With $5.1 billion in assets, Star One is the largest credit union based in Silicon Valley and its services reach more than 84,000 members worldwide. The credit union ranks as the 10th largest credit union in the United States in terms of assets. Star One's membership consists of employees and residents of Santa Clara County in California.

Star One's main focus is excellent member service and the credit union sought a way to improve member experience by streamlining its account opening process at its branches, which lasted up to an hour. Additionally, Star One wanted to ensure that this process could be applied to all delivery channels, including online and in the back office mail processing, creating more efficiency and consistency for all new and existing members opening new accounts.

Star One Credit Union selected uMonitor’s flagship solution, uOpen & uFund^® with switch kit. uOpen & uFund^® is an account opening solution that streamlines the member on boarding process, creates a unified experience across all delivery channels - online, back office and in branch - and offers 24/7 access to the credit union's checking, money market savings, and CD products. It allows user to add many services like online banking, check ordering and other as well offers diverse funding options. Star One also deployed uTransfer^®, an account-to-account funds transfer solution to strengthen its online offerings for the members, allowing members to move money to and from their accounts at the credit union to and from account anywhere, at any time.

Star One has partnered with uMonitor since 2006, leveraging the online channel for members. With added streamlined account opening and funding process in the branch, Star One's staff is able to complete new membership applications and related compliance checks in real time and set up deposit accounts, fund them, and sign up members for additional services, such as online banking, overdraft coverage, e-statement, order checks and ATM/debit cards. Members are also presented with pre-approved offers, including credit cards and auto loans, using the credit union's decisioning logic. uOpen & uFund^® is fully integrated with Star One's core system platform XP2, from XP Systems - a business unit of Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV), eliminating data entry errors and duplication of work.

"We decided to expand our relationship with uMonitor to offer uOpen & uFund^® in the branch because we have been very satisfied with our online account opening service, especially the ability to interface with our core system and all other third party platforms," Lynn Brubaker, vice president of deposit services, explained. "We looked at a number of solutions before selecting uOpen & uFund^®, but ultimately the full integration, flexibility and the high degree of potential future customization were the reasons why we partnered with uMonitor. We are glad we made the right choice for our environment."

Star One also uses uOpen & uFund^® on its Web site and the member service representatives use it when working with members. The credit union rolled the solution out to all of its branches and the back office with the goal of streamlining the new accounts opening process in the branches and back office. Prior to implementation, members spent up to an hour opening an account in a branch. With uOpen & uFund^®, this time has been reduced to 25 minutes.

"We averaged about 500 new relationships per month in 2009, 80 percent are opened at a branch and 20 percent are opened in the back office," Brubaker said. "The fact that uOpen & uFund^® has reduced the time that it takes to complete 80 percent of these account opening applications is a tremendous advantage resulting in savings and better experience for our members. The other benefit for our members is the convenience that the online channel offers. Whether they are at home or in the office, they can browse our Web site to see what the credit union provides and go through the entire account opening process in realtime. They also use the uTransfer^® service on an ongoing basis to move their money from external financial institutions to our credit union."

In addition to improving the member experience, uOpen & uFund^® has also helped Star One streamline its compliance procedures. Brubaker notes, "All of the compliance runs in the background, so the Patriot Act, OFAC, Bank Secrecy Act, ID verification and red flag issues are all addressed with every application. Any problems are reviewed in the back office so that we can act on whatever actions need to be taken on the account. Before there was a lot of redundant processing because the data was entered in to three different applications. Now, it's all in one spot."

Star One has also rolled out uMonitor's account-to-account money transfer service, uTransfer^®. The credit union members can move money online in a highly secure environment. Since uTransfer^® was introduced in mid-2009, approximately 4,300 members have enrolled in the service, averaging 400 new members per month.

"We have developed a great partnership with uMonitor," Brubaker said. "The uMonitor team really listens to us and they are very receptive to new ideas to enhance the platform and support customization, which is very beneficial because every credit union does things differently. This approach has allowed us to implement solutions that best address the needs of our credit union and our members."