Westmark Credit Union selects Symitar’s hosted core

By Edlyn Cardoza

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. is a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry. Its Symitar division recently announced that $1.02 billion-asset Westmark Credit Union will convert to Symitar in a private cloud environment.

Unable to easily add modern technology to its existing core, the Idaho-based credit union decided it was time to evaluate new core providers. They ultimately selected Symitar for its open and flexible infrastructure. Westmark liked how they could use the core as-is because of its extensive tools and functionality or have the option to tailor it further if they wanted to. The credit union will benefit from built-in workflows that help automate processes and reduce opportunities for errors and a proven application programming interface (APIs) that will empower them to interface with FinTechs of choice easily.

Don West, chief information officer at Westmark, said, “Symitar’s technology and team closely aligned with our culture and future direction. Symitar’s workflows and connectivity provide the opportunity to realize significant financial and efficiency gains. And most importantly, it gives us the optionality we need to integrate with the products and service providers of our choice. With Symitar, we can build the best technology plan for our unique business needs, fueling future growth and keeping a highly competitive pace with the accelerated speed of change in today’s market.”

Moving from managing its core in-house to a private cloud environment will enable the credit union to improve the member experience and deliver a higher level of service. Resources will enhance operations instead of managing day-to-day core maintenance and hardware updates. The hosted model will support its disaster avoidance, recovery, and business continuity efforts. This model allows for faster discovery times of events, leading to much quicker resolutions that have less impact on the members and better member satisfaction.

Shanon McLachlan, vice president of Jack Henry and president of Symitar, added, “Jack Henry has seen a significant movement from on-premise to the private cloud environment with approximately 30 existing customers a year making the move, and this isn’t limited to any asset size. While this shift continues to be a huge trend, so is the need to have a modern core that enables credit unions to provide their members with the options they need to succeed. Credit unions like Westmark are finding strategic value in cloud-based, flexible cores that enable them to better serve their members, trusting Symitar’s dedicated support and proven technology to alleviate the stress of daily maintenance and operations.”