Page 1

A Letter from Larry Nichols President/CEO, Member Driven Technologies

Spring 2017

Inside this issue:

NEWS

Happy April! Spring is here,

and this time of year is synony-

mous with school spring break!

It’s a wonderful opportunity to

get away and have some fun or

just relax, and it’s also a sure

sign that winter is over! Here

in Michigan, we are looking

forward to seeing the earth

come alive with the beginnings

of a fresh, green lawn, budding

trees, and blooming flowers.

We have had a very easy winter

this year, and we even experi-

enced some days in January and

February that were warmer

than those in San Diego. We

broke several high temperature

records in the first few months

of 2017. It makes all of us won-

der what this means for the

remainder of the year!

MDT has had the pleasure of

hosting six credit union visits to

our new headquarters so far

this year. Our clients, potential

clients, and other visitors have

all had wonderful things to say

about our new facility. MDT’s

visitor welcome screen has

been a big hit. Remember when

you come to visit us that we are

a technology company – the

welcome screen will remind

you of that!

We continue to make solid pro-

gress with our new Montana

Data Center. Our team has de-

veloped an extremely complex

project plan – an itemized road

map of every single task that

needs to happen to bring the

Data Center to full operation.

Backup duplication appliances

and redundant server boxes

have been installed in the Data

Center and are operational.

What does this mean to you? It

means that MDT is already rep-

licating data, on a daily basis, in

Montana from Michigan. Trans-

action logs are also being writ-

ten to the new Data Center, and

this happens all day, every day,

for all clients. The integrity

and security of your data are

foremost in our minds. In addi-

tion to all this, we also have a

pilot of the fail-over capabilities

well under way, and we are

excited about all the services

that this second, state-of-the-art

Data Center will allow us to

offer to our clients. And when

will we begin installing live

credit unions in this Data Cen-

ter? We are on target to do this

beginning the 2nd quarter,

which is just about now!

We are busily putting the final

touches on Connect 2017, our

upcoming Client Conference,

which is being held Monday,

May 22, through Thursday, May

25, at the Westin Southfield

Hotel. As always, our plan is to

give you MORE, and this year is

no exception. I hope you had an

opportunity to review the con-

ference agenda and see that

we’ve added a 4th track to our

We are excited

about all the

services that this

second, state-of-

the-art Data

Center will allow

us to offer to our

clients.

Continued on next page ...

A Letter from Larry Nichols 1 - 2

Conversions—1st Quarter 2017 3

Organization News 4 - 6

What to Expect When You’re Connecting:

A Preview of Product-Centered Sessions

at MDT Connect

7

Client Relations & Sales Department

Update

8

Synergy—Time to Tap Into Some New

Capabilities

9 - 10

Training Department Update 11

Where to Start with Centralized Logging 12 - 13

Efficient vs. Effective 14

Coming soon! Improved Process for Handling

Form Changes 15

Efficiencies with MDT Facilities and

Administration Department

16

Add the “S” and Get Responsive 17

What’s the Status of Your Incident Response

Plan?

18 - 19

Standard SYMs and What They’re Used For -

The First in a Series on Symhost Health 20 - 21

The Power of PowerOn 21

Consolidate Your Image Cash Letters 21

An Opportunity to Learn from Your Peers—

Live at Connect 2017— Future of Branch

Experience

22

Review Item Email Notices are Now Available

for RDC!

23

Make Time For Strategic Thinking Every Day 23

Microsoft Engineering Department Update 24

What Inspires You? 25

Page 2

program in order to accommo-

date more sessions conducted by

MDT personnel – one of the client

suggestions that rose to the top

from last year’s post-conference

survey. And remember to pack

your island garb for our evening

luau. You know that saying - “All

work and no play makes Jack a

dull boy.” Don’t let that be you!

Registration is open now via our

client portal.

Here are a few other highlights:

Matt Beaudreau will be one of

our keynote speakers. He will

discuss millennial members as

well as employees and how to

keep them at your credit un-

ions.

David Foss, new CEO of Jack

Henry will also present a key-

note address, and he will share

what is going on in the financial

industry today, at JHA and

Symitar, and in the partnership

with MDT.

We are offering a tour of the

new MDT headquarters for

those of you who are interest-

ed, and a shuttle bus to and

from the facility will make the

visit an easy one.

Register today for what we know

will be another great event!

We are also excited about our 2nd

annual CEO Forum, being held in

Denver, Colorado, Tuesday

through Thursday, July 11 -13,

2017. The forum was a big suc-

cess last year, so much so that we

decided to add a full day to the

event. Lee Wetherington, Direc-

tor of Strategic Insight with Prof-

itStars, has again been secured as

our facilitator. He did such an

outstanding job last year that we

A Letter from Larry Nichols (continued)

had to have him back again. Reg-

istration opened on Monday,

March 27, and it was exciting to

see registrations immediately

start coming in! More infor-

mation will follow as we get clos-

er to the forum, but CEOs, save

the date NOW!

In other corporate news, we con-

ducted our Annual Board Meeting

on February 9, 2017, in our new

Board Room in Farmington Hills.

The board has made a change to

separate some duties and they

have appointed Pat Spyke of LAF-

CU as the new Secretary/Director.

Rob Grech – Alliance Catholic CU -

will remain as Chairman, Commu-

nity Choice CU’s Rob Bava will

remain as Vice Chairman/

Treasurer, and Martin Carter,

with Astera CU, is Director at

Large.

We have added Greg Lanigan to

our team as Vice President, Tech-

nical Operations (read more

about Greg on Page 4). Welcome

aboard, Greg!

MDT attended the 2017 CUNA

Governmental Affairs Conference

(GAC) in Washington, DC, in Feb-

ruary. It was another great con-

ference with over 5,000 at-

tendees. Veteran TV news analyst

Bob Schieffer offered a keynote

address entitled, “A Political Out-

look from a Political Insider.”

Every year we look forward to the

GAC as it provides us with a good

opportunity to network with

credit union leaders as well as

our clients.

MDT has built a reputation for

quality and service, and we are

always actively continuing to

improve and grow in both of

these veins. With that being said,

Remember to pack

your island garb for

our evening luau!

we are in the process of adding

some new staff, and we are now

offering to our clients new prod-

ucts that we believe are high

quality and solid additions to our

product suite:

Text Concierge allows clients to

communicate with and engage

their members via the standard

text app available on phones

We also continue to grow our

portfolio with plans to add new

products as they become general-

ly available, such as:

SymApp, a configurable, online

solution that makes self-service

easy and allows members/

applicants to establish mem-

bership, open accounts, and

apply for loans

As you can see, MDT has a lot of

irons in the fire, and every one of

them is with you – our clients – in

mind. We sincerely thank you for

your partnership. We are looking

forward to connecting with you at

Connect 2017! As always, let us

know how we may help you as

you launch new initiatives. And

enjoy the spring! Mother Nature

is already putting on quite a beau-

tiful show for us! Lastly, have

some fun! Remember, all work

and no play…

~ Larry

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 3

1st Community Credit Union

Sparta, WI Conversion Date: February 2017 President/CEO: Brad Bauges MDT Project Manager: Bill Illis https://www.1stccu.com/

Ohio Catholic FCU

Garfield Heights, OH

Conversion Date: February 2017 CEO: Todd Turner MDT Project Manager: Amy Krueger https://ohiocatholicfcu.com/

Bear Paw Credit Union

Havre, MT

Conversion Date: March 2017 CEO: Al Vukasin MDT Project Manager: Brian Howell

https://www.bearpawcu.org/

MDT Welcomes our Newest Client Credit Unions!

