Event Detail

Feb. 8, 2006

To ensure top results, many technology developers solicit credit unions to beta test their solutions. During a month-or-so beta testing period, the credit union puts the product through its paces, weeding out any issues before launching it officially to members. It's a normal and reliable practice that benefits both the credit union and vendor and ultimately members.

The main challenge in this process is finding credit unions in a position to put a technology solution through its trial paces. The reality is that not every CU wants to be a beta tester for a new product. So knocking on doors and asking, "Will you test our new product for a month?" can be an obstacle toward a product's timely and successful launch.

Some technology vendors, however, don't have this solicitation challenge. The "parent" credit unions of credit union service organizations regularly beta test their CUSOs' new technology products. One of the more successful CUSO/credit union duos that does such beta testing is Wescom Resources Group and $3 billion Wescom Credit Union with 200,000 members, located in Pasadena, Calif.

"The working relationship between Wescom Credit Union and Wescom Resources Group is one that creates, tests, and delivers innovative and reliable products to the ultimate benefit of the members," says Rob Guilford, SVP/technology of Wescom CU. "The cooperation between the two organizations over the last few years really cultivates this philosophy and we feel that the process put in place has been extremely successful."

WRG and Wescom CU have been teamed together for a little over five years, leveraging each other's expertise to foster the development of innovative technology solutions that streamline in-house operations and empower members such as WRG's member-directed ACH product (which allows members to do inter-institution transfers through WRG's home banking platform) and our skip-a-pay module (which allows members to skip a loan payment on a qualified consumer loan through one click in WRG's home banking system).

So how exactly does the beta testing process work between a CUSO/credit union team like WRG and Wescom CU, say for getting to roll out an update to its eBranch offering?

According to Kevin Sarber, president of Wescom Resources Group, many WRG products are created and refined by business/process owners at Wescom CU. These selected owners contribute to the product's specifications and are very involved throughout the development process.

First, WRG documents user requirements, creates specifications, and completes the actual programming of the new product or enhancement. Next WRG unit tests the new functionality, and then the entire application to ensure it is working properly from end-to-end, with the new addition.

Once this process has been completed at WRG, the new or revised technology product is released to Wescom CU's beta platform. This platform is a live, fully functional application, meaning that it is on a separate server that can be accessed only from the internal Wescom CU intranet site.

More than 800 Wescom CU employees then use the application each day. When staff members log in from the credit union's intranet, they are notified of all the new features and functionality available. They are asked to try these new features out and, most importantly, provide feedback.

Depending on the change in scope of the new product or enhancement, WRG and Wescom CU have used employee incentive programs to promote feedback. For example, when WRG rolled out the re-design of its home banking platform in 2004, both the CUSO and the credit union awarded such prizes as movie passes and gift cards to staff reporting errors or registering their opinion of the new site which was key in achieving a successful rollout to the members.

"Through this process, we feel we can conduct a very thorough testing process, as well as get very strong opinions on the new features and functionality," Sarber says. "We typically keep the release in beta for about 30 days before releasing it to the production environment for member use. After that, we typically will run for 30 days in production at Wescom before rolling out to our WRG clients."

Guilford says Wescom CU members log in to eBranch more than a million times per month. Because the technology CUSO normally waits for 30 days to implement a product at a WRG client site, the product has had in essence over a million tests performed in addition to the previous tests by staff.

"Having the opportunity to have a product thoroughly tested in a beta atmosphere is a huge advantage for a technology vendor," Guilford adds. "It just makes the product much more reliable and attractive. It's a huge selling point for any vendor who has a testing process like this."

One of the latest features rolled out using this testing process is that check images are now available on eBranch for personal line of credit accounts. The "view image" link becomes available as soon as the transaction has posted.

An example of a feature not rolled out was a forced password change after a specified period of time. When the Wescom CU staff was exposed to this change in beta, they expressed a lot of concern about adding complexity to the member's access to home banking. Due to that input, the change didn't roll out and WRG took a different path.

"Utilizing this process has helped WRG, particularly with our Internet banking products, with reducing error rates in new releases," Sarber explains. "Before releasing to WRG clients and their members, the new release has been reviewed through our Q/A process, then through the Wescom staff beta, then live to Wescom CU members before it's ever released to a WRG client."

Overall, Sarber doesn't see this beta testing process as a huge money-saver. He believes it's more related to ensuring member satisfaction.

For WRG and Wescom CU, the beta-testing step is an ongoing process. WRG develops new releases and upgrades frequently, so it is usually one or two paces ahead of beta on a regular basis.

"There's no doubt that Wescom's presence and participation in WRG's product development is a huge asset for us," Sarber admits. "It's a luxury and an advantage to have a $3 billion beta tester just down the hall. But the best thing about it is that credit union members benefit greatly from this extra step."

Mike Lawson is principal of DML Communications. For more information on the beta testing process of technology solutions at WRG, e-mail Rob Guilford or Kevin Sarber, or call them at 877.995.9000.

The Beta Testing Process