Client Success Stories

Visions of Today and Tomorrow
A Conversation with Wayne Dunn, SVP & CTO for HarborOne Credit Union

COCC recently discussed business and technology trends with Wayne Dunn, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for HarborOne Credit Union in Brockton, Mass. Wayne has championed the use of technology to develop competitive advantages, helping HarborOne raise its assets by $300 million without increasing head count. He continues to push for innovation tied closely to the credit union’s business objectives.

COCC: What are your most recent technology initiatives and how have they improved HarborOne’s efficiency and effectiveness?

Wayne Dunn: We implemented several technologies to help us refocus our Managers, assistant Managers, and Customer Service Representatives away from data entry and toward selling. We are using the features of COCC’s core processing, document management, and eSign systems to cut the time needed to open new accounts from 15 minutes under previous versions of Insight to approximately 7 minutes. The time savings has given our staff more opportunities to promote key products, such as instant issue debit cards and online and mobile banking.

In addition to providing new sales opportunities, our technology improvements have enhanced our ‘Know Your Customer’ processes. The integration of systems means that documents and supporting information are immediately accessible to all our branches as soon as the customer signs them. That alone represents a significant time savings over searching different systems to access customer documents. It also assists in improving our regulatory compliance.


COCC: Account opening involves a lot more people than Customer Service Representatives. How did you bring everyone together and make it all work?

Wayne Dunn: We gathered all the stakeholders, presented the technologies we were considering, and worked together to redesign our workflow. It was a great opportunity to stimulate innovation and incorporate best practices. The secret to our success was promoting ownership and a dogged insistence on reviewing and refining the solution until it was right. We would tell any institution considering this process that the first workflow design will definitely not be your last!


COCC: You are also making significant changes to your call center. How is that going?

Wayne Dunn: We recently went live with our Aspect Unified IP platform – that enables us to create a Call Center 2.0 experience for our Customers. Using Aspect, our call center agents can reach out to experts throughout our organization and bring them into conversations with our Customers. These features are all geared toward giving people the answers they need as soon as they ask their questions. That helps us maintain the HarborOne reputation for great Customer service.


COCC: Business intelligence is a long term focus for HarborOne. Can you elaborate on your approach?

Wayne Dunn: Many Business Intelligence platforms are designed to be used by a small number of individuals within an organization. Those individuals must be specially trained in the use of these platforms. We made a conscious decision to implement a platform that reached across the breadth and depth of the organization. We implemented our platform utilizing Microsoft SharePoint and its integrated Business Intelligence components, with the goal of providing access throughout the entire organization. We call it “BI to the masses”, and it is really helping us to identify positive and negative trends allowing managers at all levels to make appropriate adjustments quickly and efficiently.


COCC: What does your next round of initiatives look like?

Wayne Dunn: We are working with our Retail and Operations divisions to develop a blueprint to in-branch service that will enable us to serve the Customer anywhere in the branch. It’s an acknowledgement that the branch is no longer just a place to do deposits and withdrawals. In other words, it’s not your father's branch any more. It's a service center for all types of interactions. Technology will soon enable us to start serving Customers without waiting for the next available teller. A Customer Service Representative can approach the Customer wherever he is in the lobby, identify his needs, and fulfill them on the spot.

We are also looking at ways to continue a Customer’s web or mobile interaction in the branch. Our goal is to have our live staff already briefed on the Customer’s needs when he enters the branch. This is particularly attractive to Millennials who prefer to conduct their banking electronically, and only if necessary, transfer their electronic sessions to the branch. When the Customer Service Representative knows what the Customer want when he walks into the branch, that’s a home run.