within JUICE. Browser-based solutions that claim independence are really written for M/S Explorer with disclaimers for use with other browsers such as Firefox or Safari. Moreover, browsers lack the graphical tools (dependence upon plug-in's) that are natively available within the JAVA language."

At its core is the JAVA programming language. Competitors, programmers and system analysts of other environments attempt to diminish JAVA on varying levels. Mr. Eberhart argues, "I find these criticisms most curious. According to programming language information tracking sites, JAVA is the number one programming language in the world, second place isn't even close."

As an end user, Mr. Hart continued, "Our network environment is quite diverse, with Windows, Mac and Linux servers running alongside our IBM iSeries, and Windows, Mac and Linux clients. Thanks to the platform independence of the Java language and FLEX, we are now able to support the same program on every client machine making our training program many times easier."

With his own cup of Java in hand, Mr. Eberhart summarized, "To see this effort finally come to fruition is deeply rewarding. As we embarked on this journey several years ago, we set out to liberate our credit union clients from their dependence upon any one vertical technology. To date, we have close to fifty FLEX credit unions using JUICE in very diverse environments with more coming on monthly. Platform independent and seat license free, now that's open."

Tucson, AZ

The warm weather of Tucson was only exceeded by the day's most sizzling topics surrounding technology at the CUES Technology Conference held at the Hilton Hotel's El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort on March 5th, 6th & 7th. The conference began with Steve Williams of Cornerstone Advisors detailing their recent study which indicated that credit unions are spending almost twice that of comparably sized banks on technology. Mr. Williams then highlighted his ten technology trends for the future.

In an unprecedented move, CUES provided each vendor sponsor with a 10 minute opportunity to introduce and present their solutions to attendees. CMC's presentation was provided by Sean Holcomb who unveiled what many considered to be the most unique and innovative development - JUICE (Java User Interface Control Environment). Vendors and attendees responded most favorably to the technology. "I've worked with every large core credit union solution provider and none have the kind of technology behind JUICE," one vendor commented. An unnamed executive from a well-known $1.5 Billion California Credit Union remarked, "JUICE is the most impressive UI (User Interface) I've ever seen for a credit union."

Interestingly, trend number six of Mr. Williams top ten was "Integration at the Front Line - It Means Everything". Referring to this obstacle as "Death by Navigation", Mr. Williams explained that today's credit unions are challenged with rapid access to information from various disparate systems in serving their members. For the FLEX System, JUICE achieves this high level of navigation. With the user in the middle, orbiting features include card/check ordering, e-mail and intranet functions, loan systems, on-line reports and one of the hottest conference topics, easy access to archived images and documents. Said one vendor, "Your JUICE technology goes beyond integrated, it's embedded."

In the closing session, representatives from three credit unions in excess of $500 Million in assets, who recently performed core conversions to three different systems, were invited for a panel discussion with the group describing their experience and process. One Credit Union indicated that they spent over $500,000 in overtime alone. Questioned on the total server count and the number of IT people required to support them, the response was 23, 45 and 100 servers supported by 6, 16 and 24 IT staff members, respectively. Translated, this calculates out to just over 1 IT person for every 4 servers. "

As their clients know, creating value through the relentless pursuit of simplicity has been central to the CMC/FLEX mission for years. In his closing remarks, Steve Williams commented, "Technology is unavoidably complex - but simplicity wins." The people from CMC/FLEX couldn't agree more.

Today's competition for credit unions is as fierce as ever with several turning to the FLEX System for opportunities and solutions. In 2006, CMC produced over a dozen new credit union conversions to FLEX coupled with 60 major upgrades for existing customers. Additionally, CMC added new services including an On-Line offering with two credit unions signing on - Coastal Community Federal Credit Union of Galveston, TX and Allentown Federal Credit Union of Allentown, PA at $30 and $37 Million in assets respectively.

New FLEX credit unions representing different regions of the country and various sizes, come from a diverse host of brand name vendors. A few are represented below:

DOT Federal Credit Union 9,000 Members/47.0 Million Poughkeepsie, NY Former System-XPSystems(FiServ)	Marisol Federal Credit Union 7,300 Members/30 Million Phoenix, AZ Former System-Galaxy(FiServ)
Docks & Terminal Credit Union 2,000 Members/6 Million Mobile, AL FormerSystem-EPL	LCE Federal Credit Union 5,600 Members/26.5 Million Painesville, OH FormerSystem-Integrasys(FiServ)
Employees Credit Union 6,000 Members/44 Million Estherville, IA FormerSystem-Ultradata(Harland/Clarke)	Tripler Federal Credit Union 2,600 Members/15.0 Million Honolulu, I FormerSystem-HIS

New sales and scheduled conversions for 2007 outpace that of 2006 with ANG Federal Credit Union of Birmingham, AL at 2,400 Members and 16 Million formerly on Integrasys converting to FLEX on February 1st. Leyden Federal Credit Union of Chicago, IL at 53.0 Million presently using the Summit System is the most recent credit union to sign with the FLEX System. We at CMC/FLEX wish to express our sincerest gratitude to these and our other credit union clients for their steadfast support and the opportunity to serve their information management needs.

CMC is pleased to announce the FLEX System’s entrance into four new states beginning in West Virginia. CEO and former West Virginia State Examiner David Rice selected the FLEX System for Morgantown AES Federal Credit Union. Soon to follow were credit union’s in the states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Estherville, Iowa serves as home to Employees Credit Union. CEO Mark Peters, along with his most technically adept board member, qualified several systems before arriving at FLEX. Nevertheless, prior to making their final decision to go with FLEX, both credit union representatives wanted to be absolutely certain that FLEX was indeed the right choice.

Rather than visit only a single credit union using FLEX, they elected to register for a FLEX regional user’s conference at the invitation of their CMC sales representative Todd Chytraus. In their view, the opportunity to interview dozens of FLEX Credit Unions from varying parts of the country during a user’s conference was ideal.

Following the conference, Mr. Peters remarked that they spoke with as many FLEX users as possible. Aiding their objective, attendees assumed our guests were one of them – a FLEX credit union client. “The experience was genuine, there was a real sense of family which is just what you hope for in this industry,” reported Mr. Peters. The experience served to reaffirm their prior intuition – indeed, FLEX was the right choice for the Employees Credit Union.

Shipbuilders Credit Union of Manitowoc, Wisconsin was the first to select the FLEX System in the Badger State. CEO Mike Steimle and his three member committee searched far and wide, traveling on separate trips to Arizona, Louisiana and Texas in search of the right system. Without a single dissenting vote, the committee’s unanimous selection was FLEX.

Most recently, Ohio makes its debut with the FLEX System in Painesville at the LCE Federal Credit Union. With recent investments in their main office facilities, newly hired CEO Anita Walters set out to complete her progressive agenda for change by searching for a new core solution with the formation of a three member committee.

Reviewing several different systems installed at other area credit unions in Northeast Ohio, the committee entertained the FLEX System with an on-site demonstration. Intrigued by its rich features and operational simplicity, the committee drove to Buffalo, New York for a FLEX site visit. After narrowing their choice to two vendors, the committee met to render its final decision. Ms. Walters described the event: “we all sat down, looked at each other and with conviction, one by one said, FLEX, FLEX and FLEX. Clearly, the best solution was FLEX. It was that simple, end of story.”

Today, the FLEX System services over 265 credit unions located in 43 states and the Caribbean. We at CMC wish to express our gratitude to these and the many other credit unions who have recently selected FLEX as their core solution. We look forward to our future partnership and welcome all of these credit unions into our FLEX family.