While the implications of the term "digital transformation" are far-reaching, in practice the situation isn't quite that complicated. It's all about the technological processes that can be put in place today to help better prepare an organization for the potential challenges it will face tomorrow.
This is especially important within the context of a credit union, where member expectations are changing all the time. People demand more of their credit unions (CUs) these days in terms of the quality of the experience they're able to enjoy, and the right approach to digital transformation allows a CU to rise up and meet those demands.
But at the same time, executing a digital transformation isn't as simple as flipping a light switch. It will take the adoption of a wide range of different best practices, with business intelligence (among others) being chief among them.
Why Business Intelligence Matters
In the modern era, your credit union is creating and storing a massive volume of data about members on a daily basis. Hidden inside that data is the key to everything. It helps give insight into what people like and dislike. What services they want versus what they need. What their expectations are versus the reality of what you're giving to them.
But without some way to sort through that data - to make sense of it all - what you're really talking about is just 1s and 0s sitting on a hard drive somewhere. The primary tool that you'll use to access that insight, to turn it into something actionable and forward-thinking, has to do with business intelligence tools.
Business intelligence tools like Tableau, Power BI, and others help gather crucial data and present it in a way that makes it easy for credit union leaders to understand. It leverages analytics, data mining, data visualization, and more, all to present real-time information about which of your efforts are working and, more importantly, which can be improved.
When you launch a new card or service, for example, business intelligence tools can be used to analyze transaction data to determine A) which type of product is most appealing to members, B) who the members are that are primarily using your product based on demographics like location or income level, and C) what they want to see more of.
To put it another way, business intelligence tools are the key to not only understanding where your credit union is, but which direction it should be headed in to give the widest audience of members exactly what they want and expect from your services.
The Best Credit Union Processes for Digital Transformation
Overall, every credit union area can take advantage of what digital transformation has to offer. That includes not only the automation of back office tasks so that employees can focus on those matters that truly need them, but also in positioning the entire organization to play to the ever-changing dynamics of the economy you operate in.
Digital transformation can benefit retail branches by helping to eliminate time-consuming, menial tasks that don't provide the value they need. It can help process loan applications as quickly as possible without any errors, thus improving the member experience. Even something as seemingly simple as allowing members to manage their accounts while on the go through mobile services will go a long way and make a big impact.
From credit administration to consumer and auto lending to mortgage and home equity, you name it - all of these and more can benefit from the advantages that digital transformation has to offer.
In the end, digital transformation for credit unions is about more than just making short-term games. It's a strategy that is executed with long-term success in mind. To find out more information about how the right approach to digital technology can help lay the foundation upon which your credit union's future success will be built, please feel free to download FLEX's eGuide to Digital Account Services today.
