Xtend

CUSO Expanding Staff to Meet Client Demand

Tony Muka — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:55:02 +0000

Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, has announced to its owning credit unions that it would invest in additional staffing over the next six months to meet increased demand for its products and services. The announcement was made following the CUSO’s April 26^th Board Meeting. Xtend President Scott Collins commented, “Our CUSO is very much a manage-by-the-numbers business, and we consider ourselves very fortunate that those numbers are telling us it is prudent to invest in additional team members during the upcoming business cycle. We have seen solid increases in demand for our shared resources services across the board during the first half of our fiscal year, and we expect that trend continue into our 2013 fiscal year (October). More demand means more people on our end to execute, as well as continued investment in the development of our existing team and in new productivity tools. I am confident we will keep our HR team hopping over the next several quarters.” Xtend currently employs a team of thirty-six (36) credit union professionals, but expects that to exceed forty by the end of the year. “As CEO of credit union-owned business and one that calls Michigan home, I hope that our continued success is a harbinger for the future in both Michigan and the industry we serve,” Collins concluded.

CUSO To Roll Out New Settlement Service

Tony Muka — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:51:33 +0000

Based on feedback from clients, Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, announced that it planned to deploy a monthly settlement service later this year for the credit unions participating in its shared branching network. This optional service would provide a monthly electronic settlement between credit unions based on member activity during the previous month. Scott Collins, Xtend President, outlined the design of the proposed service during a recent meeting of the network’s Shared Branching Advisory Council. Following the meeting, Collins said “The network has gotten to the size where the process of settling between the individual institutions can be very time consuming, especially for those who have a small staff but whose members use dozens of partners in the network on a monthly basis. Our goal was to engage our software partners at CU*Answers, Inc. to enhance the core tools that drive the network so that my team could execute at no-brainer pricing. And since the focus group was overwhelmingly positive, we will work toward a solution launch later this year that meets both of those goals.” The Xtend Shared Branching Network is a self-managed consortium that currently consists of 91 credit unions with 216 locations across 12 states. Its underlying technology is the CU*BASE core data processing platform from CU*Answers, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based cooperative CUSO partner of Xtend.

Call Center Wraps Up Biggest Month Ever

Tony Muka — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:48:45 +0000

Over the past month, Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, handled the largest number of call center transactions in its history. Transactions included inbound member service calls, outbound business-to-business calls, outbound member calls, calls to its lending hotline and web chats. According to CUSO President Scott Collins, the activity level was “expected but also a pleasant surprise.” Collins continued, “Over the last few months, we got the go ahead for several major inbound and outbound projects, so we knew it was going to be all hands on deck for our call center going into spring. But since two of the major projects called for our team to provide inbound member support during data processing conversions, we had to rely on our past experience to set an expectation for inbound volume. Although we underestimated a couple of the days during the month, the team was quick to react, and at the end of the day I think they did a stellar job of providing the high level of member service we pride ourselves on.” During the 30-day period, the CUSO’s Xtension Contact Center handled more than 25,000 calls and web chats. Included in that volume were more than 700 leads that were passed to credit union and CUSO partners based on conversations with members and/or clients.

Continued Quarterly Growth for Michigan CUSO

Tony Muka — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:47:31 +0000

Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, announced that sales through the 2^nd fiscal quarter that ended March 31^st were more than 5% ahead of budget. Moreover, total sales reflected an 11% growth over strong second quarter numbers a year ago. In his quarterly newsletter to stockholders, Xtend President Scott Collins wrote, “Thankfully, the business climate has been just as predictable as the Michigan weather (I hope you can detect a bit of sarcasm in my tone). We certainly count our blessings that our 2nd fiscal quarter finds us on the positive side of an unpredictable marketplace. In fact, the results highlighted throughout this report not only put an exclamation point on our first half of the year, they also represent a solid foundation for the balance of 2012.” The CUSO reported that year-on-year sales growth was led by its SRS Bookkeeping (+19%), Xtension Call Center (+12.6%), Member Reach (+12%), Audit Link (+10.8%) and Mortgage Servicing (+1.8%) brands. Collins continued, “As can be expected, we finished the first half over budget on the expense side of the ledger based on the investments we made to support the increase in demand across the board. But when all was said and done, our net income was ahead of plan by nearly 84%. That puts us in a great position for additional investment during the balance of the year.”

Southern California CU Take Collaboration to the Next Step

Tony Muka — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:35:07 +0000

Last week, three multi-owned cooperative CUSOs – Michigan-based Xtend, Inc., Washington-based CU*Northwest, Inc. and Michigan-based CU*Answers, Inc. – helped facilitate a strategic planning session with a group of southern California clients and prospects. The event, which was organized to help foster intra-network collaboration using both credit union and CUSO resources, was hosted by South Bay Credit Union at their Redondo Beach, California headquarters. Scott Collins, Xtend President commented, “I have had the pleasure of participating in several similar meetings in this past year, and I left this meeting with the feeling that this group is truly vested in each other’s success. Even though our CUSO provides shared human resources to every partner in the room, the goal going into the meeting was to inspire them to provide these same services for each other in order to fully leverage the collective skill sets that existed within the credit unions. Not only would that foster best practices and a built-in business resiliency, it would also allow them to deploy services quicker and at a reduced cost.” Collins believes that this new solution will be a catalyst for resource sharing in the region. “These credit unions already share a network that includes data processing and a slew of front and back office services,” says Collins. “Our three CUSOs brought the templates and tools to the table that have been successful at a national level. It will be exciting to watch this regionally-focused peer group put them to work in their local marketplace.”

