Credit unions from Buncrana to Ballyfermot joined Viatel online for 'Exploring Digital Transformation' on Tuesday 11 May. We were delighted to have Al McCauley, CEO of Heritage Credit Union, chatting with us about Heritage’s growth, technology trends and his experience of working with Viatel.
"Previously, we found we were managing service providers when we should have been managing the business. A significant amount of time was taken up with problem resolution. Management meetings have changed since moving to Viatel!" -Al McCauley, Heritage Credit Union
Some things we learned:
Operational Resilience is Fundamentally about Trust
Credit unions are exceptional in being member-owned organisations. They are also unique in the level of confidence they command from the Irish public – consistently ranking as the country’s most trusted organisations. Operational resilience is a hot topic in regulatory circles but, at a more basic level, resilience is about maintaining and deserving the trust that communities place in their credit union. Al commented that people rely on the credit union to be there: “It’s important for us that we have the resilience to open up at the appointed time every morning until the evening.”
Service is King
Credit unions generally rely on outsourced, third party providers for their technology and IT systems. In theory, this should free credit union management to concentrate on their own operation. In practice, this is only the case where the service is satisfactory. Al described a frustrating past situation where a poor level of performance meant the team at Heritage “were managing the service instead of managing our own business”. Performance is key and, if an issue does arise, it must be taken seriously and dealt with swiftly.
"From the guys on the Viatel front desk that answer the telephone, you can be assured if you are not sorted out then and there, they'll be back within half an hour with an update." -Al McCauley, Heritage Credit Union on Viatel's Customer Service and Technical Support
“You need the experts”
An ecosystem of partners supports the credit union segment. Collaboration and knowledge sharing between partners is key to delivering a service that is altogether stronger.
"Bringing nine offices live was a big project but you guys have obviously done it once or twice before! It certainly showed in the execution. We went live with loads of organisation from Viatel. It all went without a hitch." -Al McCauley, Heritage Credit Union on migrating their network to Viatel
How Viatel Supports Operational Resilience
Viatel CTO, Eilish O'Connor, took a particular look at Operational Resilience through the three pillars proposed by the Central Bank:
(i) Identify & Prepare
(ii) Respond & Adapt
(iii) Recover & Learn
It was clear that the three pillars apply equally to Viatel's approach to our work in the credit union sector and beyond. We constantly look ahead to identify key systems and developments. In short, "We worry about the technology so you don't have to." Responding and adapting through an iterative approach are key: "challenges like cyber security do not stand still so Viatel make sure that we don't either so that we are there to support you." Watch what Eilish had to say here.
Find out why Viatel is the fastest growing credit union supplier
Viatel is very proud to partner with almost fifty credit unions across Ireland. We are the leading, Guaranteed Irish provider of connectivity, voice, cloud and business availability solutions. Please reach out to us at any time on 1800 930 860 or info@viatel.com. You can visit Viatel online at www.viatel.com.