Case Study
Satisfaction Through Managed Services Cloud Outsourcing
The Challenge
University of Hawai’i Federal Credit Union (UHFCU) ran their KeyStone core processing platform in-house for more than three years, and they faced two challenges: It was difficult to retain the highly experienced IT team they needed to run their core operations because the competition courted away top talent and replacement personnel with KeyStone expertise were difficult to find. Simultaneously, UHFCU’s Las Vegas-based disaster recovery solution provider was acquired, and its basic hosting services costs were escalating.
The Solution
UHFCU conducted a search for a new disaster recovery provider. In addition to evaluating traditional rack space providers, they asked Corelation to recommend providers familiar with KeyStone and credit unions. Enter SwitchThink Solutions. “It’s hard to explain how much of a difference SwitchThink’s expertise makes when troubleshooting issues and optimizing the platform for maximum productivity. The other providers didn’t even know what they didn’t know; it was unsettling,” said UHFCU chief executive officer, Travis Bow. “Its importance was something we knew inherently from running the system ourselves.”
From the first dialog, it was clear SwitchThink's domain knowledge of KeyStone was unique among providers, even those with credit union experience.
As the SwitchThink and UHFCU teams worked together, UHFCU grew increasingly impressed by SwitchThink’s experts and our world-class data center and private cloud environment, tailor-made for KeyStone credit unions. Bow saw an opportunity to not only solve UHFCU’s disaster recovery challenge but to tackle their staffing challenges as well. By outsourcing their production environment along with disaster recovery to SwitchThink, UHFCU could eliminate the need for specialized core resources and refocus its IT team on other priority projects.
There was just one hurdle. “We’d always been an in-house shop. Control was important to us, so our leadership team had never considered outsourcing our production environment before,” Bow explained. “But the more we learned about the SwitchThink Managed Services model, the more we understood we could keep control over our operational business decisions while eliminating non-strategic tasks. It was the best of both worlds.”
The Results
As the SwitchThink and UHFCU teams worked together, UHFCU grew increasingly impressed by SwitchThink’s experts and our world-class data center and private cloud environment, tailor-made for KeyStone credit unions. Bow saw an opportunity to not only solve UHFCU’s disaster recovery challenge but to tackle their staffing challenges as well. By outsourcing their production environment along with disaster recovery to SwitchThink, UHFCU could eliminate the need for specialized core resources and refocus its IT team on other priority projects.
There was just one hurdle. “We’d always been an in-house shop. Control was important to us, so our leadership team had never considered outsourcing our production environment before,” Bow explained. “But the more we learned about the SwitchThink Managed Services model, the more we understood we could keep control over our operational business decisions while eliminating non-strategic tasks. It was the best of both worlds.”
As a result, UHFCU reallocated resource dollars equal to two full-time people toward more strategic work, like online account opening, mobile banking enhancements, and more member selfservice options – improving IT employee satisfaction and accelerating delivery of digital services members wanted. “Even factoring in our partner expense, we can afford to do more than we could before,” Bow added. Outsourcing also minimized UHFCU’s financial and operational impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The partnership continues to strengthen. SwitchThink now supports all UHFCU’s enterprise applications out of the SwitchThink Cloud, including cash flow management, Check 21 processing; print servers; authentication; log management and reporting; interactive voice response; and document imaging. Bow summarizes the SwitchThink partnership like this: “I couldn’t imagine us without SwitchThink. They’re a part of what we are and what we do now. We wouldn’t change a thing!”
We didn’t realize just how much time we were losing ‘keeping the lights on. Our month-ends were previously all-consuming, all-handson-deck affairs. Now they’re nonevents. SwitchThink also eliminated our need to worry about on-going infrastructure maintenance.