Healthcare and Municipal Employees’ Credit Union Ltd. (HMECU) Successfully Implements Universa powered by Smart Solution

Smart Solution, a leading provider of financial management solutions, is pleased to announce another successful implementation of its state of the art, browser based banking platform Universa at Healthcare and Municipal Employees’ Credit Union Ltd. After months of planning, testing and trial conversions, the production implementation was completed with nominal downtime and minimal impact to members.

Universa is a cutting-edge, browser-based banking platform, written from the ground up using the latest industry standard technology. This HMECU conversion marks Smart Solution’s fourth (4th) successful conversion to and installation of its Universa platform in 2013 with many more commitments scheduled for 2014, 2015 and beyond.

“Having worked closely with Smart Solution’s implementation team over the last few months, when all was said and done, we were all extremely pleased with how well the conversion went", said Charlie Collura, President and CEO of the Healthcare and Municipal Employees’ Credit Union. Our VP Operations, who lead our conversion team and who has been involved in 3 banking systems conversions in her career, called the Universa conversion the smoothest one yet. Member and staff impact was, of course, our biggest concern and I can honestly say there was very little of both. Through this experience I’ve learned that in the business of banking system conversions, ultimately you have to place a lot of trust in your supplier’s ability to deliver on their promises. I can unequivocally state that Smart Solution delivered for us,” added Mr. Collura.

In existence since 1936 when it began operations in Hamilton City Hall under the name of Hamilton Municipal Employees’ Credit Union, HMECU has grown into a full-service financial institution that boasts over 13,000 members and assets of $160 Million. HMECU holds the proud distinction of being the oldest Credit Union Central (original) charter member still in operation in the province of Ontario.

“We are very proud to say this was one of the most successful conversions we have completed to date and it was only possible through the hard work and dedication of team members from both organizations,” said Iean Tait, President and CEO, Smart Solution. "By following a structured conversion process that has been perfected over many years and many implementations, our dedicated and knowledgeable staff has been able to make even the most difficult conversions look easy. We are confident that any financial institution looking to upgrade to a modern, flexible and robust core banking platform would benefit greatly from our years of experience and proven conversion process,” added Mr. Tait.

For more than 37 years, Smart Solution and its group of companies has provided innovative core banking systems and financial management solutions to financial institutions worldwide. Smart Solution supports a diverse client base of financial institutions, including some of the top Canadian and Caribbean Credit Unions.