Spring 2017

Spring 2017

NEWS

Registration is still open

MDT’s Annual Client Conference May 22—25, 2017

Westin Southfield Detroit Hotel Southfield, MI

Join us!

Page 4

Greg Lanigan – joined MDT as Vice

President, Technical Operations. Pre-

viously Greg worked at Talmer Bank

and Trust as Managing Director, Appli-

cation Development and Support. He

has also worked for ELGA Credit Un-

ion, Genisys Credit Union, and Dear-

born Federal Credit Union. He brings

to MDT over 18 years of experience

leading and managing diverse technol-

ogy teams.

Organization News — New Employees

Organization News — Employees on the Move

Tonya O’Connor has been promoted from Client

Services Support Analyst to Professional Services

Analyst.

Denise van der Ster has been promoted from

Client Relationship Manager to Senior Client Rela-

tionship Manager.

Clyde Bonde, System Operator, retired from

MDT on February 28th. We wish him all the

best in his retirement!

Pamela Landon has transitioned from her role

as a Project Manager to Product Manager.

Spring 2017

Sarah Sonneberger – joined MDT

as a Contact Center Representative

reporting to Eric Valla. Previously

Sarah has worked at Quicken Loans

as a Disbursement Analyst and also

at Alliance Catholic Credit Union as a

Member Service Area Representa-

tive.

Spring 2017

NEWS

Ingredients 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup sugar 1 tsp baking powder 2 eggs 1 cup plain Greek yogurt 2 tsp vanilla 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 2 cups flour 1 cup fresh blueberries Glaze ingredients 1 cup powdered sugar 1 tsp lemon juice 2 tsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan.

2. In bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter until smooth. Then, beat in eggs, vanilla, yogurt and

lemon juice. Gradually, add in flour mixture and beat until just combined.

4. Fold in 3/4 cup blueberries.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/4 cup of blueberries.

6. Bake for 50-60 minutes or knife inserted comes out clean.

For Glaze

1. Whisk together powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk until smooth.

2. Drizzle on cooled cake.

Page 5

A recent survey showed that some of the 2017 New

Year’s Resolutions for Americans were:

To lose weight or eat healthier - 21.4%

To quit smoking - 7.1%

To work out more often - 5.5%

These results send a clear message: Americans are

looking to make their health and wellness a priority

in 2017. As an employer, if you have been considering

putting a program or tools in place to help your em-

ployees reach their personal health and wellness

goals, now is the time!

Employee health and wellness programs come in

many shapes and sizes, and they can be tailored to

meet your employees’ unique needs. The one com-

monality is that they are all designed to support

healthy behaviors and improved health outcomes

while at work. Various resources can be offered to

employees to focus on health and wellness such as

weight management programs, health education and

coaching, stress management programs, on-site fit-

ness offerings, and many more. Often programs in-

clude allowing time for employees to exercise and

offering healthy food options in vending machines, or

having healthy employer-provided meals and snacks

available.

Employee Health and Wellness

By Sarah Gibbs, Senior Manager, Human Relations

The greatest wealth

is health.

While not necessary, many programs will also offer

incentives to help motivate employees to adopt and

maintain healthy habits. An incentive could be some-

thing as small as a drawing for a gift card, or some-

thing larger, like a discount on the employee’s health

insurance premium. Another great way to motivate

employees is with a little friendly competition with

their co-workers. A great example of this is a weight

loss challenge. These programs may provide the cata-

lyst your employees need to begin their journey to-

ward better health!

Over the past few years MDT has implemented sever-

al initiatives focused on improving employee health

and wellness. Our Farmington Hills office has a state-

of-the-art gym that employees can use around their

work hours. Previously, we have offered yoga and

meditation classes. And we currently offer Wellness

Coaching and discounts on nutrition assessments and

gym memberships through our Employee Assistance

Program Provider.

Effective workplace programs and environments that

are focused on health and wellness have the potential

to significantly benefit employers, employees, their

families, and communities!

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 6

The Employee of the Quarter awards for 4th Quarter 2016 were presented on January 31st. As a

refresher, two different awards are awarded to employees ...

Employees’ Choice Award – This peer-to-peer award winner is selected from nominations

made by any non-management employee.

Service Star Award – The recipient of this award is selected from nominations made by any

member of the management team. Nominees are those employees who best performed their

tasks in a manner that demonstrates one or more of MDT’s four strategic drivers and upholds

MDT’s core values.

MDT Announces Employee of the Quarter Awards

Employees’ Choice Award – Tie

Service Star Award

Jack Leich Microsoft Systems Engineer III

Erica Switalski Manager, Professional Services

Tiffany Broutin Client Services Support Analyst

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 7

MDT’s annual client conference, MDT Connect, will

bring credit union representatives, MDT employees,

and numerous vendors together for a week of learn-

ing, networking, and fun! The Product Management

Office (PdMO) will be presenting various sessions

throughout the conference, which runs Monday, May

22 through Thursday, May 25. These product-

centered sessions aim to bring awareness to MDT’s

product offerings, partners, and strategic plans.

Product Road Maps. The PdMO will be offering

three sessions dedicated to reviewing both past and

future product releases. MDT Product Road Map –

Looking Ahead, will be presented on Thursday, May

25. In this session, the PdMO will take a look at the

products and enhancements that are coming in 2017

in all portfolios – Symitar Episys, Ancillary, eChan-

nels, and Technology, Compliance, and Security. This

session has been a favorite for all who have attended

MDT Connect in the past, and will again be offered in

a standalone timeslot, so no one has to miss out! In

addition, the PdMO will take a focused look at the

future within the Symitar Episys product portfolio in

Episys Product Road Map – Looking Ahead, on

Wednesday, May 24.

While looking ahead is always exciting, let’s not for-

get about the great product offerings that were re-

cently made available in 2016. The PdMO will present

MDT Product Road Map – Looking Back at 2016, on

Wednesday, Mary 24. This session is dedicated to last

year’s Product Road Map and is your opportunity to

ensure you are aware of all the products that your

credit union can take advantage of right away!

Vendor Partnerships. As you know, MDT strategi-

cally partners with third-party vendors to provide

product and service solutions. Partnering with ven-

dors allows MDT to offer industry-leading products,

such as Jack Henry’s NetTeller Internet Banking,

MEA’s Text Concierge, and Harland Clarke’s LoanEn-

gine, while providing efficient implementation pro-

cesses and cost-savings to our credit union clients. In

addition to the sessions presented by the PdMO,

many of MDT’s strategic partners will provide in-

formative sessions regarding their powerful add-on

products.

