Every core vendor will feature a laundry list of benefits on their website or brochure. They’ll save you money. You’ll beat the competition. But, are there any benefits that particularly stand out?

This post was previously published in Independent Banker.

Misconceptions and negative experiences often dissuade community bankers from giving modern core banking technology a chance. What bankers don't realize is that continuing to pass on new solutions prevents them from growing their business and causes them to fall behind the competition.

Your core banking system may be performing as expected, but is it keeping up with modern technology and customer demand?  With innovations in core technology gaining momentum, there's no reason why your core system shouldn't have newer and more powerful capabilities for your bank to optimize operations and customer service. Learn the top three modern capabilities your core system should include and consider if your bank could benefit from them. 

If you’re like many bankers, you’re looking for the golden goose to help grow your business this year. The good news is that with IBT Apps’ newest partnerships and their newly released i2Deposit^SM account origination product, you’re able to do that and more.

Third-party integrations with a bank’s core system have quickly become a trend in the fintech industry. This makes sense for a few reasons: 1.) Today’s customers are looking for more digital products and paperless options to make banking convenient. 2.) Customer demand has caused a technology revolution with more and more third-party product vendors venturing into the community banking space. 3.) Startups and national organizations like ICBA are supporting these players by cultivating an environment for bankers to learn about and interact with new vendors.

Banking technology is one of the biggest investments keeping your institution in business. And, when we talk about technology, we’re referring to more than just the core. Technology is the entire infrastructure powering the front and back-office operations, from something as small as the bank’s email platform to the servers and data centers housing all of the bank’s customer data. Whether it’s software, hardware, or the cloud, we are highly dependent on technology to work when we need it.

This article was previously published in Independent Banker.

How would you describe your relationship with your core provider?

When we spoke to a group of community bankers last year, we often heard, “Well, it’s a love/hate relationship. Our business is running, and we have no complaints, but sometimes we wish we had more to work with.” We also heard, “We actually feel a little trapped in our relationship. We signed a 20-year contract, but our needs are changing and they’re not really able to meet us halfway.”

Having to review a core provider’s contract is like trying to walk through the southern mud. There are pages and pages of messy legalese, and if you don’t have an attorney that is knowledgeable in core technology contracts, you might just sign up for products and services you don’t need or want, and end up paying for more than you bargained for. What community bankers may not realize is that a core provider’s contract shouldn’t be complex or confusing; yet day after day, bankers are left locked into their contracts due to the black holes they couldn’t spot ahead of signing on the dotted line.

This post was previously published as an article in IB Magazine.

When you’re busy running your business, marketing can easily take a backseat. It’s complex, always changing, and can be challenging to find something that works. Fortunately, there is light at the end of tunnel. As long as you know some of the basics, marketing can be simplified so that it’s something you can implement and grow with.

In this article, you’ll learn how to build a simple marketing strategy even if you have limited resources and budget. You may have never invested in marketing or you may have just been too overwhelmed by all the possibilities and unknowns to set a course, but regardless of your position, you can walk away with the foundation to market your bank just by answering a few basic questions.