Leveraging Data to Enhance the Customer Experience

Jim Marous (00:10):

Welcome to the FIsionaries Podcast, sponsored by Alkami. I'm your host, Jim Marous. The FIsionaries Podcast shines a light on the financial institutions at the cutting edge of digital transformation, providing with the tips and tricks that will elevate your digital game no matter what size your organization is.

Jim Marous (00:28):

On this episode of the FIsionaries Podcast, I'm at the Alkami Co:lab event in Grapevine, Texas. I'm joined by a team from Kennebec Savings Bank in Maine. They're going to provide a perspective on the process of building a modern digital platform pretty much from scratch, and the challenges and opportunities they've seen along the way.

Jim Marous (00:49):

We're also going to get a perspective on how AI may enhance the customer experience going forward and provide better ways for the customer to interact with the organization. Basically, when we talk about a work in progress.

Jim Marous (01:02):

So, you're a $1.6 billion, as I understand it, state charter community bank, part of a mutual organization operating in the state of Maine for about 153 years. So, things have changed a little bit, but certain things have obviously stayed the same.

Jim Marous (01:17):

You have about 200 employees, and you continue to get one of the highest ratings in banking for what is now 30 years, which is crazy, but that's how you keep that partnership organization to keep on grading. If they think you're good, we're going to keep on asking them how we're doing. So, before we dive into topics, can you talk a little bit about each of your backgrounds and what you do at Kennebec?

Zachary Nichols (01:40):

Sure. So, I started at Kennebec right out of school in an operations management training role. Spent two years learning all the facets of the bank. Then became a digital services manager in charge of sort of the digital branch before moving into a business innovation role. Where for the most part, it's primarily getting our business intelligence component of the bank, sort of up to snuff so that we can support business innovation initiatives going forward.

Jim Marous (02:09):

So, moving target isn't its act because it's one of these things that you moved through the ranks in your organization. You have the legacy organization as a knowledge base, but you're also having to move forward quickly and try to bring the organization with you. So, it's kind of a unique role.

Zachary Nichols (02:23):

Yeah, no, without a doubt.

Jim Marous (02:25):

So, Jess, how about you?

Jessica Norton (02:26):

I have been with Kennebec Savings Bank for 12 years, working on lucky number 13. I came to banking in general from an education background where I taught high school for seven years prior to banking. So, big career change for me.

Jessica Norton (02:40):

I've worked in the operations space. I'm currently vice president and banking systems officer. So, in that role I'm responsible for core and then work closely with both Zach and Amy and others to kind of those ancillary solutions that surround the core, like our CRM, our digital solutions, our data and business intelligence.

Jim Marous (03:00):

And Amy? You have a little different background as I understand. So, what's your background?

Amy Driscoll (03:04):

I do. I came to Kennebec Savings Bank two years ago, and I was hired on as the Digital Services Analyst to really kick off and help support the implementation of Alkami, online banking.

Amy Driscoll (03:17):

Before that, I worked in the utility space for three years with their online website portal as well as their mobile app and their alerts platform. And before that, I was in healthcare working with the patient electronic medical record. So, I have quite a wide variety of digital background but still very new when it comes to banking.

Jim Marous (03:40):

So, it's really some legacy banking core people that are moving the organization forward as well as a digital transformation expert that can say, "Here's the path we have to take and here's what I've learned along the way." So, there's a lot of organizations that are talking about trying to move and do digital transformation.

Jim Marous (03:56):

It's a term that is totally misunderstood because everybody defines it differently, but we all know we have to get better digitally if we're going to survive because banking as we know it or knew it really has moved forward much quicker than we've been prepared for.

Jim Marous (04:13):

So, as I understand it, you have done the online banking transformation process. During that process Zach, what did you learn in that process that is preparing you for the next stage of digital transformation, which is the core conversion, or it may be other sub-projects within that?

Zachary Nichols (04:31):

No, I think that's a great question. So, the beautiful thing about Alkami is that they're sort of purpose built to work with other fintech companies. So, basically what we're most excited about is we moved from a legacy provider to something that's sort of ready to go to partner with the companies that we want to partner with. So, we can sort of just pick and choose.

