Financial Partners Credit Union Completes CRM Strategy

Ventus helps build enterprise-wide CRM Strategy for Financial Partners Credit Union (Financial Partners) to further increase its assets, net worth and PFI rate (preferred financial institution), while becoming more member-centric

Los Angeles, Calif. (PRWEB) May 9, 2003 -- Ventus Solutions, a professional consulting firm that helps financial services firms optimize customer relationships, today announced it has successfully completed the CRM Strategy Workshop for Financial Partners Credit Union (Financial Partners), a leading credit union in Southern California with $550 million in assets and over 60,000 members.

Prior to launching the Ventus CRM Strategy Workshop, Financial Partners set aggressive strategic goals to increase its assets, its net worth, and its preferred financial institution (PFI) rate by 2005. Additionally, Financial Partners set several strategic objectives to help reach these goals. One critical objective was to transition their organization and culture from a product-centric to a more member relationship-centric environment. Additionally, Financial Partners management knew it must be able to deliver a more consistent member experience across all of their delivery channels.

In order to meet these goals, Financial Partners needed a professional consulting firm focused in the financial services industry that delivered immediate results, and thus engaged Ventus Solutions. With its deep experience in financial services consulting and custom-tailored CRM Strategy Workshops, Ventus formulated an enterprise-wide CRM Strategy that solidified Financial Partners goals and ambitions into a tangible action plan. The CRM Strategy Workshop helped us gain consensus on our key member strategy objectives and to identify and prioritize next steps. Ventus helped move our organization's vision of 'Building Lifetime Financial Partnerships' into an actionable plan within budget, " said Lori Reeves, SVP of Delivery at Financial Partners.

Ventus Delivers Tangible Results
Our Ventus CRM Strategy Workshop was an ideal approach for getting Financial Partners executives confident in launching a CRM initiative. The Strategy Workshop focused on CRM as a business objective first and a technology implementation last. Not only did the Workshop outline a CRM roadmap for the next 2 years, it also helped prioritize Financial Partners CRM objectives, gaps and future capabilities necessary to transition them toward a member-centric environment," said Ventus President Nick Yarymovych. Through a series of facilitated sessions and interviews using a best practice approach and tools, the Workshop pace moved quickly to identify Financial Partners current member-impacted process issues, reviewed its technology environment and determined Financial Partners organizational readiness around its members experiences.

Prioritized goals were outlined in a detailed CRM Roadmap which contained key steps and recommendation by Ventus to be executed by Financial Partners. These steps and recommendations involved high-impact processes changes, organizational/ incentive adjustments as well as selection criteria for best-of-breed supporting CRM technologies and a corresponding implementation plan. Upon completion of the CRM Workshop, Financial Partners has customized its product / solution offerings, improved its business processes where they affect member experience and has begun shifting from product-driven to member-focused selling. As a result, Financial Partners is steadily seeking continual growth financially, while at the same time being recognized for customer service excellence.

About Ventus Solutions
Ventus Solutions, based in Los Angeles, is a strategy and technology solution provider focused on the customer-facing needs of financial services organizations and credit unions.
Ventus Solutions has helped many financial services organizations transform into customer-centric organizations. Ventus has an experienced team of consultants with the deep financial services expertise necessary to design and execute effective customer relationship strategies and implement best of breed technology solutions for retail banks, credit unions and lenders.

About Financial Partners Credit Union
Financial Partners Credit Union has over $509 million in assets and 62,308 members. Financial Partners is a leading credit union in Southern California and the fifth largest credit union in Los Angeles. Financial Partners focuses on building lifetime financial partnernships by providing safe places for investments, serving as a trusted source of financial information, and remaining the best place for financing dreams.

For more information, press only:
   Mark Williams, 310-640-6000, mwilliams@ventussolutions.com

For more information on Ventus Solutions:
   http://www.ventussolutions.com

For more information on Financial Partners:
   http://www.fpcu.org/