Black Hills Federal Credit Union
Case Study
Who: Rapid City, S.D.-based Black Hills Federal Credit Union, a $1.3 billion dollar-asset credit union serving more than 58,300 members throughout South Dakota.
Patty Mogensen, Teller Manager for Black Hills FCU.
What: Cash ordering and tracking inconsistencies led Black Hills FCU to pursue a centralized cash management solution that would eliminate the process of each individual branch ordering cash based off intuition or previous experience. C3 Financial’s predictive analytics capabilities enable the credit union to better determine the appropriate amounts and denominations of cash within its branches, enabling Black Hills FCU’s staff to redirect time previously spent on cash-related processes to focus more attention toward serving members.
Before C3 Financial, Black Hills FCU’s cash ordering and tracking management relied on traditional, manual processes that were inconsistent and time-consuming. Individual branches were responsible for tracking their specific cash usage amounts on a weekly basis, which often resulted in high cash overages at many branch locations.
“Branches were responsible for ordering their own cash, however, there was no consistent methodology to do so,” said Patty Mogensen, teller manager for Black Hills Federal Credit Union. “Each branch kept track of its specific cash information, and when it was time to place orders, employees looked back at previous year-over-year numbers and determined what they thought was best to order based off that. From there, our main branch placed one big cash order.”
Black Hills FCU first learned about logicpath and the company’s cash management solution, C3 Financial, through an industry media article. A web-based branch, ATM and vault cash management software solution, C3 Financial centralizes the credit union’s fragmented cash ordering process and predicts the amount of cash each individual branch needs based off historical usage.
“Before C3 Financial, our cash numbers at certain locations were sky high and some branches never ran out of cash because they had too much on hand,” said Mogensen. “Through C3 Financial, our main branch places all cash orders for our other branches;
eliminating once manual processes and ensuring each branch only has the amount of cash they need to serve our members.”
According to Mogensen, Black Hills staff now receives recommendations on what denominations each branch needs; staff accepts C3 Financial’s order guidance and only enters special cash requests.
“In the past, each branch spent so much time on ordering cash,” said Mogensen. “Now, employees simply approve the order and deposit recommendations for bills and type in any coin requests in C3 Financial and that’s it. The notes section in the solution is extremely beneficial and enables staff to write descriptions as to why the branch ordered specific amounts of cash in excess of the recommendation.”
"Using logicpath’s new forecasting model, we have reduced our cash levels by 30%. logicpath’s cash management solution is flexible, effective and a critical part of our process,” said Patty Mogensen, DTMSC Teller Manager.
According to Mogensen, C3 Financial has improved Black Hills FCU’s cash management process by reducing human error and eliminating a time consuming and cumbersome manual process of data collection and record keeping.
“C3 Financial has saved our branches a tremendous amount of time,” said Mogensen. “All of our cash information is in one place; we no longer maintain cash data anywhere else, no extra spreadsheets.”
Black Hills Credit Union experienced a 30 percent reduction in total cash levels within 3 months of using C3 Financial. Over the last five years, Black Hills Credit Union’s membership has increased by 9 percent. The continued practice of utilizing C3 Financial has allowed the credit union to maintain lower cash levels, only growing cash levels in conjunction to membership growth.
“C3 Financial allowed us to see how much cash inventory we had in excess of our demand. We were all excited to see the cash levels lower and the savings we experienced in the end,” said Mogensen.
The solution’s reporting capabilities, complemented by logicpath’s support team, has increased the amount of time Black Hills employees can now spend on assisting members.
“C3 Financial produces a report that enables us to compare year-over-year cash flow and on-hand cash,” finished Mogensen. “From there, we can analyze how much we have reduced our cash amounts. The increase in efficiencies and automation of our cash processes has enabled us to direct more resources toward enhancing the member experience.”
Founded in 1941, Black Hills Federal Credit Union is a $1billion dollar-asset credit union based in Rapid City, S.D. with 12 locations serving more than 58,313 members. Black Hills Federal Credit Union offers a full line of financial products and services, including insurance and investments, for people and businesses. We are dedicated to the communities and families we serve, and have committed to providing personal service and quality products from local experts.
Atlanta, Ga.-based logicpath provides software solutions and analytics to financial institutions and retail organizations. logicpath proudly services the needs of more than 1,500 clients in 50 states and Canada by providing “Smart Solutions that Make Dollars and Sense.” logicpath is the designer of C3 Financial, a web-based cash forecasting and management software. logicpath also pioneered Deposit Reclassification, a retail sweep program designed to eliminate reserve balances. logicpath’s pALMs is a web-based asset/liability management simulation software that provides accurate and detailed analysis asset-by-asset and liability-by-liability. These solutions improve earnings, efficiencies, risk management and operations.