It was not long ago that the role of your credit union core was limited to back-end data applications: Processing your daily account transactions and updating the associated member account balances to a server. Your core was responsible for handling deposit accounts, loan processing, and associated reporting, but not generating revenue. It has always been a necessary expense to ensure your credit union operates efficiently and accurately for your members. But now in 2015, you should be viewing credit union core technology as a source for profitability.

Here are 4 ways the core has evolved to have an impact on your credit union's bottom line:

1. You are now open 24/7
   Extending your branch hours in the past meant increasing expenses: Adding employees or paying overtime, increasing utilities, increasing the parameters for your disaster planning, etc. With mobile banking and internet banking, your core is operating even while all of your employees are sleeping. Members can be making deposits at 2am through remote deposits, checking interest rates with their morning coffee, or even applying for a car loan at 9pm, when your employees are long gone for the day, through your mobile lending platform - An opportunity you may have lost to the car dealer's bank had it not been for the technology in your core.
   
   
2. Capture new members - with new products - without new product development
   Want to offer a new loan product to attract a new demographic (See our article How Creative Lending and Mobile Banking Can Serve the Underbanked)? Want to use the power of mobile banking to deliver a secure mobile app to bring in younger members? Product development not only takes money, it takes time and expertise. Outsourcing these new products to vendors takes research and man hours to coordinate. With today's core, and through integrated apps, a small credit union can roll out the latest and greatest products with limited expense, that make even the big banks go "Wow!"  For example, learn how one small credit union did just this, when in 2013 they beat out all the large banks to become the first mobile app in their market.
   
   
3. Transferring infrastructure expenses 
   15-20 years ago, a CU's entire core process was housed on site, and all updates and fixes required additional expenses and/or personnel. Backup and Recovery was reliant upon tapes, and the time it took by an employee to ensure it was done nightly was costly. Security patches were done... or most often NOT done... either requiring expensive expertise on staff, or putting your data at risk. Today's core can eliminate or reduce these expenses with advanced Disaster Recovery, automatic security updates, or even operating all or some of its operations in the cloud, utilizing SaaS (Software as a Service) to streamline these processes and eliminate your expenses.
   
   
4. Going Paperless
   Sure, a piece of paper doesn't cost much.  But when paying postage on that paper and envelopes to all of your members every month adds up, as does the cost it takes someone at your credit union to perform the task. eStatements, eReceipts, and eNotices provide a cost-saving way to deliver information to your members. Looking up check images, loan documents, and more on file all under the member's account on the core, not in a backroom storage area, saves time and money. The FLEX paperless solution, for example, is a drag-and-drop, point-and-click interface that can be used by anyone, including members, with little effort.