Zachary Nichols (04:53):

It's less about bringing an idea to our old vendor and then being told, “No, it's definitely a little bit more solutions driven,” and not only are they willing to work with our existing vendors, but we're excited about a lot of their partners too, because they typically choose great technologies to partner with out of the gate.

Jim Marous (05:16):

That's what's great about a situation like this, is that not only are you picking a partner that can help me down the path, but they've also vetted other partners that may … because it can take forever. I mean, I'm sure Amy, you've experienced, it's that the whole process of selection can take years upon years and if some of these selections have already been made.

Jim Marous (05:35):

So, it kind of narrows the scope of who you want to look at and you can find a partner that does certain things that you say, "This is a must have on the front end of this process." You learn during that process.

Jim Marous (05:45):

So, just in the process of the technology side of it, what did you learn in the online banking conversion that you think is going to apply the most from the standpoint of technology for the overall conversion, or even as I mentioned with Zach, what I'm going to call sub implementations of, maybe it's a new account opening process or something like that. What did the whole experience of converting your online banking process teach you?

Jessica Norton (06:13):

We learned a lot about ourselves, our customers, and our core. And I would say that Zach was spot on when he mentioned one of the biggest wins of going to Alkami is that this is going to be a much more open experience for future implementations. We knew it would be a challenge.

Jessica Norton (06:27):

We are on a legacy core. We're one of the first implementations Alkami had done with that core, and it was ultimately successful, but I think it really has brought to light those challenges and why it is so hard to make change and make real change quickly.

Jessica Norton (06:43):

So, as kind of as luck would have it, we are doing a full core RFP. We're really looking at if we really want to continue to grow, we can't be held back by our vendors. We can't be held back by our core, and we've got to find ways that we can make these implementations happen.

Jessica Norton (06:58):

They're slow, they're expensive. We've got to find ways to deliver things to our customers that are meaningful and add value. So, we know that we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of miles to go before, and I don't know that transformation is ever complete.

Jim Marous (07:11):

No, never. Because it moves. It moves faster than we do on some cases.

Jessica Norton (07:16):

So, we have come to a place where we know that we need to focus on integrations with and single platform, single experience for our customers. That is one of the top focuses that we have at this point.

Jim Marous (07:29):

So, Amy, you've gone through these processes before, and while we focus on the technology aspect of that, we can't underestimate the impact of culture and top leadership because it can stall or stop a process, or it can put on hyper speed that the technology is relatively simple compared to changing the overall culture orientation.

Jim Marous (07:53):

In the past in organizations you've worked at, how do you deal with that? How do you make it so that everybody's full in the same direction?

Jim Marous (08:00):

Because you're also more than ever dealing with a situation where people within the organization, while they may say they're on board in the back of their mind, they're feeling somewhat threatened that whatever I'm doing or working on could replace me. So, how do you deal with that? How do you work with that dynamic?

Amy Driscoll (08:20):

I think really the key to any sort of successful change transformation project is communication. It starts with the initial message. It starts with a broad expectation of, "We are going to make change, we are going to move forward, and here's how we are all going to move forward together."

Amy Driscoll (08:40):

And just continuing to communicate along the way and complete transparency internally, externally to the extent possible, making sure that there are where we can help it, no surprises. And as things come up, making sure to just immediately, if you see something, say something.

Amy Driscoll (09:00):

So, if you are in the midst of implementation and you notice something that just doesn't seem like it's working the way you think it should say something soon versus waiting until, "Oh, maybe it will fix, or maybe it will work its way out, or maybe we can work around this." But keeping everyone informed from the top down of these things so that they're aware of what this end result could look like if something doesn't get corrected.

Amy Driscoll (09:29):

And I think we did a great job of that. We had routine meetings where we had a core group of people that was keeping in touch on, "Here's where we are, here's what's happening, and here is what we expect of this team. We need you to go back to your teams and keep the hype up."

Amy Driscoll (09:46):

I mean, we almost had a full-blown marketing campaign just to keep the buzz going about it. And we had a team that we branded the optimizers, and we really used that to build this united front of people that we're going to implement this online banking change and it's going to be great. And we had all of these champions cheering us on the whole time and-

Jim Marous (10:08):

Makes a big difference.

