ATMs

CU to Launch GPS-based ATM Locator Aug. 1

CommunityAmerica CU has teamed with global positioning system manufacturer Garmin and ATM network CO-OP Financial Services to help members find a surcharge-free ATM wherever they are. In six months, the offering may be available to all CUs in the CO-OP network. The PowerPoint linked from this article shows just how easy this is for members to set up and use.

By Lisa Hochgraf

July 18, 2007

Author's note: Thanks to Steve Williams, principal, Cornerstone Advisors Inc., for connecting me with Guy Russo about this upcoming launch.

CommunityAmerica Credit Union has 20 ATMs in the Kansas City area. But because of the CU's membership in the CO-OP Financial Services network, members of the $1.5 billion credit union can also use the 25,000 surcharge-free ATMs located across North America. In theory, at least. Finding a surcharge-free ATM in that "pain moment" of "need cash now" has historically been a real stumbling block.

"When people go out of town or even the other side of the city, they aren't always aware of where our CommunityAmerica ATMs are let alone the 92 other CO-OP ATMs that are typically located inside retail establishments or other credit unions in the Kansas City area," says CUES member Guy Russo, CSE, CommunityAmerica CU's chief information officer. "If I'm in the situation where I need cash on the spot I may just  stop at Bank X, not realizing that right across the street is a free ATM. That's anywhere from two to five dollars I could have saved on that ATM transaction."

Russo and the credit union's information services division announced at the CU's recent annual meeting the first phase of its plan to help members with this problem. Starting Aug. 1, the CU will give members the ability to easily add a list of surcharge-free ATMs to GPS devices from market leader Garmin, which, like CommunityAmerica CU, is based in Kansas City. See how easy this will be for members, and get a feel for the look of the interface, in this PowerPoint presentation.

"We're sitting here with 20 ATMs and we're trying to say we're more accessible than just 20" because of our membership in the CO-OP ATM network, Russo says.  "Before this new service, the only way you would know that is by going out on our Web site and using our ATM location finder to get a listing of all the surcharge free ATMs. That takes a lot of pre-planning. Most people don't think that far in advance."

The seeds of this GPS-based ATM locator service were planted five years ago when CommunityAmerica CU was trying to find ways of marketing its relevance to the greater Kansas City area. More serious discussions began a year ago, however, when Russo brought representatives from Garmin and CUES Financial Suppliers Forum member CO-OP Financial Services to the table to show them how marrying the content and delivery capabilities of both organizations solved a big problem for CommunityAmerica CU and the credit union industry as a whole. Director of Program Services Jay Neathery then worked closely with CommunityAmerica CU VP/Marketing Services Jean Hughes, CCUE, a CUES member, to reformat the ATM content from CO-OP into the Garmin GPS devices and to deliver the service in a member-friendly fashion.

Future plans include making the reformatted GPS file available to all members of the CO-OP ATM network. Russo expects an enhanced version to be available for general use in about six months. He's also keeping a watchful eye on potential cell phone applications of this idea.

Spreading the word about free ATM access to members whose CUs belong to any of the surcharge-free ATM networks "has been a perpetual problem for credit unions as a whole," Russo notes. "Anything that CommunityAmerica can do to help the credit union industry become even more attractive and competitive with our banking brothers is a win for our industry."

'Coordination More than 'Development'

Many times IS initiatives involve a lot of  "programming and system design." In this case, however, CommunityAmerica has served much more the role of the middleman. First the CU's IS group had an understanding of the capabilities of both CO-OP and Garmin to provide and use the data. Then it developed a mechanism to make it easy for CommunityAmerica CU's members to put the two together.

"We said, 'CO-OP you have all this information,' and 'Garmin, you have a way to distribute it,'" Russo says.  

Neathery manipulated the file of infomation from CO-OP Financial Services with the latitude and longitude of all the network's ATM locations to work well in Garmin GPS devices.

Garmin, a GPS market leader, provided the credit union with several GPS units and Neathery downloaded the early versions of the ATM locator onto them so employees could try them out all over the city and around the country.

"This was kind of a 'skunk works' project" done in part to see where the innovation would take things, Russo says. "We wanted to show proof of concept."

Using the current version of the offering, CommunityAmerica CU's on-line banking members will be able to personalize their GPS units by downloading the list of CO-OP ATMs from the CU's home banking site. CommunityAmerica has branded this as members' ATM Seeker capability. Members also have the option to bring their Garmin GPS unit(s) into a branch and get their units loaded up with the information.

Once the information is in place, the member chooses "CO-OP ATMs" from the GPS' list of custom "points of interest." The device will display the surcharge-free ATMs closest to the member's actual location, as tracked by the GPS. (Again, see how this looks in this PowerPoint presentation.)

The credit union receives an updated list from CO-OP twice a week to ensure that members will be able to use the most recent list of ATMs in the network. Russo estimates, however, that the average member will really only want  to update the GPS data files on a less frequent basis like monthly or annually or before a trip.

Member Friendly Rollout

CommunityAmerica CU's IS team also worked with marketing and the CU's ad agency to deliver a member-friendly product in a member-friendly fashion.

"We had to play with the files," Russo says. "You can change the way the system displays in the GPS units."

Staff who used the units provided by Garmin gave feedback about what was working and what wasn't. The CU will continue to tweak the service until rollout, Russo says, so members have the best possible experience with what he calls a "whole new channel"—banking from their cars.

Russo also worked with marketing to announce the new offering at the CU's June 15 annual meeting. The meeting was held at CommunityAmerica Park, to which the CU owns naming rights. About 5,300 members RSVPed that they planned to attend the event, designed with a carnival feel, including hot dogs, cokes and games in addition to the formal meeting. Russo estimates that about 10 percent of those in attendance stopped by to talk about the GPS-based ATM locator and be among the first to get an SD card to plug into their devices and upload the ATM information.

Russo says CommunityAmerica CU was a little surprised at the high percentage of members interested in checking out the device at the meeting. The CU also learned that two key demographics were interested in the device—younger households and retired households.

"Each was interested for different reasons—the young realize what a time saver it is and the retired often have GPS units because they travel so much," he says.

CommunityAmerica CU is working on an arrangement with Garmin to help members acquire a GPS. "However, as a CU, we do not want to get into the retail sales business," Russo says. "Thus, we are trying to work out a relationship with Garmin so that we can point our members to a specific site where they can buy a device. If we sell the units directly to our members, we would have to also support the hardware. We are willing to support the file interface, but becoming a technical support desk for Garmin would be overwhelming. These are some of the issues we are trying to work out over the next few months."

"Garmin already makes a unit that enables Windows mobile and other smart phones to act as GPS devices," he says. "Our ATM file downloads will work with these units as well. Can you imagine walking around a large city and all you have to do is check your cell phone for the nearest surcharge free ATM?! "

The Garmin Mobile 10™ units sell for about $200 and use Bluetooth technology to communicate with a cell phone. The interface on the cell phone looks a lot like the one on the GPS devices (see PowerPoint presentation). "When Apple enables the iPhone to run third-party applications, Garmin and CommunityAmerica will be on that platform as well," Russo adds.

In all, Russo thinks the new service will help CommunityAmerica CU compete in the marketplace where some national banks have branches on every corner, and really live out the credit union's motto, "We Start Where Banking Stops.™"

"When I am in the car and I need cash, I don't have time to power up the laptop" to use a Web-based ATM locator, Russo says. "I need cash now."

Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor.