What do you need to do before implementing MRM solutions? What considerations do you need to make while choosing the right vendor? How should you begin with deployment? We leave you with some answers through this article. 

The insights discussed in this article were shared by Breana Wolfert and Brian Hahn from American Heritage Federal Credit Union in their session on solving the MRM puzzle through successful implementation at the 6th Annual CULytics Virtual Summit. They shared their success story with the audience.

Situation in 2017

Listed below are some key problems which the Credit Union was facing before it embraced on the journey of successful implementation - 

1. Strong and diverse member base, but it was not optimized.
2.  Symitar didn’t give a full picture of the member
3. Tracking a lot of work in spreadsheets, which meant manual and labor-intensive processes. 
4. Partners and CUSOs were siloed.
5. Information was separated into over 16 different systems.
6. There was no employee-level tracking.

Solution - MRM

The objectives of setting on a path for MRM were to consolidate data, create clear dashboards and optimize workflow.

The goals were to - 

• Increase Operational Efficiencies
• Proactive Rather than Reactive
• Grow and Scale

The first step towards the MRM Journey was to create an RFP process. It was achieved through the following - 

• Creating Joint Project Office between IT and Ops
• Covered All Departments in the credit union and asked them to bring their problems to the table.
• Collected Everyone’s Wish List 
• Consolidated Requirements
• Set Prioritization Order
• Created RFP (Request for Proposal) 
• Interviewed Vendors 

The team concluded that the right MRM solution for them would need to be flexible and configurable. For this pursuit, they partnered with DATAVA.

The second step was an iterative approach towards deployment. The deployment was carried out in phases, and phases were prioritized in a particular order. 

1. The Business Development Team was the first team to be deployed. To manage the workplace partners the team needed to have the right tools, and for this, a dashboard that would help the team in managing workplace partners was created. It took 6 weeks to deploy and led to a 29% increase in loans and deposits from SEGs.
   
2. The Indirect Lending Team was the second team to be deployed. A dashboard was created for the team, which they could access on a tablet. The deployment took 12 weeks and led to a 200 % increase in new indirect approved loans in one year.
   
3. The third action step was to create a member dashboard. A dashboard that could be used in every member interaction was created. The dashboard is easy to access and provides information at the click of a button from at least three data sources. The deployment took 4 months and led to a 25% increase in household cross-sell.
   
4. The creation of an Executive Dashboard was fourth on the agenda. A dashboard was created where all the data was consolidated and the executive team could understand it, use it all in one place. Even the membership dashboard could be accessed easily. The time to deploy this dashboard was 6 months.
   
5. The onboarding model was the biggest success. The concierge group of the onboarding team benefitted from various automated and streamlined functions. The deployment time for this initiative was 6 months.
   
6. The most recent initiative is that of predictive analytics which will help predict the next best model or the next best service for a particular member. The metrics are projected on the member dashboard. The initiative took 12 months because historical data needed to be developed for prediction.

Conclusion

Take your time to choose the right vendor - The CU was looking for a solution that would offer speed deployment, configurable functionality, and manage costs. The need was to be strategic in the research process.