Partnership is more than a kind word — it’s an investment that breathes life into strategic initiatives. That’s the experience of HarborOne Credit Union, a $1 billion institution in Brockton, Massachusetts, and COCC, a member-owned technology outsourcer for community financial institutions. Since HarborOne converted to COCC in 1994, the credit union has grown from $427 million in assets to $1 billion at the close of 2002.

“COCC has been a significant factor in our growth,” said James Blake, President and CEO, HarborOne Credit Union. “Whenever we have established a strategic direction, COCC works with us to make it a reality, either through strong support or development of new capabilities. Over the years, COCC’s outstanding partnership has helped us realize our strategic initiatives.”

HarborOne’s growth initiatives have included new loan products, streamlined operations, and a strong electronic banking presence. The new loan products have increased market share, the operational aids have reduced back room expense, and the electronic banking presence has strengthened member relationships with the credit union.

Richard Bastiansen, HarborOne’s Senior Vice President - Operations, cites a balance transfer equity product plus indirect auto lending as keys to the credit union’s growth. “We were the first institution in our area to offer balance transfer equity lines of credit,” says Bastiansen. “Our goal was to build a portfolio of variable rate products by acquiring equity loans with transferred balances. We did that with COCC.”

HarborOne also expanded its auto loan volume by integrating a fax server with an electronic loan application. “That allows the car dealers to fax us their hand-written applications,” says Bastiansen, “then we display the application and the electronic form simultaneously for easy data entry. Once the data’s in place, we run the application through the system and fax back a response. We serve 100 area car dealers this way.”

In the back room, HarborOne and COCC co-developed tools to handle deposits from Select Employee Groups (SEGs) and processing of mail payments/deposits. “To handle the mail we streamlined the process by storing the previous transaction and checking the new one against it,” he explained. “Today, our staff can process up to 160 payments per hour using 3 keystrokes and 3 mouse clicks per transaction. It’s like a lockbox operation without the expensive MICR and OCR equipment.”

Additional back room help comes from COCC’s Internet Security services. HarborOne relies on COCC to provide its firewalls, and to monitor Internet traffic for viruses and other “exploits.” As a convenient service and communications channel, the Internet can also present security risks to a financial institution. Bastiansen cites COCC’s regular tests for “vulnerabilities” and monthly reports of all Internet activity as a big factor in containing those risks.

“Internet security is an expertise that we simply don’t have in-house,” Bastiansen explained. “Yet it’s necessary when serving today’s Internet-enabled applications and documenting our security measures to the examiners. I don’t know how in-house credit unions get it done as efficiently and cost effectively as we do.”

This fall, HarborOne will be migrating to the INSIGHT relational core system, a private labeled version of Open Solutions’ core system run by COCC in an outsourced environment. The institution is preparing for its migration by “scrubbing” the members’ name and address information to eliminate inconsistencies in the database so that accounts can be combined into highly detailed member profiles. The profile provides important information so that staff can truly understand the member’s needs to better orchestrate service and product offerings, further deepening the member relationship.

“INSIGHT presents new ways to work with members,” said Bastiansen, who added the credit union has been very impressed with COCC’s level of support and willingness to customize key features. “We had modified our previous teller system extensively to help our tellers keep track of customer transaction sessions. Working with COCC, we will be able to enhance these capabilities in INSIGHT plus tailor product features and back room processes to meet our strategic needs.”

Bastiansen added that managing many vendors is an issue for most credit unions. “Our relationship with COCC allows us to manage a significant portion of our IT and operational needs with one vendor in one location.”

James Blake
President and CEO
HarborOne Credit Union