Amy Driscoll (10:08):

And even through our implementation, we all came on site after the COVID years and everybody's working remote, we pulled everybody back into the building and said, "Let's go."

Amy Driscoll (10:19):

And we set up a command center in a conference room, and we had phones and headsets and all the things, but we also made it really fun. We had Spirit Week during implementation where we, Jess is a dog breeder and she brought in puppies.

Jim Marous (10:33):

There you go. When people can't work together, we're going to get these puppies to work together.

Amy Driscoll (10:38):

We're bringing in the puppies. So, we really had a lot of fun. We had a great team and the communication and training beforehand was spot on, and the escalation paths were well known so people knew who to call if they didn't know what was going on, or if they didn't have the answer and they had plenty of resources to help.

Amy Driscoll (10:59):

I think we all hands on deck. I mean, it did not matter if you were a lender or if you were security or whoever. If you could pick up a phone and say, "Thank you for calling Kennebec Savings Bank." We had you on the phones resetting passwords during that initial implementation period. And we really brought it together as a team and it was very clear that the culture of our bank shined very well during the process of an implementation.

Jim Marous (11:26):

You fortune big organizations and smaller organizations, what is the difference in the transformation journey between a big and a small organization? Or is there any?

Amy Driscoll (11:36):

I think it comes in pockets kind of. I think if you look at healthcare for example, those that are affected most by a specific change, there is a small company feel to that group or that dynamic and that it has its own personality. A group of doctors has their own personality, as does a group of nurses, as does a group of schedulers.

Amy Driscoll (11:59):

So, when it came to banking, each of the individual departments do have their own unique personality and unique needs. But we could find a common thread to hang onto, which is we want to give exceptional customer service no matter what.

Amy Driscoll (12:13):

And we took that thread, and we took it to the highest point we could, which is making sure that this conversion was as seamless as possible. Though it is very visually different than our previous platform, we expected that, but we wanted our customers to know it's still the same Kennebec Savings Bank and it's still the same people that you've worked with for years.

Jessica Norton (12:34):

Jim, I would expand on one part of your question though, which is that fear of people's jobs changing or people's jobs going away and being replaced by technology. And I think that we're incredibly lucky in that we are a mutual savings bank.

Jessica Norton (12:45):

It isn't always about the bottom line. If we're going to invest in something like a new technology, it doesn't mean we have to cut someone somewhere else. So, that fear is largely something we don't have to deal with. But what I think the key to success a lot of times is there's still that fear.

Jessica Norton (13:01):

“I've been doing my job for 20 years this way, now what's going to happen now? Do I have a job anymore? Is my job going to change very much something I'm not as good at, I'm not good at technology, whatever.” Those fears are very real. But I think that we've done a good job and a job that will continue to have to be done to say to our employees, "We want you doing higher and better things to reach-

Jim Marous (13:23):

It's communication as you had mentioned too.

Jessica Norton (13:26):

Because we're never going to get rid of that need to interface with customers and give them one-on-one service. In fact, we talked about it the other day in the office that the pandemic, we trained our customers don't come into our branches.

Jessica Norton (13:38):

But that's how we deliver our differentiator is come into our branches, see our people, be with our people, but the more we can free up our people from doing day-to-day things, the more we better-

Jim Marous (13:48):

Coming from transactions to relationships.

Jessica Norton (13:50):

Transactions to relationships.

Zachary Nichols (13:52):

And make the digital experience a differentiator as well.

Jim Marous (13:56):

So, Zach, you have to know where you're heading in order to get there. And be it innovation process, digital transformation process, what was your, not endpoint, it's never there, but what was your setup as far as what your mission was to accomplish in the online banking transformation, but also as you're looking at the core side of the business, what are you trying to achieve?

Zachary Nichols (14:20):

A lot of it is just a lot more simplicity. So, one of the downsides of the last solution was, well, not one solution, but that there were multiple solutions. We had a separate retail online banking experience, a separate business online banking experience, separate mobile apps.

Zachary Nichols (14:37):

So, getting on common ground was important. And then being able to, from that simpler, smarter foundation iterating on top of that was definitely something that we were looking forward to. And yeah, no, the same question goes for … or the same sort of, in my opinion, thought process goes into selecting a quote.

