Sandia Laboratory FCU Pioneer Passageways IM & Others Follow

Present at CUNA Technology Council Conference
West Lafayette, IN – August 18, 2006 – Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union ($975 million) Manager of Technology Services, Timothy Sanchez-Brown was a featured speaker at the recent 2006 CUNA Technology Council Summit in Orlando, Florida. Sanchez-Brown’s well-attended presentation centered on new technology “Instant Messaging” and the financial industry’s most talked about newest communication tool: Passageways Enterprise Instant Messenger.

Passageways partnered with Sandia Laboratory FCU, Purdue EFCU and IH Mississippi Valley CU  to help launch Enterprise Instant Messenger (EIM) back in January and since then these credit unions have found the tool to be crucial to business processes. "The IM module provides a secure channel of instant communication that's proved valuable between member service staff and managers alike," says Timothy Sanchez-Brown. Passageways developed the product specifically for the needs of a credit union; focusing on security, compliance and usability.

Sanchez-Brown highlighted the need for an Instant Messaging product like EIM in the financial industry because of the superior communication capabilities that such an innovation could offer. Passageways EIM’s functionality, such as real-time communication, the ability to share files and send screenshots, is limited to only enabled organizational users. 

“Expert Locator” is another unique ability that Passageways EIM offers and has been utilized to great effect at Sandia Laboratory FCU.  “Expert Locator” allows users to access experts based on subject matter in real-time.  This ability is crucial in call centers and on the frontline where the 2 minute difference in getting a question answered dictates whether a sale is complete or not.

Since deployment, Sandia Laboratory FCU reports 200-300 messages being sent per day by an estimated 61% of staff. Sanchez-Brown reports that it is not uncommon to have a 500 message per day spike once a week, and praises the newfound ease of inter-department communication.

Similar success stories are emerging from other Passageways clients. In fact, in the last 2 months, Passageways has added 7 new clients on this new module. “We believe that Enterprise-class Instant Messaging would be used by EVERY financial organization, just like email got adopted 100%. It’s the perfect foil for the services industry”, says Paroon Chadha,  Co-Founder Passageways.

The CUNA Technology Council has long been regarded as prime outlet for introducing new and advanced solutions to the financial industry. For more on the CUNA Technology Council Summit, visit www.cunatechnologycouncil.org. Ironically at this conference among other presentation, a presentation by Gartner also reinforced how EIM is one of the fastest growing technologies in the financial industry.

About Sandia Laboratory FCU
With assets of more than $975 million, and 220 full-time staff, Sandia Laboratory serves over 55,000 members at 9 branches and 2 States. Sandia Laboratory FCU is also the 2006 Best Practices Award Winner at Passageways Annual Conference, PowWOW.   

About Passageways
Passageways, LLC is the leading portal provider to the financial industry. Passageways’ mission is to provide an affordable portal strategy for banks and credit unions of all sizes, helping their employees and partners become more efficient in collaboration and interaction with different systems. The company is headquartered in West Lafayette, Ind. For more information, visit www.passageways.com or please call 765-497-8842.