Symitar Products. Kyle Gaither, Product Solutions

Consultant at Symitar, will be demonstrating a few of

Symitar’s newest product offerings: Enhanced Loan

Application (ELA), SymApp, and Contact Event Man-

ager. These products, while not yet available for re-

lease, represent the future of Symitar and MDT prod-

uct offerings, with effortless usability, intuitive work-

flows, and exceptional member connection capabili-

ties. MDT’s PdMO representatives will be on hand to

answer any questions regarding how these products

relate to MDT’s overall offerings.

Strategic Direction. MDT aims to keep our credit

unions on the leading edge of technology with superi-

or product and service choices. The product-centered

sessions presented at MDT Connect will help keep

you informed and included in that strategic future.

From past successes to future direction, the PdMO

will guide you on a tour of our growing suite of prod-

ucts at this year’s client conference.

A communication that was sent on March 2, 2017,

details MDT Connect 2017 registration instructions

and includes information on the conference agenda. If

you would like more information on MDT Connect or

the sessions offered, please reach out to your Client

Relationship Manager. We’ll see you there!

Spring 2017

These product-

centered sessions

aim to bring

awareness to

MDT’s product

offerings, partners,

and strategic plans.

What to Expect When You’re Connecting:

A Preview of Product-Centered Sessions at

MDT Connect By Samantha Allen, Product Manager

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 8

Over the past several months, the MDT Client

Relations team has been hard at work complet-

ing our team’s primary strategic initiative,

which was to create a product database – The

MDT Product Profile. This has been and will

continue to be a very important topic during

your semi-annual visits with your CRM.

The MDT Product Profile is a tool that will aid

MDT in better understanding product utilization

among our credit unions. It will enable our team

to identify potential new partnerships and also

provide product/service references for all of

your MDT credit union peers. We want to con-

tinue to better understand our credit unions’

overall product offerings. This goes for both

MDT and Symitar products as well as third-

party partners that may have no affiliation with

MDT. “Know Our Clients” has been a key initia-

tive at MDT and we continue to make great

strides in this area.

If you have any questions or would like to dis-

cuss how this new tool can benefit you, reach

out to your CRM today.

As always, THANK YOU for your kind words and

encouragement when speaking to prospective

MDT credit unions! Our expansion could not

happen without you. We had a strong year in

2016 where MDT accounted for approximately

one-third of Symitar’s new core business (and

Client Relations & Sales Department Update

By Gary Lee, VP, Client Relations and Sales

The best

compliment is

your referral ...

six competitive takeaways!) and we are looking

forward to another successful 2017.

Over the past two quarters, we have completed

10 corporate presentations and sales engage-

ments. Due to confidentiality agreements, we

can’t reveal the names of our credit union pro-

spects, but MDT is currently a finalist in three

new core deals!

In late February, MDT attended the Governmen-

tal Affairs Conference, and Symitar again, gra-

ciously allowed us to participate in their

booth. This year, the sales team is also planning

to attend the Michigan Credit Union League’s UP

(Upper Peninsula of Michigan) Chapter Annual

Meeting in April, the Wisconsin Credit Union

League 2017 League Annual Convention & Ex-

position show and MDT Connect 2017 - both in

May, the Michigan

Credit Union League

2017 AC&E show in

June, and the Symitar

Educational Confer-

ence (SEC) in Au-

gust. We hope to see

you at one or more

of these events!

We thank you for advocating for MDT and we

are always open to suggestions. Have a great

2017!

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 9

The Synergy Document Management system is now in production at 48 of our client credit un-

ions, and we continue to receive steady reports of fast and easy document retrieval, job effi-

ciencies in multiple departments, and other positive comments about the system.

Now that system users have the basics down pat, they are ready to turn their attention to the

new features and capabilities that Synergy offers. Well, guess what??!! Those new features and

capabilities are ready for you!!

In early March, MDT distributed a client communication announcing availability of several new

features with the recent Synergy Release 2016 upgrade. Additional User Authorities and the

Synergy Organization Administration Supervisor functionality are now available.

Please keep in mind that the new user authorities need to be turned on by MDT and then added

to user groups (like privileges in Episys). Here is a brief run-down of the enhancements.

User Authorities

Several new Synergy

features are now

available!

Synergy—Time to Tap Into Some New

Capabilities By Susanne Harrison, Senior Technical Project Manager

Continued on next page ...

Spring 2017

NEWS

Audit Search Allows you to see activities performed in any Synergy application for all Synergy

users. Combined with Chain of Custody, this is a powerful tool for auditors.

Chain of Custody This authority is similar to Audit Search but specific to a document or report. This frequently requested file maintenance history enhancement keeps an audit trail on

the documents: who viewed them, added notes, etc.

Overlay Assignment Allows you to apply an overlay (similar to a watermark) to a document or report.

Overlay Maintenance This is another frequently requested capability that is related to the Overlay As-signment. Users with the Overlay Maintenance authority can make their own

overlays available to their credit union.

Folder Maintenance All 2016 Synergy users have personal folders (available only to the user who cre-ated them) where they may save copies of documents and reports. Users with the Folder Maintenance authority can create folders and make them available to spe-

cific categories of users. They may also access certain folders created by others.

Hitlist View Maintenance Another sought-after feature, users with this authority can create and edit hitlist

views, managing the column headings and tabs in search results lists.

Stamp Maintenance Much like Overlay Maintenance, this frequently requested feature allows you to

add your own stamps for use by your credit union on documents and reports.

World Link Maintenance This authority allows you to create World Links for your credit union. Expected to be a great efficiency tool, World Links are targeted searches in Synergy based on an open document. As an example, if a World link exists from a loan application to an account card, a user could open a loan application, click on the World Link, and

the account card for that member would open.

Excel Template Maintenance Another sought-after feature, Excel Templates allow you to pre-format data before it is exported to Excel, minimizing cleanup. This authority allows users to create

Excel Templates.

Manage Legal Hold - Reports Similar to the existing authority for Documents, this new authority allows you to place a hold on reports which prevents deletion or modification of a held report. While MDT is not purging older reports today, this feature would prevent reports

from being purged any time in the future.

Page 10

Administrator Supervisor Role

To provide you with more information on these features, please reference the MDT Client Portal –

MDT Training tab. We have provided a teaser video showing a glimpse of the new features in ac-

tion as well as new documentation detailing the new features. These resources should assist you

with deciding which of these features are right for your credit union.

“We know which features we want! How do we get them?”

Please open a ticket to start the process of getting your new Synergy features implemented, and

give your ticket the title of “Synergy v2016 Authorities.” We will provide you with a workbook

that you’ll complete to indicate your chosen features and the options that go with them. We will

also make available to you some pre-recorded videos that will guide you through the correct com-

pletion of the workbook. Once you submit your completed workbook, our Microsoft team will put

you on their schedule to set your selected options in Synergy and make them available to you.

We look forward to working with you on this next phase of Synergy!

Synergy—Time to Tap Into Some New

Capabilities (continued)

Spring 2017

NEWS

User and User Group Maintenance

This new credit union Supervisor role allows access to certain functionality previ-ously managed exclusively by MDT. Credit union supervisors may:

Create and maintain user groups, adding or removing authorities

Assign users to user groups, thus granting authorities to users

Now that warm weather is visiting us more frequently, cleaning up your yard now will help to prevent issues later in the year.

Pruning – Now is a good time to prune trees, woody plants, and non-flowering shrubs. Flowering shrubs should be pruned only after they finish blooming, but you can trim any dead or damaged branches from them now as well. Trim your ornamental grasses, cut back dead perennials, and pull out any dead annuals.

Debris – Remove dead leaves, branches, and other waste from your lawn so that the emerging grass be-low it is not threatened with disease or pests. Clean up your plant beds as well, to make them more eye-appealing and also keep disease and pests from settling there.

Mulch – Rake any disturbed mulch back to its correct location. Add fresh mulch where needed to maintain a depth of 2 to 3 inches and also to freshen up the look of the beds.

Lawn Repair – Walking on a soggy lawn can damage it, so take care to do this maintenance at a time

when the lawn is dry. Overseeding thin spots on warm-season lawns should be done now, while overseed-

ing on cool-season lawns should be done in the fall. Most new grass only after it reaches a height of 4 to 5

inches, and only trim it back to 3 to 4 inches. Mowing new grass too early can result in weak grass that will

have issues later.

Page 11

The MDT Training department has been prepar-

ing a new slate of videos and updated documen-

tation for the Synergy 2016 release. This re-

lease is full of a lot of powerful tools and fea-

tures, and we want to make sure you have what

you need to put into use those that are right for

your credit union.

If you’ve visited our Client Portal lately, you may

have noticed that we have added a new section

to the MDT Training area: “How To’s” was creat-

ed to help you easily learn how to do various

common tasks. Here is a snapshot of some How

To’s that are currently available to you:

We’ve also been hard at work with helpful ma-

terials for new product rollouts such as Collec-

tions Toolkit and Enhanced Membership Verifi-

cation (the other EMV), and making improve-

ments to materials for existing offerings like

Teller Capture. Our friends in the Product Man-

agement department are doing an excellent job

with our ever-expanding product portfolio, and

our goal is to be in lockstep with them on the

timeliness of our educational pieces for the new

offerings.

If you didn’t know, we can customize videos

with your branding and features for products

such as Mobile, RDC and much more. Take your

story – your processes and procedures – to “the

big screen”! Contact us for more information!

Yours truly has been invited back to conduct a

session at the 2017 Symitar Educational Confer-

ence (SEC) in August. I can’t believe this will be

my third year in a row having an opportunity to

present! I also had the pleasure of speaking at

the annual meeting of an MDT credit union cli-

ent in March. If you need a speaker for an event

Spring 2017

MDT Training Department Update By Eric Gubka, Manager, Training

you’re having, let’s talk. I am happy to custom-

ize the message for your audience!

Elizabeth Lin, Kevin Nether, Waheeda Brandon,

and I look forward to seeing you at MDT Con-

nect. The MDT team sifted through the attendee

survey results from our 2016 conference, and

we’ve created an agenda to deliver to the survey

requests. We are hosting a variety of sessions

on Symitar capabilities, Synergy, soft skills, and

the credit union industry.

As always, I leave you with a profound message

from the one, the only, David J. Matthews…

“We're as sure of that, as we all once were when

the world was flat.”

Eric, presenting at the MTC FCU Annual Meeting

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 12

Logs are an integral part of any computer system.

They tell you what is going on currently, and they

keep historical records of what has happened in

the past. This information can be vital when trou-

bleshooting an issue or investigating a possible

security concern. Logging and log retention is com-

monly a key component of different regulations

(SSAE 16, PCI, etc.). Typically, logs are located lo-

cally on the device that created them. When one

gets beyond a handful of systems, examining or

collecting logs can be a challenge, especially when

you aren't sure which device’s log would have the

answers you are looking for. Also, if a system fails,

you may lose those important logs. These are just

two reasons why having the logs backed up in a

secondary location, known as centralized logging,

can be helpful.

What do you need to do for centralized logging?

First, you need to have a purposeful list of systems

from which you want to gather logs, systems such

as routers, firewalls, servers, email filters, etc. Cre-

ating this list is a key step as certain centralized

logging methods described in the information be-

low do not work for all systems. Some device or

software logs may have a limited scope regarding

what you can do with them, and they do not sup-

port third-party applications. As you create your

system list, give thought to the potential effects or

strain that external logging can create and also

whether you want to limit the access needed for

centralized logging to sensitive systems.

There are different methods for getting log files off

of different systems:

File Replication - This method includes services

like rsync. This service duplicates the logs of speci-

fied folders to other systems. Usually it has to be

scheduled regularly with a tool like cron. This can

be an easy way to get to logs on resource intensive

systems as you can schedule it to run in batches so

it runs less frequently. The downside is that you do

not have access to live data and its always as old as

your last batch run.

Syslog - This is a common service that is support-

ed by many products. This is a great choice, and

sometimes the only choice, for accomplishing cen-

tralized logging for software or devices that are

specialized. For example, routers and host third-

party logging agents usually cannot be rsynced but

they often have support options of syslog. To use

syslog, you will need a centralized syslog server

that can collect this data, parse it out and put it

Logging and log

retention is

commonly a key

component of

different

regulations

Where to Start with Centralized Logging By Thomas Koster, Security Analyst

Continued on next page ...

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 13

into a logical framework to make it easier to find

logs you are looking for. A good open source prod-

uct that is available is Syslog-NG. Unfortunately,

the downside to this method is that searching

through the data on a centralized server like this is

harder and the search doesn't scale well with size,

so one is generally left to grepping through folders

(searching plain-text data sets for lines matching a

regular expression).

Distributed Log Collector - These agents can go

out and collect logs and forward them to another

service. This can be great for some systems where

log parsing can be harder. Windows systems have

a variety of logs in a bunch of different places, and

a distributed log collector will gather all the logs

and forward them, saving you from having to go

into a box and tweak the different places logs are

coming from. These log collectors also generally

come with easier ways of searching the logs that

come in, like ElasticSearch, which are easier than

grepping through data. There are open sourced

options like logstash and Scribe and also more

commercial options like Splunk. There are even

some hosted "cloud" options that allow you to

send your logs to a service to parse and store

them. These services are a lot easier as you just

need to point your logs or use their agents to reach

the instance and they will sort and parse out the

data. The downside to a hosted option is that it’s

not onsite and the cost can be higher. Splunk, Log-

gly and Papertrail are a few examples of compa-

nies that offer a cloud option.

There is no “one

size fits all” to

extract logs from

all devices.

You can mix and match these options to meet your

needs, as there is no “one size fits all” to extract

logs from all devices. As an example, you could

have routers sends syslog to a centralized box, run

a cron job every 15 minutes to get logs via rsync

from a high utilized server, and use third-party

agents to extract data to make it easier to search.