Zachary Nichols (15:00):

Like, what's going to make it simpler? Can you get rid of a little bit of legacy cruft and just the way things were done back then that we've continued into the present. Can we rethink that because there's new technologies out there, there should be faster, simpler, more convenient, easier ways of doing things. And yeah, we're excited about that, sort of, that synergy eventually getting beneficial.

Jessica Norton (15:26):

During strategic planning a couple of years ago we sat down, and we listed out all of the logins that our customers need to interact with us if they have a full suite of products. And it was a separate login to our trust services, a separate login to credit card portals, a separate login to secure email and all those things.

Jessica Norton (15:42):

And we made it a strategic goal that through this transformation process, we are going to eliminate those separate touch points, those separate logins, and make it so that there's one customer and one experience to get to all of your services with Kennebec Savings Bank.

Jessica Norton (15:57):

So, it's been a journey, but Alkami has allowed us immediately to, for instance, you're trust customer, trust services, you can get to that through the same online banking portal if you see your core accounts and you can get to your credit card account as well. So, it's been a big one for us.

Jim Marous (16:13):

So, before we sat down, or I guess in the beginning of the podcast, you mentioned that we kind of did it a little differently than many would do. We did the online banking platform before you did the core. From a technology standpoint, what challenge did that put you in your way in flipping what is normally done?

Jessica Norton (16:31):

Well, I think we just got through the process and we're in that place where we want to really start sprinting forward with, continuing with the journey. And we're going to stop for a second and reevaluate the core so that that may slow our progress.

Jessica Norton (16:42):

On the digital side, we've moved that needle really far, and now we're going to kind of potentially pause it to do a core conversion as that's a major thing. But as long as we're focused on the other end of that core conversion, giving us the ability to go even further or faster ahead, then that's going to be worth it. So, that's been probably a challenge because we're going to have to go through a whole new implementation if we do change for this.

Jim Marous (17:04):

But this isn't new anymore. Which we were talking about the fact that one of the benefits is that we're not starting from scratch. And sometimes, as you mentioned, the organization has to start smaller rather than saying to rip and replace a cord, doesn't matter. It's not fun. And sometimes easier to sell, I want a new online banking platform. So, from that perspective Amy-

Zachary Nichols (17:29):

In many ways, sorry, just to add, there was urgency to improving the customer experience as well. And so, now that it has been-

Jim Marous (17:36):

And it feels like core's back office as opposed to front office-

Zachary Nichols (17:38):

We can swap it out.

Jessica Norton (17:41):

And if we do a core now, I mean, not only is that a massive undertaking, it's a big change for our customers often. And when we moved to the core that we're on now, we did online banking, ATMs, cards, everything all at once. And now we're looking at this as more of an operational shift instead of something that's going to deeply affect customers because their experience is going to stay the same or largely the same.

[Music Playing]

Jim Marous (18:06):

So, let's take a short break here and recognize the sponsors of this podcast, Alkami Technologies.

Jim Marous (18:17):

Welcome back to the FIsionaries Podcast, sponsored by Alkami Technologies. So, in the online banking conversion, what element did you feel in hindsight, you kind of had to scale back from what the optimum was, Amy, from your perspective?

Amy Driscoll (18:34):

We're making big strides ahead when we switched to Alkami. I do think we had a lot more functionality and I think some things were just a natural customers understood it, like Message Center. We did not have that before. That was an entirely non-existent thing, and now it's a thing.

Amy Driscoll (18:54):

And so, our customers saw it. They intuitively knew what to do with it, and they picked up on it and started using it. And it is an entire new channel that we are supporting as far as communications go. And our customers are loving it.

Amy Driscoll (19:08):

I don't know that we had to necessarily scale back so much as we had to make sure that we were staying on our toes and being nimble and being ready to pivot. So, we implemented multifactor authentication as you do when you go live with Alkami. And some of our customers absolutely loved it.

Amy Driscoll (19:30):

Some of our customers, it was an education point that we made with them. They don't necessarily love it, but they get it. So, it's been an effort, but also with multifactor authentication, we reached a point where we realized that maybe email wasn't the best multifactor authentication method to have enabled.

