Ontario's largest credit union building next-generation member services with Visual Studio 2005
Meridian standardizing its operations on an integrated, Microsoft-based platform
MISSISSAUGA, ON - June 21, 2006 - Microsoft Canada Co. announced today that Meridian Credit Union Ltd. is creating a new service experience for its 180,000 members by standardizing its operations on a range of Microsoft® .NET connection software. Replacing numerous, inefficient paper-based processes, the solution will enable Meridian staff to fulfill member service requests through a single desktop view. It will also help employees to better serve members as part of Meridian's plan to reinvent Neighbourhood Banking.
The result of a $3.5-billion merger between Niagara Credit Union and Hepcoe Credit Union, Meridian is Ontario's largest credit union, operating 43 branches and 63 ATMs across the province. As a result of the merger, the new company supported a mix of aging business software, some of which was based on proprietary, UNIX-based software that could not be easily integrated with existing Windows® and other legacy-based assets.
Meridian needed a platform that would help it achieve near-seamless integration across the organization, enable the easy sharing of data, and that would support continued growth. Given the sensitive nature of financial data, security was a paramount concern. The new platform had to offer a high level of protection. Additionally, Meridian wanted to reinforce its reputation as a leader in the credit union industry by offering members a range of new services. To help it achieve these goals, Meridian has enlisted the help of Microsoft Gold Certified partner, Systemgroup Inc., to build a new member services platform powered by the Microsoft .NET Framework.
"As a credit union our members are our owners, so we're focused on making their experience with us as simple and efficient as possible. By standardizing on the Microsoft .NET-based platform we can deliver new services to them more quickly and cost-effectively. Microsoft software will help Meridian offer its members a great end-user experience while helping to reduce the cost and time needed to invest in and maintain our IT resources. It is a key enabler to our vision of reinventing Neighbourhood Banking," said Steve Gesner, chief information officer, Meridian.
Systemgroup Inc. is helping Meridian address its business needs by introducing a suite of Microsoft software running on the Windows Server™ 2003 operating system. Microsoft Windows SharePoint® Portal Server will serve as the platform for the Meridian corporate intranet and will allow employees to efficiently collaborate and locate information across the organization. Business Scorecard Manager and SQL Server™ 2005 Reporting Services and Analysis Services will be leveraged to provide managers and staff with the information needed to make complex business decisions. To effectively integrate the numerous applications currently in place at Meridian, BizTalk® Server 2006 will be employed as the primary message routing and business process execution platform. Visual Studio® 2005 development system and .NET Framework 2.0 will be used to help empower Meridian IT development staff to create line of business applications and components to support the specific business needs of Meridian.
"By choosing Microsoft and the .NET-based platform, Meridian is taking advantage of a solution that enables it to achieve organization-wide interoperability. Using Visual Studio 2005 will also help Meridian build an intuitive and user-friendly application that can be modified as quickly and as often as market conditions demand. The ability to do more with less time will help developers to be more productive, and enable them to focus on adding value to the organization," said Jeff Zado, senior product manager, development tools, Microsoft Canada.
About Meridian Credit Union
Meridian Credit Union is Ontario's largest credit union and has over 180,000 member, 43 branches and over 900 employees in southern and central Ontario. Meridian provides individual financial coaching, local decision-making and other personalized services.
About Microsoft Canada
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Co. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Microsoft Canada is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario with MSN.CA offices located in Toronto and eight regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Visit Microsoft Canada's Web site at www.microsoft.ca
©2006 Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft, BizTalk, SharePoint, Visual Studio, Windows and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
