Launching Ultracs App 2 and phasing out their end-of-life Cuscal App
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Community First Bank has been in operation for more than 60 years, and has over 1 billion dollars in assets. Community First strives to offer members something different and truly puts members first in the delivery of products and services which help them achieve their personal financial goals.
Their neobank Easy Street brand was launched in 2004, with the neobank project having the ability to upgrade both brands at the one time, and provide a larger variety of digital banking self-service products that would offer more flexibility to their membership base.
Leveraging off the operational cost-savings, both brands offer competitive loans and savings products, with Easy Street earning five Canstar awards for 2023 in the category of competitive home loan rates.1
With strength in the supplier relationship, Ultradata is helping Community First Bank hit their project milestones and uses a manageable step-by-step approach to delivering the desired impact and results.
In June 2022, following the launch of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited’s ‘Hiver’, Easy Street became the second bank to use Ultradata’s neobanking software aimed at appealing to new target markets and younger customers, who increasingly expect mobile first approaches.
Recently on the 3rd of February after a 2-year partner collaboration, Community First Bank further launched a new internet banking platform using Ultradata’s My Viewpoint 3 software.
This step represents the successful completion of the third-phase in a four-phase project, that has also seen the bank upgrade their core banking system, launch an upgraded version of their current mobile App, and prepare for the forthcoming release of a new App and more internet banking features such as digital cards, automated customer onboarding journeys, and personal finance management tools.
Community First Bank’s digital banking upgrade began in earnest in May 2021 after signing off on Ultradata’s neobank software solutions package that served as the ideal solution for a streamed plan of work in the upgrade of Easy Street.
Community First Bank were keen to ensure that their existing members would also benefit from the new developments, and to ensure parity between the two brands, Ultradata suggested a four-phase approach to simultaneously roll out the products across both brands.
Each project phase was aimed at assuring that Community First Bank met objectives that were realistic and manageable, and not overwhelming the project teams or the organisations’ ability to scale up.
An Ultracs core banking system upgrade was the necessary and logical first step to make the functionality of the App and internet banking self-service components work effectively.
Community First Bank set the foundation for their digital strategy when on the 24th of November 2019 saw an upgrade to the latest release of the Ultracs core banking system release 5.1.
With Cuscal advising that their banking App was to reach ‘end of life’ by the end of June 2022, the next priority for the bank was driven by necessity making the upgrade to Ultracs App 2 a priority before the cut-off date.
With this fast tracked as top priority for the three-partner group, Community First Bank and Easy Street went live with Ultracs App 2 on the 15th of June 2022 with the upgrade offering a big leap forward in functionality with greater benefits to both customers and the organisation in using the latest in technology i.e. more self-service features for customer convenience, easier navigation, enhanced graphics, and intuitive interactions.
The Ultracs App 2 upgrade also bolstered the cyber security capacity for both brands.
Community First Bank were keen to add new cyber security benchmarks and practices for their members, and with the introduction of in-App secure messaging, one-time password authentication, strong password criteria, biometric login options, self-serve password reset, and secure card PIN change features – as a result of the migration upgrade were in a position to achieve this.
With a new App in place, phase-three of the digital banking transformation commenced, and after several months of collaboration and thorough quality assurance testing, the new Internet banking platform went live in early February this year.
Community First Bank were able to achieve a consistent design across both the App and Internet banking platforms, and apply each brand’s unique ID, look and feel across all the digital banking platforms leveraging off Ultradata’s digital design talent.
This year they will continue to focus on the final stages of their digital transformation and continue adding value to the UX.
Community First Bank’s digital banking strategy execution has enabled both brands to offer greater security and convenience for members such as personal finance management, and provide the ability to scale up to capture new emerging economies and consumer trends.
“Having a strong relationship with Ultradata helped us achieve a path to success for our business objectives.
The approach we took meant we were able to roll out not just one, but two major digital banking upgrades, for both our brands so we can grow Easy Street, while also delivering further on our commitment to Community First Bank members to provide products and services that help them achieve their personal finance goals.
Our new mobile App and internet banking platforms offer heightened security and more functionality for customers to self-serve their banking needs. Put simply, they are smarter and our members have noticed as their response has been very positive!
We have now reached the end goal of our digital strategy. Our digital platforms have positioned us to provide consumer-driven products faster and provide the brand new technology that banking customers want, such as digital cards and much more.”