Amy Driscoll (19:49):

So, then we did a whole project where not only did we educate our users on what multifactor is, we also were able to encourage the use of a 2FA app over email. And then eventually we took email away as an option because it just, in many cases, provides an open window for the wrong things to happen.

Amy Driscoll (20:12):

So, we have had to pivot with some of the things that we implemented, and we are definitely making strides and continuing to course correct as needed. But I think overall, we really just are excited about all of the functionality that we did get and all of those quick wins. And then we've implemented a few other services, like a quick bill pay. We didn't have that when we went live, and we just implemented that.

Jim Marous (20:37):

It's no small effort.

Amy Driscoll (20:39):

It's not a small effort. And it's a seemingly easy thing for a customer to use, but it's those small finer details that customers appreciate. So, if we can save somebody a few clicks or a few taps that'll make their day, and that's really, really our goal.

Jim Marous (20:55):

Zach, from your perspective, there's challenges, but there's also positive surprises that you sometimes get surprised by. In your conversion for online banking and the result of that process, what have you been most kind of internally going, that was kind of a surprise, but also it felt really good though.

Zachary Nichols (21:16):

Well, back to the question of unifying platforms and piggybacking on more single sign-ons to different solutions to simplify that. Another solution that our customers have loved is aggregated accounts, which we didn't expect as much adoption with that as we've gotten.

Zachary Nichols (21:33):

So, that's been a pleasant surprise. It just means that our customers are using us as their sort of single financial institution and bringing a lot more of their accounts into our experience.

Jim Marous (21:44):

It's huge right now with people switching so much. And the easier it is to switch, the more likely it is you're going to get those switches. But we have a lot of silent attrition going on in the industry where people can one click go to Acorns, one click, go to SoFi, one click go to Robinhood.

Jim Marous (22:01):

And sometimes we don't only know we've lost parts of that relationship, but to have that capability, it's certainly a big positive and it puts you in a great position compared to your competition where if their process is not seamless, if their online banking app is hard to use, eventually people here, have you seen how easy this is? So, that's obviously a big advantage as well.

Zachary Nichols (22:23):

Without a doubt.

Amy Driscoll (22:25):

Well, and also to jump off that, we now have access to the data that supports all of what we're talking about. Before, we had no idea where people were clicking or tapping. We had zero insight into a lot of the features and functions that are-

Jim Marous (22:40):

That's night and day.

Amy Driscoll (22:42):

We were generally speaking kind of guessing like, "I use quick bill pay, so they must use quick bill pay, or I do this, so you must do that." But now we have data to support all of that and we can use that to drive our decisions or to drive a decision to not do something.

Amy Driscoll (22:59):

So, really getting access to the information, seeing how many people aggregated accounts or linked for ACH transfers, now that we can see that we know what's happening.

Jim Marous (23:08):

Funds flow is an amazing tool that most organizations still don't access, even though it's out there if you build it, but knowing where people are moving their money at any time. We had a deposit squeeze about a year and a half ago and to know where the money's going helps you get it back. So, Jess, from the information standpoint, what do you do with all this insight?

Jessica Norton (23:33):

We're still working that out. No, but one of the things that's phenomenal that we also didn't have before was the ability to pop up target marketing and to segregate our customers and to have total control over the messaging in our online banking. So, that is something that we are excited to partner with our marketing team on.

Jessica Norton (23:50):

They are growing their team to include somebody who's really going to be focused around digital marketing. And I'm so excited for that. But so basically, I guess in a nutshell, like yeah, that's a part of the journey that we're still figuring out. Like, "Okay, we've got floods of data now how do we leverage it to the best ends."

Jessica Norton (24:09):

And it has, we are seeing that change throughout our organization when a new position is posted, looking for someone who's going to be able to support that digital channel. And so, the evidence of adding a marketing manager who is going to be focused around digital and social, it's just part of our journey.

Jim Marous (24:31):

So, that said, what's your vision? I'll ask this of all three of you. What's the vision of the utilization of data? Because at the end of the day, the access to data throughout an organization is an extraordinarily powerful tool. It's also what your customers are expecting.

Jim Marous (24:49):

They're expecting a relationship or a engagement that's similar to a Netflix or similar to a Hulu or Amazon or you pick the organization, do the organization. They expect you to know them, understand them and reward them accordingly. How do you make that start? Because marketing, you can give them the tools, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy to implement. What's your vision?