The final piece of centralized logging is storage.

The amount of storage you will need depends on a

few factors. The amount and size of logs you pull in

on a daily basis need to be added to the length you

want or need to store logs for regulatory compli-

ance reasons. It is always hard to determine exact

amounts of space needed, so a sample of logs may

need to be taken to give you a better idea of what

you will need.

Because there are so many options, I encourage

you to refer to the additional references I’ve in-

cluded below. And, as always, MDT is here to as-

sist you with any questions you may have.

Additional References: https://www.balabit.com/network-security/syslog-ng https://www.splunk.com/ https://github.com/facebookarchive/scribe https://www.elastic.co/ https://www.elastic.co/products/logstash https://www.loggly.com/ https://papertrailapp.com/

Where to Start with Centralized Logging (continued)

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 14

Running an efficient organization is an essential

component of continued growth, cost savings,

and minimal waste. It’s pretty common to hear

organizations say that they want or need to “be

more efficient”; but where do you start? In or-

der to begin the task of finding efficiency oppor-

tunities, you should first ask the question, “Are

my teams doing the right things?” Having effec-

tive processes and programs in place is an es-

sential first step toward finding efficiency gains.

Have you ever heard the comment, “We don’t

know what we don’t know”? How would you

know if your processes or programs are correct

or effective? That’s how you have always done

it, right? I have heard this statement many

times over from organizations that simply want

to be more efficient, but don’t know where to

start.

MDT’s Professional Services Team offers both

on-site and remote consulting opportunities to

have not only your Episys programs reviewed,

but also your internal processes and procedures

reviewed for efficiency gains.

Maybe your tellers are taking too much time

performing routine transactions and infor-

mation gathering, when they could be spending

time educating members and cross-selling prod-

ucts and services to them. Perhaps your loan

officers are so hung up on the application pro-

cess that they aren’t capitalizing on refinance

opportunities. Are these processes currently

ineffective? If you feel that may be the case, we

can help automate and streamline operational

tasks and free up your staff members to use

their time in more effective ways.

Our Professional Services Department compris-

es very experienced individuals who have

worked an average of 15 years directly in the

credit union industry. With all of our

knowledge and experiences, including the expo-

sure we have received while serving our 80+

client credit unions, we can offer superior in-

sight and analytic capabilities to assist your

credit union. Consider partnering with MDT

and let the Professional Services Team assist

you in your efficiency and effectiveness im-

provements this year!

Spring 2017

Having effective

processes and

programs in place

is an essential first

step toward finding

efficiency gains.

Efficient vs. Effective By Erica Switalski, Manager, Professional Services

Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things.

-- Peter Drucker

Spring 2017

NEWS

-

1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen established Microsoft. Today, Microsoft has become a multinational corpora-

tion, which is the world’s largest software maker by revenue.

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The civil rights activist was killed by James Earl Ray. Ray, a

segregationist, received a 99-year prison sentence. He died in jail in 1998.

1949 – NATO was formed. Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty to establish what is today one of

the world’s most important military alliances.

Page 15

With regulations, disclosure requirements, etc. constantly evolving, the financial industry experi-

ences steady, numerous changes to the forms that are used to conduct business. The number of

new forms MDT receives throughout the year from CUNA, Oak Tree Business Systems, and other

vendors for our clients is quite high. Every time your forms vendor sends you forms, they also

send those same forms to MDT, and we’ve learned over time that some of them you need, and

others you don’t.

Our current process for handling these forms is that we open a ticket so the forms project can be

scheduled, and this is where we will be improving the process. Because you know which forms

you need to have programmed within the core system, we simply ask that you open the ticket for

those forms that need to be programmed, or contact your dedicated Client Services Support Ana-

lyst for assistance.

Process Change Benefits

There are benefits to having you open a ticket for the forms you need versus MDT opening a tick-

et for all forms we receive:

The Effective Date of the Change

In order to make this change in process a smooth transition:

MDT will continue to open tickets for received forms through May 31, 2017

The new process of the credit union opening tickets for forms work will begin on June 1, 2017

We sent out a communication to notify our clients of this pending process change in March, 2017,

and we will send a reminder sometime in May.

As always, please contact Client Services at 586.795.9135, Option 0 if you have any questions.

Coming Soon!

Improved Process for Handling Form Changes By Eric Valla, Senior Manager, Client Services

The only thing

constant in life

is change.

Quality Having you open the ticket will allow you to spend the time you need beforehand to work with your forms

vendor to understand the changes and review and approve all forms. Rather than “Garbage in, garbage

out,” this form review will allow for “Quality in, quality out.”

In the past, we have opened and worked on unnecessary forms because we assumed that, if we received

them, you must need us to program them. We now know that this isn’t necessarily true. Frequently we

receive forms that a client doesn’t need at all, and we also receive forms that the credit union chooses to

program internally. Having you open a ticket for the forms you need will eliminate this unnecessary work,

thus speeding up the delivery of the work you do need MDT to do.

Efficiency

Consistency Forms vendors desire the opportunity to work with you before work begins with us to ensure you are getting

the forms you need along with a complete understanding of all form changes.

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 16

“Efficiency” is a popular word in today’s fast-

paced business world. This is no different for

MDT as an organization and specifically within

MDT’s Admin department. There is a constant

focus within our department to find ways we

can fine-tune our processes to allow us to “do

more with less” and not do things “the way

they’ve always been done.” This approach has

allowed MDT to focus additional resources, both

headcount and dollars, toward client-related

technology and service offerings.

One major addition that has helped us improve

our department’s efficiency was the 2015 imple-

mentation of our new web-based accounting

system, Intacct Solutions. As we’ve become fa-

miliar with Intacct, we have adjusted many of

our processes to utilize the system to its fullest

capabilities and reap the benefits – both in time

savings and cost savings.

Some highlights of the improvements we’ve

made:

Created templates that allow us to import

month-end close journal entries and vendor

invoices to save data entry time

Installed the interface between Intacct and

our web-based expense reporting system to

automatically import employee expense re-

ports into the accounting system, cutting our

expense report processing time almost in half

Utilize Intacct’s internal note/chat function to

make sure all users have access to same infor-

mation to improve learning across the team

Created an accounts payable email group to

receive more bills electronically and enable

billing entry responsibilities to be shared

across multiple team members regardless of

location

Utilize Intacct’s expanded reporting capabili-

ties to produce reports to create real-time

internal budget tracking, as well as division,

service, and client level reporting

Utilize Intacct’s “Recurring Transaction” fea-

ture to reduce the manual data entry and

preparation time of invoices

All of these new efficiencies allow the MDT Ad-

min staff to devote more time to our clients!

Spring 2017

Efficiencies with MDT Facilities and

Administration Department By David King, Controller

Spring 2017

NEWS

MDT Connect 2017 – May 22 - 25, 2017

Westin Southfield Detroit, Southfield, MI

MCUL - Annual Convention and Exposition – June 8 - 10, 2017

Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Grand Rapids, MI

MDT CEO Forum– July 11 - 13, 2017

Westin Denver International Airport, Denver, CO

Symitar Educational Conference (SEC) and Technology Expo

August 28 - 31, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, San Diego, CA

Page 17

There are many reasons why your credit union

should add the “S” to your web address (HTTPS

instead of HTTP).

