Selecting a great credit union core system is at the heart of every core review.  Some credit unions opt to outsource their review process by hiring a consultant to manage vendors, presentations and contract negotiations.  Others construct RFP's and send them out to potential core suitors as a way to drive core discovery.  Whether you plan to outsource or in-source your credit union core system review in 2016, consider these three points:

1. Know  yourself, know your needs.

Clearly identify what uniquely matters to your organization, and don’t lose sight of it.  While it’s important to explore solutions you hadn’t considered, don’t get distracted with solutions to problems that you don’t have.  Every solution has its strengths, and every credit union its own priorities.  Many credit unions, unknowingly, value operational efficiency over anything else, but few single that out as a review consideration.

2. Get your hands dirty, dig deeper.

Understand what you’re being sold.  Sales and technical professionals, even within your own organization, can turn the simplest of matters into a complex decision, in order to lead management toward the ends that best suit their agenda.   Complex RFP's and prolonged consulting engagements only muddy the water.  Keep the process simple.  Don’t relegate your findings to a document.  Get your hands dirty.  Explore the software.  Do the site visits – before you rule out any particular solution.  Trust your intuition and that of your line personnel who actually use the core.  Be skeptical of proposed solutions whose merits are based in technical concepts, new technologies or features that you don’t understand.

3. The third-party proposition.

Interfaced systems are limited by definition.  They’re interfaced.   And, as such, they will never achieve the same degree of efficiency and automation that a comparable set of core system features might achieve.  In your core review, focus first on the core.  Recognize that third-party solutions are important, but their importance is transitory.  Don’t just look for a core that can accommodate third party solutions.  Find a core that is evolving to make those solutions unnecessary, with features like mobile banking, internet banking, paperless, check-21 capture, and online credit cards built right into the core.