Zachary Nichols (25:14):

It's a snowball. We certainly do start small.

Jim Marous (25:19):

I love how you said that. And it looks like that turns into you before because it made everybody smile.

Zachary Nichols (25:23):

Yeah. No, because I think it's always easier to do the low hanging fruit first and automate processes based on the data. Automate reports, but then eventually demonstrate value by saying, "We could do this, we could use this information to drive this decision."

Zachary Nichols (25:43):

And then building on that, and then building on that. And eventually you're actually using it to again, to understand your customer, to your point to predict their behavior, to understand where things might not be making sense in the user experience flow where things can be tweaked, optimized packages changed, that all comes with time. And we are doing it on a very small scale, but it's not-

Jim Marous (26:08):

You have a lot of moving parts though. I mean, not only the new stuff, but what you're looking to do in the future. A lot of people have to get involved and make it all work.

Zachary Nichols (26:16):

Right. No, we have to sell people on the value of it too. So, I think we see it but it's an organizational effort. So, people in the abstract understand it but they're busy too. So, it's important to get-

Jim Marous (26:29):

And you got to buy in — if you're going to democratize that and give the tools to the employees. Because most of us came from a legacy organization that said, "Okay, you want that information, you got to go to the IT department, you got to go to Bob or Betty. And you got to get it from them."

Jim Marous (26:45):

And now the most powerful organizations are letting Bob, Betty, Tom, Sue, all the people in the organization have access to make it so they can make better products. So, they can make better communication, so they can get better information to build better solutions. So, what do you see as the benefit on the data side for you?

Jessica Norton (27:04):

I think that the online banking data is super important in and of itself for all kinds of reasons, but it's part of a bigger picture of the customer. So, for me, one of the biggest values is getting that online banking subset of data into a centralized warehouse where we can use that in conjunction with what we know about you from other systems, other solutions are for to really paint a picture of who is this customer, who is Jim and what does Jim want?

Jessica Norton (27:29):

And then being able to, instead of sending ... and I know I used marketing earlier as an example, but instead of sending out an advertisement spray and pray, we can be more clear and try to meet our customers where they are, serve them better. Because at the end of the day, customer service is how we all differentiate ourselves.

Jessica Norton (27:49):

And it's not good service to ask Zach 16 times if he wants the same thing when it doesn't make any sense based on his relationship. What makes sense is being able to say, "Based on these things we already know about Zach, we can offer him the best solution for him." And again, it's that move from making widgets to having a relationship with the customer.

Jim Marous (28:13):

I think it's exciting too because your organization now is used to working with partners to build something pretty cool. The ability to then use partners to find case studies to do the low hanging fruit is mentioned, and to be able to move forward.

Jim Marous (28:29):

I mean, you've experienced this before, digital transformation. All of a sudden, the light comes on and the potential almost overwhelms you because you have so much you can do. But when you're working on the overall transformation organization, it's really more than the technology. How do you bring the people in to engage them in what's next?

Amy Driscoll (28:51):

We are really trying to focus on making sure that our employees see it and use it first whenever possible. So, we actually have a package built in the platform that is just for our employees. So, when and where possible, our employees should see it first.

Amy Driscoll (29:08):

So, we very recently did a project where we used the data to see that our customers were having a lot of trouble finding certain key features within our online banking menus. And so, we took that data and we also worked with Ty and his team on user experience to try to figure out what is the best way to reorganize the navigation of our online banking and our app because it was clunky.

Amy Driscoll (29:35):

There was something not right. And having no data to go on during implementation, we did what we thought would work. And it was time to fine tune it. So, we used the data, we used the user experience team at Alkami, and we rolled this out to our employees about a week ahead of time and said, "Give us your feedback. Tell us what you think."

Amy Driscoll (30:00):

And just let them get their hands on these new, very minor tweaks, but this new experience. And what's interesting about it is we did not hear a peep, not in a bad way, but in a really good way. Because the changes that we made were so intuitive that they didn't even notice that we had done it.

Jim Marous (30:20):

Which is crazy. Because I don't know if you've ever done an office move, but a picture gets put in a new place, people freak out.

Amy Driscoll (30:29):

Right, do not move things in the grocery store. But we just moved the entire layout of online banking in a significant but simple way. And we heard nothing from anybody. No complaints, no negative feedback and our whole team is in a united agreement that what we did makes sense and we like it.

Jim Marous (30:56):

And then when you heard all the input from your customers when you finally did the conversion, positive and negative, all your employees got to get within that and say, "We need to change this. We need to keep this the same."

Jim Marous (31:08):

And they learned the — because they were surrounded by people that were moving it forward, the way to answer questions, to move it forward as opposed to rumbling about it. So, you've experienced something that most organizations only dream of.

Jim Marous (31:23):

I mean, you think that, "Oh, we're the last ones to do an online banking platform conversion," but the reality is you're not. What recommendation would each of you have to other organizations about to embark upon this? What's the one thing you'd tell them to do?

Amy Driscoll (31:38):

I would say expect the unexpected. And as I mentioned earlier, just to be ready to communicate. It's never a matter of pointing fingers or blaming, it's about collaborating and making it right. Or maybe you see something and it's really cool and maybe that's a good selling point.

Amy Driscoll (31:58):

So, don't hold onto that information for yourself. Make sure you share it widely and communicate it to anybody that will listen to you. Because I think it is really important to share all of the great features and functions that you find while also remaining transparent if there is something.

Jim Marous (32:14):

Gets down to communication. It also gets down to, as I'm seeing you three work together, teamwork. You guys are on the same page. I mean, it's very clear from the moment I met you, you like three people, three headed person that basically you work together to get it done.

Jim Marous (32:31):

But to have that mission, to have that, let's go forward committedly and to have that ability to fall back on others, to say, "I'm stumbling today. I need some help on that." What was your recommendation?

Jessica Norton (32:45):

I think for us and for anybody starting this journey, just remember it's a journey. You're not going to snap your fingers and everything's going to be perfect. You're not going to snap your fingers and know exactly how to do every single little thing. There will be challenges, there will be roadblocks.

Jessica Norton (32:58):

But I would say, if you go into something expecting to know every little thing that could ever possibly happen and how everything is going to work out in the end and how you're going to use all that data and how everything, then you're going to spend more time in analysis paralysis and less time making movement.

Jessica Norton (33:13):

Any movement forward is progress. And so, even if it's small this is a journey. And keep that at the top of your mind. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time and it won't be. And there will always be things that you want to go back around and next iteration we want to tackle this, or we want to launch that.

Jessica Norton (33:31):

We're 18 months post, go live with Alkami. And there are still features we haven't rolled up to customers yet because we knew that that was going to take bigger institutional change and conversations to make those happen. So, it's not a snap your fingers and tomorrow, everything's perfect. It's a journey. It's-

Jim Marous (33:46):

It's a process.

Jessica Norton (33:47):

Yeah. It's a process.

Jim Marous (33:49):

Zach, Jess, Amy, thank you so much. It's fun because I get the feeling number one, you know you're not done. Number two, you've accomplished a lot, which is kind of cool. You're doing things that large organizations can't get their hands around because they're scared to death of that change.

Jim Marous (34:07):

And obviously it takes top management support somewhere there to say, "We're going to sign the check, we're going to commit to it because you're only going to make time in the day for those things that the organization's committed to you.

Jim Marous (34:20):

You wouldn't have come on board. You both wouldn't have stayed if you were saying, "I'm hitting my head against a brick wall." So, thank you so much for being on the show. You've shared a lot. It's our first four-person podcast. Can't do that very well on a split screen. But I appreciate your time. It's been great to learn from your journey and it'll be interesting to see where you are a year from now.

Jessica Norton (34:43):

Thank you.

Jim Marous (34:44):

Thank you.

Amy Driscoll (34:44):

Thank you.

Jim Marous (34:46):

Thanks for listening to the FIsionaries Podcast. We hope you enjoyed this deep dive in the tips and tricks that can help you elevate your digital transformation game. If you enjoyed their episode, be sure to save it and share it with those in your organization and even people outside your organization that this can help.

Jim Marous (35:04):

This's been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to our senior producer Leah Haslage, and our video and audio engineer Will Pritts.

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