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is

the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over

which data is sent between your browser and

the website to which you are connected. The 'S'

at the end of HTTPS stands for “Secure.” It

means all communications between your

browser and the website are encrypted. HTTPS

is often used to protect highly confidential

online transactions like online banking and

online shopping order forms.

Google Chrome now warns of sites that are non-

HTTPS – specifically those pages that collect

password and/or credit card information. They

mark those HTTP pages as non-secure.

Google also boosts the index ranking of sites

that are served over HTTPS - an added bonus.

With more Google searches coming from mobile

devices than computers (desktop/laptop) these

days, Google has also announced that site rank

will improve if the site provides a “mobile

friendly” version. It’s recommended that you

design your site as “responsive.” Responsive

Web Design makes your web page look good on

all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones).

A combination of both of these for your web site

(having an http --> https redirect in place and

making your website “responsive”) should be a

top priority for your credit union in 2017.

For more information on any of the above top-

ics, click any of the following links:

HTTPS

http->https redirect

Google Chrome now warns of sites that are non-HTTPS and collect password and/or credit card information

boosts index ranking of sites that are served over HTTPS

more Google searches coming from mobile de-vices

Google announcing site rank will improve if the site provides a “mobile friendly” version

responsive website

Add the “S” and Get Responsive By John Duda, Web Developer

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 18

Is your Incident Response Plan well documented? Is it readily available to staff and is it consistently used?

If not, today is just as good as any other to get started. So whether you’re beginning to create a plan or

you’re making updates to your plan, the following information should be beneficial.

At a minimum, an Incident Response Plan should define the areas of responsibility and establish proce-

dures for handling various types of incidents.

The areas of responsibility include:

A designated Incident Response Team – This team should consist of a designated core group with as need-

ed, ad hoc subject matter experts, who are responsible for the investigation and resolution of incidents.

They will identify the incident, characterize the nature and severity of the incident, and provide immedi-

ate diagnostic and corrective actions. They will receive incident reports from intrusion detection systems,

through proactive scans, from system administrators and other resources. Once an event has been con-

firmed, the team should create an event log noting the date and time of all actions, immediately take a

snapshot of all pertinent files of the incident investigation and inform C-level executives. The team is re-

sponsible for reporting all incidents to the appropriate individuals and, in some cases, to governmental

agencies. A final report of findings and a post-incident review completes their responsibilities.

This team typically consists of members of the following areas, and a primary and alternate member from

each area may be appropriate.

Security Operations

IT Operations

Business Applications

Procedures for handling various types of incidents

Incidents can occur in countless ways and each type of incident requires a different response strategy.

Below are 10 types of incidents that trigger our Incident Response Plan here at MDT.

There are typically six stages in the process of responding to an incident.

Identification and Confirmation

Gather all relevant system information to assist in the resolution of the incident.

2. Containment and Notification

Take action to prevent further intrusion or damage and remove the cause. Notify management immediately; notification of appropriate agencies and your members may

also be appropriate. Notify affected parties.

3. Analysis

The discovery and analysis process should attempt to answer the following questions:

Describe the incident that resulted in “unauthorized access to or use of member information.” When and where did the incident occur? What was affected by the incident? How did the incident occur? Who was the perpetrator?

4. Eradication

This phase deals with the actual removal of the cause and restoration of affected systems.

An Incident

Response Plan

should define the

areas of

responsibility and

establish procedures

for handling various

types of incidents.

What’s the Status of Your Incident Response Plan? By Shirley Bailey, Vice President, Operational Analytics & Process

Root or System Attack Suspected Impropriety by Provider/Vendor Internet Fraud

Unwanted Disruption/Denial of Service A Virus Infected System Compromised Desktop System

Identity Theft of a CU Member Unauthorized Use Unauthorized System Changes

Compromised Individual User

Continued on next page ...

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 19

5. Recovery

Take action necessary to bring the affected system back online and start processing as originally intended.

6. Review

After an incident has been resolved and all systems are restored to a normal operation, a follow-up postmortem analysis should be performed.

Meet and discuss actions taken and lessons learned. Evaluate and modify existing incident response procedures, if necessary. If applicable, a set of recommendations should be presented to senior management.

Preparation is also a key to a successful Incident Response Plan.

Are all staff aware of the security policies of the organization and do the Incident Response Team members understand their roles?

Do members of the Incident Response Team have access to the resources required to perform the incident response procedures?

Have the staff and Team members participated in incident response drills to practice the incident response process?

Lessons Learned – A good work practice to gain value from incidents

“Lessons Learned” can be defined as knowledge or understanding gained by experience that has a significant

impact for an organization. A lesson must be significant in that it has a real or assumed impact on operations;

valid in that it is factually and technically correct; and applicable in that it identifies a specific design, process,

or decision that reduces or eliminates the potential for failures and mishaps or reinforces a positive result. Ef-

fectively managed, lessons learned facilitate continuous improvement.

The following is the MDT “Lessons Learned” template:

For more information, the following is a list of suggested resources.

http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-61r2.pdf

https://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/white-papers/wp-sans-incident-response-fight-back.pdf

What’s the Status of Your Incident Response Plan? (continued)

Lessons Learned Template

Exactly what happened and at what times?

How well did staff and management perform in dealing with the incident? Were the documented procedures followed? Were they adequate?

What information was needed sooner?

Were any steps or actions taken that might have inhibited the recovery?

What would the staff and management do differently the next time a similar incident occurs?

What corrective actions can prevent similar incidents in the future?

What additional tools or resources are needed to detect, analyze, and mitigate future incidents?

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 20

Most credit union employees work in the “live” data-

base, which is the complete production repository of

all the credit union’s data. There are also backup cop-

ies that are made on a regular schedule – some daily,

some monthly, some once or twice a year and even

some upon request. Many times, employees work on

projects that require a separate copy of the live data-

base for the development and testing of their pro-

jects. Each of these copies or backups is referred to as

an “institution” in Symitar’s documentation, and

they’re commonly called “SYMs” due to the name of

their directory path on the AIX system. Each SYM has

a three-digit number in its name – e.g., SYM000,

SYM111, SYM867, SYM952.

Symitar (and MDT) have some established conven-

tions for identifying these SYMs, based on the numer-

ic identifiers that the system gives them. Following

are the standard SYMs:

Live SYM – This SYM is sometimes called “SYM

Zero” or the “Zero SYM” because its ID number

ends with a 0. Your live SYM may be SYM000,

SYM110, SYM960, etc. - always a 3 digit identifier

ending with 0. This SYM is where all members are

serviced and production transactions are recorded.

You may still see a test SYM whose ID ends with a

0, but the Episys software specifically identifies the

Live SYM as the “live institution” in a special con-

figuration file.

Daily backup SYM or “1 SYM” – This SYM is for

MDT use only and is used as a backup point should

a recovery of Live SYM ever be needed for any rea-

son.

