STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 7, 2003
Date: 9/30/02
When State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) of North Carolina, with assets of over $9.2 billion, chose to participate in the Visa POS Check Service program, SECU wanted a solution that would be up-and-running as soon as possible-without jeopardizing SECU's existing ATM and POS operations.
Last November, SECU selected Paragon Connect™ as its solution and, by early February, had completed its certification with Visa Debit Processing Service (Visa DPS) and was processing checks electronically. "We chose Paragon Connect because it allowed us to quickly participate in the Visa POS Check Service program without major customizations or modifications to our current applications," says Leanne Phelps, SVP of Card Services at SECU. "This represented a substantial cost savings to SECU for our initial implementation."
Phelps adds, "We chose to participate in the Visa POS Check Service because we believe this is another viable payment option for our credit union membership. We also believe that this transaction path will appeal to merchants because the Visa infrastructure and payment channels are in place and proven."
SECU was pleased with the efficiency and ease of the installation. Says Phelps, "Paragon's implementation was painless. Jim Humphreys and Peter Sturgess from Paragon were extremely knowledgeable about their product as well as about Visa's program. Their experience enabled them to readily identify issues and provide solutions during implementation."
Peter Sturgess, Paragon's Vice President, acknowledges, "There are a number of differences between the business processes of banks and credit unions. However, our previous installation experience combined with the cooperation we received from the SECU staff allowed us to complete the project at a fraction of the time-and cost-of build-it-yourself solutions or other product offerings."
Sturgess says, "The 'hooks' provided by Paragon Connect made integrating the solution with SECU's existing applications very straightforward."
Phelps agrees, "SECU efforts to customize the Paragon code were minimal. Programming resources required an aggregate of two full time programmers during the implementation process. Modifications to SECU programs were limited to JCL changes, creation of a new authorization program to interface with Paragon Connect, and modifications to posting programs and to our memo posting jobs. A few additional batch jobs were created and some modifications to existing batch reports were made to support the new transaction types."
Another Paragon product also contributed to the success of the project. Sturgess explains, "By using Paragon's FASTest, with its comprehensive Visa POS Check Service test cases, we were able to thoroughly test Paragon Connect and SECU's authorization programs. By using FASTest to simulate Visa DPS, we were able to rigorously test the message handling by Paragon Connect, the online authorization processing by SECU, and the batch interface for SECU's posting system. This testing directly contributed to the speed with which we were able to complete the certification testing required by VISA DPS."
Overall, the experience was a positive one for SECU. Phelps says, "SECU highly recommends Paragon Connect to Visa POS Check Service-and the Paragon staff."
Adds Sturgess, "Paragon has accumulated a wealth of experience working with the VISA POS Check Service product and the VISA DPS staff. We have integrated the Paragon solution in both bank and credit union systems, and the benefit of our experience is one of the valuable assets we offer our customers."
For more information on using Paragon Connect for fast participation in the Visa POS Check Service program, contact Paragon at sales@parappsys.com.
