The task of reviewing a new credit union core processing system can be overwhelming. With the rapidly changing world of consumer technology and the fact that your credit union members want to connect with you on their terms, you may find yourself hitchhiking across the credit union galaxy in search of a new core system. For any lovers of the humorous science fiction story "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and those that may be new to it, enjoy!

If you find yourself planning a core system review in 2016 you may feel a little like Arthur Dent trying to escape planet earth as it is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. And what you don't want to happen in selecting a new credit union data processing system is to find yourself, like Arthur did, two million years in the past! This would mean your fate is doomed to be marooned with the useless third of the Golgafrincham population (consisting of hairdressers, account executives, film makers, security guards, telephone sanitizers, and the like) or in other words, core processing purgatory. To ensure that your eventual replacement system is not handed to a shipload of middle managers, telephone sanitizers and hairdressers, here are a few tips to help you on your way:

1. Know yourself: Like Ford Prefect, who named himself after the Ford Prefect car to blend in with what he assumed to be the dominant form of life - automobiles!  You need to know and understand the needs of your organization. Identify what matters most to your credit union and don’t lose sight of it. While it’s always a good idea to explore new solutions you hadn’t considered before, don’t get distracted with solutions to problems that you don’t have. Each core processing system has its strengths, and every credit union its own priorities. Line up your priorities and ensure you are not looking to fill a void that you didn't have to begin with. Ford Prefect's main priority was to rescue Arthur Dent from trouble... unfortunately nobody is going to save you from yourself!
   
   
2. Trust yourself: Marvin, the paranoid android, was afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he had a "brain the size of a planet which he was seldom, if ever, given the chance to use." When confronted with the burden of a core processing review, I often see highly trained and experienced credit union personnel surrender their review process to others. Yet there are no better people to execute and evaluate potential solutions than those that use the system most. Although advice from IT personnel might be important, the credit union’s operational business experts should be the people spearheading a core processing review. I have always maintained that the best technology is the kind that we can all understand. If any credit union core processing system earns the endorsement of your operational business experts, then you should be confident that the technology behind it is likely pretty good. Trust yourself; you and your people are your best authorities. You may not be 50,000 times more intelligent than a human like Marvin, but you are best positioned to make the data processing decision for your credit union.
   
   
3. Dig Deeper: While you most certainly will not be designing planets like Slartibarfast the Magrathean (although the fjords he created off the coast of Norway are stunning), you will be trying to make sense of all the information each core processor presents. It is important that you understand what you’re being sold. Don't rely on documentation in the form of RFP responses. Sales and technical professionals can turn the simplest of matters into a complex decision, in order to lead management toward the ends that best suit their agenda. Get your hands dirty and explore the software. Have the people on your team that actually use the core daily also get involved and put it to the test. Be skeptical of proposed solutions whose merits are based in technical concepts, new technologies or features that you don’t understand. An informed decision will ensure that you won't find yourself wishing you could make fjords in Africa... after all, fjords in Africa would be hard to explain without natural glacial movement.

4. Embrace integration: Integration doesn't have to be an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine, like Zaphod Beeblebrox! Integration can actually be a powerful concept. Software integration weaves all parts of your operation into one, designing for optimal efficiency across the entire system. Don't fall for tactics that insist interfaced systems are integrated systems. The truth is that 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. Integration should appear seamless, unlike an alien from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who has two heads and three arms. 

While I wish I could hand you an electronic guidebook to serve as "the standard repository for all knowledge and wisdom" when reviewing credit union core processing systems, I can tell you the above points will assist you on your journey. Although, I would caution you against doing business with Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as their marketing division is "a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes".