IBS Journal May 2015


Core system: FirstOntario Credit Union


FirstOntario Credit Union, a credit union with 29 branches and around 100,000 members across Ontario, embarked on the core software modernisation in 2014, with Temenos’ solutions at the heart of transformation.


‘Our current core banking system doesn’t fit our growth strategy over the next sev- eral years,’ states Tom Bijvoet, executive vice-president, IT, FirstOntario. The credit union is operating Signature from Fiserv, but the team feels it is ‘outdated and begin- ning to show its age, and is not as flexi- ble as we would like it to be’, he says. This means that FirstOntario is not in a posi- tion to offer its members ‘the best possible experience’. FirstOntario was looking ahead to the


future and wanted a vendor that was also forward thinking, and also, who could pro- vide expertise in the Canadian core bank- ing software marketplace, particularly in the credit union segment. Bijvoet com- ments that an option to upgrade the lega- cy solution, Fiserv’s Signature was explored,


but the conclusion was that ‘significant cost and effort of upgrading would be better deployed in moving to a new solution that is more aligned with our credit union’s stra- tegic direction’. Also, it was felt that Signa- ture ‘was not a strategic Fiserv offering in the Canadian credit union market’. About a dozen systems were evalu-


ated, including two of Fiserv’s portfolio of core products, Wealthview and DNA; RFS from local vendor, CGI (incidentally, RFS stems from the Wealthview platform, orig- inally developed by a Canadian vendor, Fincentric); and T24 from Temenos. Con- sultants were recruited to assist with sev- eral stages of the selection process, which spanned a year and a half. Key criteria included the flexibility of the vendor and the system, ease of use,


ability to quickly bring new products to market, integration with new technologies, robust data analytics and strong customer support. Another important consideration was the overall architecture and the vendor roadmap for future developments. ‘In the end, it was clear that Temenos’


T24 offered the best options for our cred- it union and marketplace,’ Bijvoet states. ‘T24 has the most current architecture of the shortlisted systems, and its flexibility in configuring products and services is also a major benefit,’ he explains. Also, the credit union felt that Temenos had ‘a clear com- mitment to the Canadian marketplace and to ongoing R&D’. Temenos already has a number of


domestic credit unions running T24, including Vancity (which signed for T24 in


‘With a project such as this,


it is a challenge to estimate the impact and ROI.’ Barry Doan, FirstOntario Credit Union


46


© IBS Intelligence 2015


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case study: firstontario credit union


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