Daily NFS backup SYM or “2 SYM” – This SYM is

for MDT use only and is stored separately from the

Symhost. This data is retained according to the

MDT retention policy.

Monthly backup SYM or “3 SYM” –This SYM is for

client use and is refreshed at month-end with data

from the last day of the month.

Monthly NFS backup SYM or “4 SYM” – This SYM

is for MDT use only and is stored separately from

the symhost. This data is retained according to the

MDT retention policy.

Daily Test SYM or “5 SYM” – Both the client and

MDT utilize this SYM to test changes or trouble-

shoot issues in a current and up-to-date environ-

ment. This SYM is refreshed daily.

MDT Test SYM or “8 SYM” – Both the client and

MDT utilize this SYM for development and testing

of ongoing projects. This SYM also contains test

configurations for home banking, audio, and other

miscellaneous devices. It is only refreshed upon

request.

ATM Tester or “SYM777” – This SYM contains an

ATM configuration to be used for ATM-related test-

ing and is only refreshed upon request.

Standard Restore SYM or “SYM867” – This SYM

is a “shell” and contains no data. It is only used by

MDT to perform a restore of data from a previous

date.

Release Testing SYM or “SYM952” – This SYM is

used by the client to test new Symitar releases

prior to the release load dates and only contains

data during the testing period.

IRS Processing SYM or “SYM953” – This SYM is

refreshed at year-end and is used by the client for

IRS processing. It only contains data during the IRS

processing period.

Next Up: The 2nd article in our 5-article series:

Test SYM Copies – Do We Really Need All that Data

All the Time? No one likes to hear that there isn’t

room for another test SYM. Our next article will delve

Symitar (and MDT)

have some

established

conventions for

identifying these

SYMs, based on the

numeric identifiers

that the system gives

them.

Standard SYMs and What They’re Used For (The First in a Series on Symhost Health)

By Rebecca Medalle, Applications Analyst II and Don Walli, Enterprise Architect

Continued on next page ...

Spring 2017

NEWS

SYM usage Live = SYM000

Live = SYM960

Daily backup “1 SYM” SYM001 SYM961

Daily NFS backup “2 SYM” SYM002 SYM962

Monthly backup “3 SYM” SYM003 SYM963

Monthly NFS backup “4 SYM” SYM004 SYM964

Daily Test “5 SYM” SYM005 SYM965

MDT Test “8 SYM” SYM008 SYM968

ATM Tester SYM777 SYM777

Restore Shell SYM867 SYM867

Release Tester SYM952 SYM952

IRS Processing SYM953 SYM953

Page 21

into the question of how much data is really needed

for testing or development. Simply making a copy of

your live database is the easy way, but is it the correct

way? Over time, many copies of live data can take a

toll on disk usage and eat away at the available space

needed to create another test SYM. Do you need every

member account for this test SYM? Do you need re-

Standard SYMs and What They’re Used For (continued)

ports, FM or transaction history for this specific pro-

ject? Many times the answer is “no.” If we engineer a

better and more efficient way of providing test envi-

ronments, then you may not have to hear those

words… “We need to perform SYM cleanup before we

can create another SYM…” again.

The Power of PowerOn - Catch the Session at

MDT Connect By April Schultz, Manager, Implementation Analysis,

Erica Switalski, Manager, Professional Services,

Jennifer Lee, Senior Manager, Software Services and

Tiffany Broutin, Client Services Support Analyst

This year, MDT Connect will feature a session titled, “The Power of PowerOn.”

During this 60-minute session, a group of four fabulous women will showcase a variety

of PowerOn solutions that place power in your hands with their inherent efficien-

cies. This session will be jam-packed with live demonstrations to introduce (or re-

introduce!) some of MDT’s favorites to your credit union.

Here’s the lineup:

eReceipts

Share/Loan Transfer Module

Fee Reversal Manager

NetTeller Inactive Maintenance Program

PowerOn Marketplace – MDT exclusive section

Questions & Answers

We hope you’ll join us for this informative session - and for what’s sure to be a conference favorite! You

may find yourself feeling like Buddy the Elf feels about Santa! Arrive early to get your seat up front!

Spring 2017

NEWS

Consolidate Your Image Cash Letters! By Kelly Calnan, Manager, Check Services

MDT Check Services recently installed the new x937 File Import Manager for ImagePoint Hub.

As a result, we can now take your image cash letters and consolidate them into a single outgoing cash

letter. Through this process, we can also run duplicate detection on your items and archive check imag-

es into a single repository.

Sound interesting? Contact MDT Check Services for more information.

Page 22

We are pleased to be able to offer you the slate of educational opportunities that we’ve lined up for

Connect 2017, our annual client conference. Now with four tracks, the conference is more robust than

ever before and features several presentations by MDT subject matter experts, Jack Henry/Symitar

personnel, and several of our business partners. And new this year to the conference is an opportunity

to learn from your credit union peers – a panel discussion on Future of Branch Experience!

As you know, brick and mortar branches are still a popular and viable approach to member service, but

in today’s world where multiple generations of people are managing their finances in all sorts of ways

in this fast-paced, electronic age, lots of other approaches to the credit union branch have sprung up to

meet the demands of the members.

Many of these different branches are operational among MDT’s credit union clients, and we are excited

to host a panel at Connect 2017 featuring 5 different credit union representatives who will be discuss-

ing their branches! Representing different sizes and different strategies, this conversation among the

panelists is sure to stimulate your thinking and challenge you and your credit union to consider differ-

ent branch alternatives for the future of service to your members.

Ron Kaplan, Manager of Episys Technical Product Management at Symitar, will be facilitating this lively

and interesting discussion. Our slate of panelists includes representatives from the following credit

unions:

* Statistical information from credit union websites and other sources

This session is sure to be a hit with all conference attendees, as it is a great opportunity to learn

firsthand the experience others are having with some of these unique branches and ponder whether

any of these solutions may be right for your membership. It is scheduled for Thursday morning and

competes with no other sessions, so we will see you there!

An Opportunity to Learn from Your Peers—

Live at Connect 2017—

Future of Branch Experience

By Carol Kerr, VP, Marketing & Communications

Spring 2017

NEWS

Name Location Members Assets Branches

Community Choice CU Farmington Hills, MI 99,570 $1,018,314,905 16

CU of the Rockies Golden, CO 9,549 $94,161,905 3

Marine CU La Crosse, WI 60,203 $689,785,894 29

On Tap CU Golden, CO 19,723 $226,767,096 2

UnitedOne CU Manitowoc, WI 19,746 $201,095,809 7

This conversation is

sure to stimulate your

thinking and

challenge you and

your credit union to

consider different

branch alternatives

for the future of

service to your

members.

Page 23

MDT is excited to announce that email notifications are now available from ImagePoint Hub when

mobile deposits are sent to the Item Review queue. These notices will allow your staff to better

serve your mobile deposit users when items hit the review limits.

