Case Study

Liberty Federal Credit Union is a federally chartered, federally insured credit union, whose existence is for the financial benefits of its members.  Being a membership-owned credit union allows its members to enjoy ownership in the form of dividends, competitive loan rates and low-cost services.  The use of a circle in their logo demonstrates how a cooperative works to benefit the entire membership.  At Liberty Federal Credit Union, the goal is to provide service to the members of the credit union while maintaining long term stability of the financial institution.

As the time approached to open a new branch in Liberty, SC, LFCU turned to CreekPointe to offer cost saving solutions to this eminent growth.  They were tasked with customizing a network to suit their needs and have it work for them.  CreekPointe has worked closely with organizations similar to LFCU for several years, providing personalized client hardware and software support.  Having a good understanding of their unique needs, CreekPointe was ready to structure a plan of smooth network transition and creation.

Taking a team approach, CreekPointe expressed five primary phases of this project to LFCU.

• Client preparation

• In-house hardware and software configuration

• Installation

• Client/Server/Network configuration

• Client/Server monitoring and adjustments

Designating a single point of contact for both the vendor and client sides simplified communication.  Nancy Hernandez, LFCU’s Assistant Manager, was the designated project manger for the credit union.

“We are growing, and as a result, our need for advanced technology is increasing at a rapid pace.  CreekPointe possesses the expertise to guide us in our decisions and had the flexibility to schedule the implementation to meet our needs.”

There were several requirements that had to be met to ensure both a successful branch opening and a network-wide upgrade for the main office.

• A system that could provide central storage and file sharing to multiple users, simultaneously, without noticeable degradation in performance while still maintaining a high level of fault tolerance.  Solution: IBM X-Series file server with drives to be raided to insure data.

• A high performance network operating system that can provide secure application support and file storage, network performance troubleshooting and diagnostics, local and remote systems management, while providing an easy to use, intuitive environment for each user.  Solution:  Microsoft 2000 Server.  Microsoft and IBM work closely together and all of IBM’s servers are Windows 2000 certified.  CreekPointe has been a Microsoft Solutions Provider for the past 6 years and they have a direct relationship with Microsoft and their vast support infrastructure including priority technical phone support.  LFCU enjoys these same benefits through CreekPointe.
   

• Establish a Virtual Private Network using 3DES security to connect the Taylors office with the Liberty Branch.  Solution:  Cisco PIX configured with the VPN option and the 3DES option.
   

• Provide up-to-date virus protection for all systems on the network including email protection.  Solution:  Norton Anti-Virus for small businesses.

• Protect important data from loss due to power outage, deliberate or accidental deletion and catastrophic system failure.  Solution:  Scheduled, rotating tape back up using Veritas Backup Exec.  In addition, each user is given a home directory on the server, which is backed up daily.

“I feel secure in knowing that CreekPointe is there for us no matter what question or situation arises.  If I need phone support for desktop software problems, they have a fix.  If I run out of time to run maintenance or implement/upgrade software used in scanning our database for the Office of Foreign Affairs Commission, CreekPointe is here to do it.  Their Platinum Service technician is familiar with all of our software and various vendors.  When new software is being shipped to us, they are here to bring me up to speed on it, which allows me to spend my time managing the business of Liberty Federal Credit Union.”

Nancy adds, “When we built our newest branch, we took CreekPointe’s advise on equipment, software and services…and have had no regrets.”
 

www.libertyfcu.org