A Smooth Transition with MISER’s Flexible Delivery Options

A Smooth Transition with MISER’s Flexible Delivery Options Two Institutions Make a Smooth Transition with MISER’s Flexible Delivery Options Fitchburg Savings and Oswego County National Modify Operational Strategies Without Changing Core Solutions With delivery options for both in-house and outsourced operations, the MISER? core system offers maximum flexibility to institutions that want to shift their operational strategy. Two MISER users, Fitchburg Savings Bank of Fitchburg, MA and Oswego County National Bank of Oswego, NY, have made smooth transitions from in-house to outsource and outsource to in-house. Here are their stories. FITCHBURG SAVINGS – FROM IN-HOUSE TO OUTSOURCE Fitchburg Savings At a Glance: Based outside of Boston, $270 million Fitchburg Savings Bank has been a MISER user since 1987. The institution used the MISER core , Reduced overall operating system as an in-house solution until mainframe, peripheral costs. equipment and software license upgrades forced them to consider a change. After a detailed cost/benefit review, bank management , Eliminated risk (data decided that outsourcing their core processing would enable them to processing staff, equipment). reduce ongoing costs and eliminate the need for full-scale disaster , Retained incremental recovery provisions. In addition, Fitchburg’s location, which is well scalability on a demand basis. beyond the cosmopolitan Boston area, made it difficult to attract, , Eliminated full-scale disaster hire and retain the technical employees required to run their in-recovery procedures. house system. , Freed capital for expansion incentives. “We took a hard look at the organization, our strategies and what we , Continue to leverage new wanted to do going forward,” said Peter Buffone, executive vice technologies on a more president for Fitchburg Savings Bank said. “It was clear that efficient, accelerated basis. outsourcing was the best option, enabling us to lower costs while keeping pace with the initiatives we hope to accomplish. “Having an outsourced solution has enabled bank management to focus on our core competencies – gathering deposits, making loans and expanding our marketplace – rather than operating an internal data center.” Flexibility + Functionality = MISER Fitchburg Savings chose to retain MISER as its core solution and experienced a smooth transition as a result. “We did a very intensive study evaluating other systems that were out there,” Buffone said. “We chose to stay with the MISER system because it gave us the opportunity to experience an extremely smooth and transparent transition from an in-house to outsourced solution.” Buffone said MISER’s extensive features and plans for enhanced functionality in commercial services were also key factors in their decision to remain a MISER customer. “We knew the system would provide Fitchburg with what we needed to maintain a competitive edge in the market,” he said. A Smooth Transition Since Fitchburg made the switch from a MISER in-house approach to a MISER outsource solution, the bank avoided many of the traditional conversion headaches. ”We didn’t experience any of the inherent issues of a typical conversion because our move from an in-house environment to one that is outsourced was more of a migration than a conversion,” Buffone said. “We are using the same software and the same processes. As a result, our employees did not have to be trained on a new system and our customers were not MISER Visions Page 1 December 2003 negatively affected by the change.” The transition took place over a three-day holiday weekend and Buffone says Fitchburg experienced “very little, if any” issues with the process. A New Approach The bank worked closely with Aurum to ensure that the new service-level agreements in the outsourced environment would match Fitchburg’s objectives and their customers’ needs. If any issues should arise, the bank has defined an escalation process to ensure rapid resolution of any problems. Buffone says he is “most impressed” with the capabilities of Aurum’s National Compute Center in Charlotte, NC and credits the facility and its team with the superior service the bank has experienced since making the transition to outsource. Today, they are maximizing the MISER product to their benefit and the benefit of their customers. “We now spend the time and effort we once devoted to operating the system to utilizing the system’s capabilities,” he said. “We extract the best features and functions to meet our ever- changing needs.” OSWEGO COUNTY NATIONAL BANK – FROM OUTSOURCE TO IN-HOUSE Oswego County National Bank’s number one priority is serving its 50,000 customers. That’s why every major operational issue is Oswego County National given careful consideration. And when the bank recently shifted its At a Glance: focus from a traditional thrift to a commercial bank, its leadership decided it was time for a change in their core processing approach. , Gained greater control over operations. Seeking Flexibility , Built in-house system with Oswego was running the MISER core system as an outsourced the capacity for rapid growth. operation. They were satisfied with the solution but were seeking , Increased efficiency through more flexibility to manage operations at convenient times with advanced automation tools. minimal turnaround time. For example, they often had up to three , Required minimal training to requests for ad hoc reports daily. complete transition. , Leverage ongoing operational “We wanted to have more control within our environment,” said support from Aurum. Judy Percy, senior vice president and chief information officer for Oswego County National Bank. “We wanted the flexibility to respond to our customers more quickly.” In addition, Oswego considered long-term costs. With an institution poised for aggressive growth, bank leadership believed a large-scale in-house system would enable them to better manage costs than paying per user and per account in an outsourced environment. Oswego County National Bank conducted a full evaluation process to determine the best choice for their new in-house core solution. A list of 20 core options was narrowed to five. After studying each of the five solutions in depth, Percy says bank leadership “felt the MISER system would provide the flexibility to deliver the products and services necessary to position Oswego as a commercial bank.” Selecting the MISER in-house solution afforded Oswego a smooth, seamless transition from outsource to in-house. “All areas of our bank benefited from not changing core solutions,” Percy said. “Our tellers were not affected, our customers were not impacted and less training was required throughout the institution. It was much more seamless than a transition to another system.” MISER Visions Page 2 December 2003 Efficiency through Automation To maximize the efficiency of their new in-house operations, Oswego chose to leverage Aurum’s advanced automation tools. “Our evaluation process revealed that we could mitigate expenses through automation,” Percy said. “We are truly a 24-hour bank.” At 6 p.m. on any given business day, the Oswego IT department goes home. The system signs itself off, runs nightly processing and even brings itself back online. Percy also reports that operationally the bank only had to add half a staff person, thanks to automation. Best of Both Worlds Oswego does outsource operational support to Aurum, which eliminates the need for programmers and other technical staff. “If there’s a problem, I can call Aurum and they have access to dial into the system and make the necessary adjustments to resolve an issue,” Percy says. “I think that kind of reliable support is key to a bank our size. We get the best of both worlds – the control and convenience of an in-house solution, coupled with the depth and breadth of technical expertise for operational support.” Percy says the move to an in-house MISER solution was the right one for Oswego County National Bank. “We absolutely made the right decision,” she said. “We’re extremely happy with being in-house and outsourcing our operational support to Aurum. We can now meet our customers’ needs by running what we want, when we want.” ### MISER Visions Page 3 December 2003