Desco Federal CU Selects cocc for technology partnership

AVON, Conn., September 12, 2007 – COCC, the region’s leading provider of next generation technology services for financial institutions, today announced that Desco Federal Credit Union of Portsmouth, Ohio has selected the company for a long term technology partnership. Desco will replace its in-house system with COCC’s outsourced technology solutions for greater efficiency, flexibility, and expanded member services.

“COCC will reverse our credit union’s relationship with technology,” said Lee Powell, President and CEO, Desco Federal Credit Union. “Instead of working for the technology, the technology will be working for us. This new relationship will free more of our staff to serve our members.” 

The $200MM community credit union with 25,000 members in three states first opened its doors in 1963 with a charter to serve Portsmouth-based employees of the Detroit Steel Company. By the time the steel company left town in 1979, Desco had converted to a community charter, accumulated $3MM in assets, and employed three people including Mr. Powell’s father as manager.

“Dad’s philosophy was: pay the highest savings rates, collect the lowest loan rates, and keep costs down,” said Mr. Powell. “That philosophy kept us self-reliant for many years. When we started to expand into other communities, our employees built the branches. We developed our own computer system, too, which worked quite well until the service and regulatory demands got to be too great.”

Desco’s Vice President – Data Processing, Danette Tackett, explained that the credit union would work through its annual list of regulatory changes only to find the rules had changed and there was more to do. “It became a real issue for our technical staff,” said Ms. Tackett. “Our choice was to hire more technicians or outsource to a company that had already developed the solutions we needed. That company was COCC.”

Ms. Tackett explained that COCC’s next generation technology will shorten Desco’s time to market because, “we will be activating features that COCC has already rather than developing those features from the ground up. The result will be streamlined operations and products that our members really want.”

Another plus for COCC was the similarity of its philosophy with the credit union’s — the clients come first and profits are invested in service. “COCC’s mutual ownership is right in line with the credit union concept,” said Mr. Powell. “We have always employed staff who believe they’re in business to serve the members. COCC operates the same way.”

News of the system conversion has been very well received by Desco’s staff who are anxious to implement new service ideas. Mr. Powell also sees the technology conversion as a perfect opportunity to look at everything the credit union does with an eye toward increasing efficiency.

“COCC welcomes Desco Federal Credit Union’s high expectations for service,” said Marco Bernasconi, COCC’s Vice President – Customer Service. “Doing business in a region where everybody knows everybody, Desco understands that people make the difference. We are pleased that Desco saw the difference in COCC’s people and has entrusted their data processing to us.”