Call Center Hours Expand to Meet Growth Demands

Tony Muka — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:34:41 +0000

Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned CUSO, recently announced that it was increasing hours of operation to meet the demand for Xtension Call Center agents to handle inbound member service for its credit union clients. The CUSO indicated that effective immediately, Saturday call center hours are now 8:00am – 5:00pm ET. In making the announcement, Xtend President Scott Collins indicated that the expansion of hours “was needed in order to meet both a growing client base and those clients looking to offer expanded hours of service to their members.” Collins said, “We see this as another positive step in the evolution of our Xtension Call Center. Since we support partners in four time zones, we knew it was only a matter of time before we would need to expand to meet the growing needs of our credit unions and CUSOs. Member service is not an 8 to 5 proposition and there is still demand for the human component over and above the great electronic tools our clients have implemented. Our team is excited for this additional opportunity to serve members.” In conclusion, Collins noted, “In an increasing number of credit unions, our call center is a trusted extension of their staff and an effective, low-cost channel to meet the needs of members on members’ terms. We will continue to invest alongside these partners as more write us into their business plans.” Xtend’s call center currently supports clients in fourteen (14) states and the District of Columbia.

CUSOs Roll Out New Delivery Channel

Tony Muka — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:44:16 +0000

Two Grand Rapids, Michigan-based CUSOs – Xtend, Inc. and CU*Answers, Inc. – have jointly released a new solution to help drive loan activity for their collective credit union clients. By combining the CU*Answers Retailer Direct loan origination tool with Xtend’s call center resources the CUSOs have created a seamless solution to help increase the number of loan leads that get delivered to the credit unions’ lending pipeline.

“When our Xtension Call center needed a streamlined solution to get loan leads into our clients’ lending factories, we reached out to our partners at CU*Answers,” said Xtend President Scott Collins. “Although we were familiar with Retailer Direct as a front-end solution for non-traditional indirect partners like landscaping companies and furniture stores, it wasn’t until the two teams sat down to design a more effective way for my agents to deliver loan leads to our clients that we connected the dots. From the time that their Web Services and Lender*VP teams first suggested a Retailer Direct backbone to our first proof-of-concept was only a few weeks. The tool is easy to use and can be easily tailored based on the level of service our agents provide. We could not be happier about how CU*Answers stepped up to the plate to make this a reality for us.”

Collins believes that this new solution will be a catalyst for more credit unions to utilize the Xtension Call Center as both an outbound and inbound partner. He continues, “Our number one goal is to help drive more lending activity for our credit unions, and do so at a price point that is hard to ignore. We are confident this new tool will help us do both.”

Xtend Takes a Leap Forward

Tony Muka — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:36:07 +0000

In celebration of “Leap Day 2012”, Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, announced that it has taken another leap forward to support the growing client demand for its Xtension Call Center by rolling out a new front office lending service. The new service, which has been deployed as a proof-of-concept project with Pontiac, Michigan-based Affinity Group Credit Union, streamlines the process of moving loan leads into the credit union’s LOS pipeline when initiated by call center agents.

According to Xtend President Scott Collins, this new service helps “pave the way for a new, low-cost delivery channel for our credit union owners and partners, so it is appropriate we delivered our first lead to the CU on Leap Day.” Elaborating further, Collins notes, “As our call center grows, our mission is to look for additional ways to help our credit unions survive and thrive. Helping them get more loans into their pipeline is imperative, and doing so at an affordable price point is consistent with our disruptive pricing strategy. This latest solution does both of those things – it allows our agents to push leads into the lending queue quickly and effectively, which means we only need to charge a nominal fee. Our goal will be to get that fee to $0 over time.”

The underlying architecture leverages Retailer Direct, a widely-utilized loan origination platform developed by fellow CUSO CU*Answers, Inc.

Continued Quarterly Growth for Michigan CUSO

Tony Muka — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:27:21 +0000

Following the completion of its fiscal 1^st quarter on December 31^st, Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, announced that sales grew for the 25^th consecutive period. Moreover, sales numbers reflected a 16.4% growth over their strong first quarter numbers a year ago.

In his quarterly newsletter to stockholders, Xtend President Scott Collins wrote, “Like the Michigan weather we have been experiencing here in Grand Rapids, the first quarter of the year was far from normal—but in a positive way. The key words across the board are steady growth – for both revenue and the number of clients utilizing our services. We anticipated a fast start to the year, but we came out of the gate even faster than expected. That culminated with a very busy December for all of our business units, and set the stage for a strong 2nd quarter.”

The CUSO reported that sales growth was led by its Member Reach (+26%), Xtension Call Center (+24%), Mortgage Servicing (+20%), SRS Bookkeeping (+16%) and Audit Link (+2%) brands.

Collins also noted that over 150 credit unions now utilize Xtend products and services on a daily basis and that CUSO ownership has grown to sixty-five partners.

Michigan CUSO Enters 10th Year

Tony Muka — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:26:50 +0000

Xtend, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based multi-owned cooperative CUSO, recently entered its tenth year in business. The company, which was started by a group of twelve credit unions near the end of 2002, has experienced consistent growth throughout that ten-year period, and now serves more than 150 clients nationally.

While this is a significant milestone for the company, Xtend President Scott Collins says that it will be “business as usual” throughout the year. “Outside of a few small celebrations with our owners and staff as the year plays out, I do not foresee a whole lot of pomp and circumstance in preparation for our tenth anniversary in December,” he notes. “While I don’t mean to downplay our accomplishments that have gotten us to this point – we have been on a great run and ten years of consistent growth speaks volumes – there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done for our partners, especially those that are struggling to maintain a positive bottom line. The past nine years has positioned us to act as a catalyst for our credit union partners to drive much needed revenue, and that is where our resources will be focused.”

Collins continues, “But once we execute a successful business plan this year, I am sure that we will light a few candles.”