Each credit union can specify two email addresses to receive these notifications, a primary email

address (the “To:” address) and a CC email address (someone who is not the primary recipient but

another whom you want to receive a copy of the notification). MDT recommends using a group

email address, as only one primary email address is allowed for each field.

Emails will include the following information:

Email Subject will be: “Pending Mobile RDC Review Items”

Email Body will be: “New items pending for review in IP Admin.”

From Email Address will be: donotreply@mdtmi.com

The default sending interval for notification emails is 30 minutes. However, each credit union is

able to customize their notification frequency. The service will continue to send emails at the

scheduled intervals until the review queue is cleared.

If you would like to enroll in this service, please open a ticket and we will be happy to start the

process for you!

Email notices will

allow your staff to

better serve your

mobile deposit users

when items hit the

review limits.

Review Item Email Notices are Now

Available for RDC! By Kelly Calnan, Manager, Check Services

Spring 2017

NEWS

If you believe that only senior executives need

to think strategically, think again. No matter

what level you’re at, strategic thinking is a criti-

cal skill — one that can always be improved. To

hone your capacity to see the big picture, start

by making sure you have a solid understanding

of the industry context and business drivers.

Make it a routine to explore the internal trends

in your day-to-day work. Pay attention to the

issues that get raised repeatedly, and synthe-

size the common obstacles your colleagues

face. Be proactive about connecting with peers

in your organization and in your industry to

understand their observations of the market-

place, and share this information across your

network. Take the time to understand the

unique information and perspective that your

job function contributes to the company.

Make Time For Strategic Thinking Every Day By Jennifer Lee, Senior Manager, Software Services

Thinking at this higher level will position you

to be more strategic in your role.

Recap: How to improve your strategic think-

ing

Know: Observe and Seek Trends Think: Ask the Tough Questions Speak: Sound Strategic Act: Make Time for Thinking and Embrace

Conflict

Source: Adapted from “4 Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills,” by Nina Bowman.

Being a strategic

leader is about

asking the right

questions.

Page 24

Hello, and welcome to spring!

I hope everyone was conscious of Daylight Sav-

ing Time and remembered to “Spring Forward”

on March 12. Otherwise, your servers and work-

stations have been getting an extra hour of sleep

when they shouldn’t be!

Relocating the Microsoft Engineering team to

the Farmington Hills office has proven to be a

very wise, strategic decision. Communication

between teams has improved dramatically, is-

sues are getting resolved significantly faster,

and cross-training between departments is a lot

easier now that we’re all in the same building.

On that note, Eric Valla, Senior Manager, Client

Services and I have spent a significant amount

of time together over the last few months work-

ing on the next phase of enhancing client service

via our Resource Center Pods. The planned

changes, which are expected to go live in the

2nd quarter, 2017, are targeted at eliminating

the frustrating situations we’ve received com-

plaints about such as tickets being misrouted

and tickets not being acknowledged in a timely

fashion. In a nutshell, each pod will have its own

ticket queue so the team in that pod will receive

only tickets for their assigned credit unions. The

staff members in each pod will rotate as “Pod

Captain” and will be responsible for managing

the queue. This queue management includes

ensuring that “quick-hitters” are handled effi-

ciently and that high priority requests are han-

dled with a greater sense of urgency.

In the Synergy world, upgrades to release

2016.2.163520000 have been successfully com-

pleted on all eight of our stacks – groups of serv-

ers dedicated to a group of clients. I would like

to thank Jeff Lumley from the Microsoft Engi-

Microsoft Engineering Department Update

By Billy Panagiotopoulos, Manager, Microsoft Engineering

Communication

between [MDT] teams

has improved

dramatically, issues

are getting resolved

significantly faster,

and cross-training

between departments

is a lot easier now that

we’re all in the same

building.

neering team for all of his hours, hard work, and

dedication to this project.

We continue to work with some high-level engi-

neers at Jack Henry & Associates on some global

issues we’ve been experiencing. This strong col-

laboration has allowed us to make some sizea-

ble improvements with the Batch Queue back-

ups.

In Synapsys land, Andrew Melton from the Mi-

crosoft Engineering team has been working dili-

gently to get all of our clients migrated to our

new Synapsys environment. At this time, we

only have a handful of clients remaining which

we will be migrating over the next few months.

Great job, Andrew!

I look forward to seeing everyone (and meeting

those I haven’t) at our Connect 2017 Client Con-

ference (May 22 – 25) in Michigan. Until then,

enjoy the beautiful weather and thank you for

your continued support as we work to improve

YOUR experience day to day.

Spring 2017

NEWS

Page 25

“What inspires you?” I have always thought that

was such a cliche question, but recently I’ve found

myself giving more thought to the idea of inspira-

tion. What really inspires me? And what can I

learn from other people regarding what inspires

them?

Steve Jobs once said: "The ones who are crazy

enough to think that they can change the world,

are the ones who do." People like Steve Jobs, Rich-

ard Branson, and Walt Disney dreamed big and

have inspired many people over the decades. Giv-

en the accomplishments of people such as these, it

may seem weird to think that the one person who

inspires me virtually every day is a 15-year-old

kid. This inspirational kid is my stepson, Max, who

has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

I find myself being inspired not by what Max has

done or may do in the future, but more about what

he hasn’t done. The

list of what he hasn’t

done is quite

lengthy: He’s never

walked or run. He’s

never played foot-

ball or swung a

baseball bat. He’s

never skipped a

rock on the water or

landed a basketball

in a net. Setting

aside all those phys-

ical activities, there

are still lots of things he can’t do. In fact, the easy,

day-to-day tasks that we all do, like cutting our

food or opening a soft drink can, Max cannot do.

But I am inspired by the greatest thing Max cannot

do, that he chooses not to do -- complain or feel

sorry for himself.

He takes each day with a positive attitude and a

smile, never asking, “Why me?” or saying things

like, “This is so hard,” or “My life stinks.” Max’s

attitude toward life and living are what inspires

me every day.

Several years ago when we were at the zoo, a

woman approached me and said, “He will teach

you what it means to live life” and she walked

away. I will never forget what that perfect

stranger said to me. I believe what she was really

saying was, he will inspire you. And he has.

When things get tough or I’m stressed, I shift my

focus to Max. Some days I’m pretty good at looking

at the bright side, and other days, not so much.

And on those days, I think about Max. If he can

keep trying, keep giving his best to living and keep

smiling, then I can keep trying to have a good atti-

tude and give all my tasks my best effort.

There really are so many things to be thankful and

we can be reminded of this if we start counting our

blessings. They, in turn, may serve as inspiration.

My blessing of Max is near the top of my list.

If you’d like to learn about SMA (Spinal Muscular

Atrophy), check out

http://www.curesma.org/sma/about-sma/

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/9-sources-

of-inspiration-for-highly-successful-people-2013-7

“The ones who

are crazy enough to

think that they can

change the world,

are the ones

who do.”

—Steve Jobs

What Inspires You? By Tracie Loudermilk, Senior Project Manager

Spring 2017

NEWS

L-R: Hannah, Max, Chris and Tracie Loudermilk

Page 26

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