2015 in review: An open letter from EPL’s CEO

The start of a new year affords me two unique opportunities—a chance to reflect in earnest on the successes and failures over the course of the past year, and to affirm strategic goals and areas of focus moving forward.

As easy as it is to get caught up in day-to-day issues, it’s imperative that we, as a team, take a step back and look at the big picture—to piece together the puzzle and appreciate where we stand today in comparison to one year ago. With great confidence, I can say that, to me, 2015 represented 365 days of unprecedented forward movement, growth and visibility for EPL, its customers and its industry partners.

2015 was the year that Dedagroup ICT network entered the U.S. market and identified our company as its first partner by making a multimillion dollar investment in our team. The effects of this have been overwhelmingly positive, providing our team with technological and capital resources that have propelled us from being a relatively small core solutions provider to an industry disruptor that is part of a global brand generating over $3 billion in gross revenue. EPL’s people have always been the driving force behind the successes we’ve enjoyed, and now our team is equipped better than ever to dominate the competition and capture significant new market share. 

EPL’s reputation for exceptional service is rooted in our brand’s identity—customers know it, and so do our competitors. That fact that 2015 marked the return of a former long-time customer, North Alabama Educators Credit Union (NAECU), speaks volumes about the incredible value we create by delivering industry-leading service and solutions. Customers like NAECU who have experienced the EPL difference find that big-box providers simply aren’t equipped to provide the responsiveness and attention that we give our customers every single day.

The warmth of the summer brought a contagious momentum that perforated the room at our 2015 Customer Conference in Orlando, Fla., where we introduced our Dedagroup partners and unveiled EPL’s new direction. We gathered feedback, socialized and together looked toward the future. As we reconvened in the fall at our Product Advisory Team meeting to finalize our new product roadmap, it became clear to me that this palpable momentum had not waivered, but instead gathered steam.

And gather steam we did! Soon after the Product Advisory Team meeting, a strategic partnership with the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions was announced to develop CU Impact, a  core banking platform designed to scale the delivery of innovative products and services offered by credit unions operating in low-income and underserved communities. Throughout 2015, our skilled team was able to  develop new proprietary solutions and deliver 12 releases, including four major product releases for i-POWER®, with areas of focus in accounts payable and lending, as well compliance, security and technology enhancements.

Also, in the fall, our team was thrilled to announce that EPL’s board approved a measure to eliminate the TRiP charge from our customers’ invoices, saving the collective group approximately $1 million per year. TRiP highlighted six specific areas of technology development—security, client platform support, application architecture, database and database architecture, integration services, and hardware and operations—and many key milestones have already been reached. EPL’s continued focus on technology development will ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of i-POWER®.

Internally, we recalibrated our leadership hierarchy, assigning new roles and responsibilities designed to increase growth through an intensified concentration on product and business development. With open arms, the EPL team welcomed our Dedagroup NA colleagues and their wealth of expertise into our offices as additional resources to help us achieve the strategic goals set forth by our Product Advisory Team. The progress we’ve made thus far led us to a consensus that in 2016, in lieu of holding our annual Customer Conference, we will double down on our Product Advisory Team meetings and initiatives, incorporating regional meetings as requested.

Looking back over these tremendous accomplishments, it would not be a stretch to say that perhaps 2015 was our best year to-date. What I can say with certainty is that this past year was only a glimmer of what is to come for our team and our partners at Dedagoup NA.

2016 will see the integration of a real-time general ledger, a new in-house credit card module, improved batch credit card interfaces, new relationship pricing functionality and a few other exciting surprises for our loyal customers.

I’ll leave you with this—none of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our entire team.

Together we solve problems, develop innovative solutions, support one another’s creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, and constantly challenge the status quo. Ordinary efforts don’t produce extraordinary results, and it’s evident to me that nothing about EPL is ordinary. So today, I express my sincerest gratitude to each member of the EPL team for your tremendous efforts, and to each of our customers and partners for traveling the road to greatness with us. I assure you the best is yet to come.



EPL Staff

EPL, Inc. 

How to cultivate your subject matter experts (SMEs)

It takes a team to run and grow your credit union.  Does your team have unique talents and expertise that contributes to the credit union's overall success?  Do you truly have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) or do you have people in their roles that do their jobs because it has, “always been done that way?”  

When met with new challenges your team must have the drive to learn and continue growing their expertise. 

How do you inspire your team to be SMEs that will not only allow you to better serve your members? How do you encourage them to continue personal growth and driven to find better ways to improve efficiency and member satisfaction? How do you cultivate peer influencers and managers? 

EPL is a company that is committed to growing our staff to become SMEs and is also committed to working with credit unions to help their staff become SMEs. So, how can EPL and credit unions work together to make sure your staff knows how to use your core data system most effectively and have SMEs throughout your organization?

• Help your staff build their credentials to become SMEs: This can be done through internal and external education, through ongoing experiences and solving problems
• Ensure key people attend training sessions: Remember, no constructive question is unreasonable. Make sure staff understands what is being presented and encourage discussion.  Share information in the training session about how new processes will benefit the credit union.  Have the team communicate internally what they learn, ask them what they learned and how it will benefit your credit union?
• Network with other credit unions (like with our e3Community): EPL has created a networking forum to allow credit unions to discuss, ask and respond to best practices and challenges. 
• Encourage staff to be ambassadors for their area: Allow them to be influencers on processes that are established.  Consider having processes reviewed by your credit union partners to be sure they are optimizing system functionality.
• Have your SMEs conduct training: When your SME is the team trainer in specific areas, they tend to continue improving their knowledge. Have them record their training session to improve their own delivery and to keep an electronic resource available for future staff or to share with other credit unions
• Your team will respond to praise: Recognize SMEs internally to staff and managers.  You can also acknowledge them externally in credit union publications and board communications.  Finally, consider recognizing them as experts in industry networking forums. Soon other credit unions will be seeking out your SMEs for good ideas advice for better execution.

Cultivation of SMEs helps to grow your team professionally, motivates and retains your best people and provides a resource for other credit unions to gain key ideas to help their credit unions to grow as well.

EPL Staff

EPL, Inc.