Integrating CU Technology System Status with Portal

1
Integrating CU Technology System Status with
Portal

• Sandia Laboratory FCU
• 2006 powWoW Best Practice Award Entry

2
SLFCU Background

• Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union
• Albuquerque, NM and Livermore, CA
• 983 million in assets
• MEMBERS Financial Services CUSO 160 million in
  assets under management
• CU Anytime Network CUSO with 220 ATMs
• Shared Branching, and Business Lending/Services
• 54,911 total membership
• Eight physical branches and one electronic branch
• Approximately 220 staff members
• Passageways client since April of 2005
• Development Environment
• Intranet is managed from the Technology Services
  Department
• 1.5 FTEs (Application Development, Content
  Development, and Training, and Help Desk Support)
• (as of December 2005)

3
Internal Rationale and Objectives

• This system was developed to alert Intranet
  users of changes in SLFCU systems streamline the
  system status change process and to provide
  documentation of system trouble.
• The objectives of this System Status Project
  included
• an easy to use/maintain system status interface
• the creation of a change log and
• an easy-to-use interface for system changes to be
  viewed easily by the staff.
• By making the information readily accessible to
  employees, it was hoped that the Help Desk would
  receive fewer notification/question calls during
  system outages.

4
Originality and Innovation

• The System Status Application is original in that
  it was developed specifically to meet an SLFCU
  problem, but is portable and could be customized
  and applied to any organization
• The System Status Application integrates many of
  our internal communication channels
• Delivery method of information via Lotus Notes,
  Passageways Alerts, status web page, and a
  scrolling banner make system status changes
  obvious
• The System Status Application is innovative
  because it fulfills an identified need a method
  of decreasing help desk calls when system status
  change

5
Significance of the Application

• The System Status Application keeps users
  proactively informed of changes in systems they
  use to provide service to SLFCU members
• The System Status Application allows appropriate
  personnel to change the status of a system with
  minimal steps
• The System Status Application will allow
  technical staff to address system outages head-on
  instead of answering basic calls
• The System Status Application replaces a more
  user-involved application that required machine
  specific ODBC connections

6
Improvements in Collaboration

• Perceived 50 decrease in help desk calls related
  to system status inquiries indicates improved
  Credit Union communication across other
  non-verbal channels
• Ability for multiple technical departments to
  update the system status of the systems they
  manage
• Before the System Status Application, system
  outages were reported via email and system
  problems were reported when users called in both
  lacked timeliness.
• Change/Note Log accompanies every status change
• Management can look for patterns regarding system
  outages, responses, and timelines
• Member Services can stay more readily informed
  and react to member requests appropriately
• Member Services increasingly rely on the Internet
  and associated technologies to perform daily
  tasks and service the membership

7
Significance of the Application to ROI

• Minimal programming time invested to enhance
  communication channels.
• Enhances ROI of already installed Passageways
  Portal Framework.

8
Quality of the Implementation

• The quality of implementing the application was
  very high
• The same day the application was made public, a
  department adopted the procedure of updating
  their system status via the application
• Within a few days of implementation, a system
  experienced problems and the Help Desk received
  only a few phone inquiries
• Intuitive and easy to use without training

9
Development Methodology

• The System Status Application was developed with
  clear objectives
• Easily maintain system, change audit log, and
  display information to staff in a user-friendly
  format
• The Application was developed as an integration
  with .NET features and Passageways functions
• Before development, a meeting took place to
  discuss the systems that would be incorporated
  into the application
• The application was built using Macromedia
  Dreamweaver MX 2004 and ASP.Net C
• The application used an ODBC connection to the
  Intranet SQL Server 2000 database
• After the application was developed, time was
  spent on the applications content design to
  enhance user interface

10
Features and Functionality

• The System Status page allows an employee to
  change a specific system to the status of
  Online, Problems, or Down
• When a status is changed, the new status is
  stored into a database and system log

(System Status Page)
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Features and Functionality

• From the System Status page, an employee can view
  the log history for a specified system

(System Status Log)
12
Features and Functionality

• The system status is integrated into the
  Passageways interface top bar
• When all systems are online, the message, All
  Systems Online appears

(Passageways interface top bar)
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Features and Functionality

• When a systems status changes from Online to
  Down or Problems, a marquee banner indicating
  the system and its status will move across the
  Passageways interface top bar

(Passageways interface top bar)
14
Features and Functionality

• When a systems status is changed to Down or
  Online, an automated alert is generated by the
  System Status Application
• The alert is delivered to everyones e-mail and
  Passageways web-portal

(System status alert)
15
Features and Functionality

• When a systems status is changed to Down or
  Online, the system status island will reflect
  the change
• The system status light will change based on
  the status
• Green online
• Yellow experiencing problems
• Red down

(System status island)
16
Discussion

• Goal of eliminating or minimizing Help Desk calls
  related to system status communication (allowing
  for work on problem itself)
• Improved productivity by reducing the number of
  steps to change a system status and notifying
  users of the change
• Increased end-user participation of using
  Intranet to check on system status supported by
  ease of use
• Increased collaboration between departments

17
Conclusion

• The System Status Application is a simple but
  very effective communication tool that has been
  added to SLFCUs Intranet
• The functionality of the System Status
  Application could be easily transitioned into
  other uses (i.e. sign-out board)
• The System Status Application successfully met
  all of its initial objectives

18
Team Members

• Technology Services Department
• Lee Derks, Application Lead Developer
• Timothy Sanchez-Brown, Department Manager

19
Thank You

• Thank you for considering SLFCU for the 2006
  Passageways Best Practice Award!
• Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union
• 3707 Juan Tabo Blvd NE
• Albuquerque, NM 87111
• [phone]
• www.slfcu.org