How CEOs Can Ensure Continuity in their Bank or Credit Union with Network Management
The role of a community bank or credit union CEO has become increasingly complex with responsibilities including oversight of all operations and procedures—no small task in light of today’s rapidly changing technology and security landscape, evolving compliance, and shifts in consumer behavior when selecting a banking partner. Given this, many CEOs are struggling to ensure continuity in this environment, especially working with limited resources and increased employee turnover.
An effective way to do this is to partner with a managed services provider that has a comprehensive network management solution designed specifically for community banks and credit unions to provide expertise, services, IT support and add to the existing internal knowledge bases.
Sustaining Personnel Continuity
The reality is that today, community banks and credit unions must address succession planning, especially as it relates to their IT department. CEOs are tasked with thinking about and planning for redundancy to counter the consequences of key staff leaving and taking that knowledge-base with them—and away from the institution. But true continuity is not limited to a single employee resigning; there needs to be a continuity plan in place to account for when employees take vacation, are out sick, are on short-term disability, or are on maternity leave. Regardless of the situation, a managed services provider can help minimize uncertainty, prevent unnecessary stress, and assure continuity by acting as an extension of a bank or credit union and helping to augment internal IT resources.
Ensuring Technology Continuity
In addition to human capital, technology continuity is a key component of a community financial institution’s success. The advancement of technology, online banking services, compliance, and regulatory requirements, plus the growing demand from customers and members to have 24/7 access to their financial lives, has made the business of banking that much more challenging as it has become more IT-focused. This has made it crucial for banks and credit unions to have a proven technology program and framework in place to ensure that operations continually run smoothly.
Working with a provider who offers IT network management solutions exclusively tailored for the community banking industry provides a level of continuity and expertise that can otherwise be difficult to maintain internally on a long-term basis. Doing so ensures that the financial institution’s network is properly adhering to its operational, security, and compliance policies and procedures.
Continued Adherence to Government Regulations and Compliance
The burden of understanding how an ever-growing list of regulations applies to IT operations is shared across the organization. This pressure can be alleviated by an outsourced provider that truly understands the industry and is able to help institutions better manage their processes in a compliant manner. Taking a proactive approach to network management, for example, gives community banks and credit unions the ability to better stay ahead of new and pending regulatory requirements while effectively managing costs through limited resources.
Change is inevitable for any institution. However, having the ability to withstand change and still meet (or better yet, exceed) customer and member demands and expectations in spite of personnel turnover, natural disasters, technology struggles, etc. is key in today’s marketplace. An experienced managed services provider that offers a comprehensive network management system can go a long way toward ensuring continuity.