Credit Union Minimizes The Impact Of Hardcopy Paper On Their Organization

Changing Seasons Credit Union was established over 40 years ago as Bangor Hydro Federal Credit Union to serve the needs of the employees of Bangor Hydro Electric Company. In 2007 the credit union built their first office and became known as Changing Seasons Federal Credit Union, adding services to include the local area towns.

Until 2013, Changing Seasons FCU was very much a paper-based business. Employee records, loan documents and other supporting documents were filed into traditional file cabinets lined in rows in various places around their offices. This "transaction-based" filing system was how things had been done for many years. Technology had certainly provided important workplace improvements in previous decades, including software designed specifically for credit unions, but in this competitive and highly-regulated industry, nothing was addressing the fact that they were dependent on excessive amounts of hardcopy paperwork.

Regulations require that credit unions retain member account-related information for seven years. At Changing Seasons FCU, all currently-active files were then kept in file cabinets in their primary office space, while older files were stored in less-handy locations in the same building, typically in plastic file boxes rather than metal file cabinets. The files were organized by member number, with no easy way to cross reference files using other criteria.

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