Based in Vidalia, Ga., Darby Bank and Trust Co. serves customers in Toombs County, Chatham County and the surrounding areas. Its offerings to customers and businesses include online banking, checking, savings and retirement accounts, mortgage loans and cash management services.

In 2008, Darby Bank determined that increasing core deposits was going to be a key strategic initiative to facilitate growth, and to accomplish this goal, the management team turned to the online channel for its untapped potential. It sought to implement an online account opening and funding solution that could be fully integrated with its core processor, Open Solutions, Inc., and easily configured and customized to best meet the evolving needs of the bank.

After considering several vendors, Darby Bank selected uMonitor's, uOpen & uFund^® with switch kit. uOpen & uFund^® is an online account opening solution that streamlines the account opening and funding process, creates a unified experience across all channels - online, call center and in branch - and offers 24/7 access to the bank’s checking, savings, money market and CD products and related services. uMonitor's long term partnership with Open Solutions, testimonials from other customers and the level of flexibility that the solution offered were key factors in the final decision.

"We were introduced to uMonitor during a user conference hosted by our core processor, and we have had an exceptional relationship with them since the very beginning of the sales process," John Tyson, SVP and COO at Darby Bank and Trust, explained. "Since that time, everyone at uMonitor from the sales staff to the management and support team has been very responsive to our needs."

After closely working with uMonitor team to deploy desired configuration while implementing uOpen & uFund^® during the first quarter of 2009, Darby Bank began a marketing campaign offering three percent interest rates for new accounts to customers in any state across the country. The promotion quickly spread via the Internet and newspapers. The bank opened a call center to support the new online account opening requests via phone and email, and the staff was immediately inundated by hundreds of applications. Within 30 days, Darby Bank opened approximately 1,800 new deposit accounts and the promotion was soon restricted to only Georgia residents.

"We prepared for an increase in applications, but with the overwhelming interest in such a short amount of time we came to rely heavily on uMonitor and its team to quickly address changes and questions, " Tyson continued. "The uMonitor staff treated us like we were their only client and uOpen & uFund^® performed smoothly throughout the entire process. In the end, our new customers deposited more than $100 million."

To retain these customers after the initial interest rate returned to a non-promotional level, and to also ensure that they felt like they had made a solid banking decision, Darby Bank worked closely with uMonitor to introduce an online CD product to reinvest those funds. uMonitor created an interface with the core system that enabled customers to transfer the deposits from a new online account to this new savings product. Since that time, customers have taken advantage of the new product, enabling Darby Bank to achieve its goal of changing the mix of its balance sheet. All of this was implemented, supported and maintained with uOpen & uFund^®.

After achieving such success through its expansion to the online channel, Darby Bank is poised to deepen its relationship with uMonitor and launch uTransfer^®, an account-to-account and person to person money transfer service. This will allow the banks' customers to move money online in a highly secure environment.

"uMonitor has been very proactive in suggesting upgrades and other process improvements, Tyson added. "We plan to use 2010 to take a step back and look at some of the other value-adds that uMonitor offers. One of those investments will be uTransfer."