St. Canice’s Credit Union
St. Canice’s Credit Union is one of the largest community credit unions in the Republic of Ireland. Headquartered in Kilkenny City, it has more than 65,000 members and close to half a billion euro in assets.
St. Canice’s Credit Union offer mortgages, unsecured loans up to €75,000 and current accounts, as well as regular savings and online accounts. It has a branch network across three counties; Kilkenny, Laois and Carlow, as well as through its extensive 24/7 online services.
Why did you choose Magnet+?
After completing extensive research of the telecoms market, St. Canice’s Credit Union chose Magnet+ as they were looking to replace an on-premises private-branch-exchange (PBX) solution which Magnet+ could provide. It was also important that this was going to be an easy process for team at the St. Canice’s Credit Union.
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“As part of the decision-making process, Magnet+ demonstrated the services that they could offer to the IT member services teams, after which the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.”
What services does Magnet+ provide St. Canice’s Credit Union with?
St. Canice’s were looking for multiple solutions including a hosted telephony solution, direct connectivity between some of its branches and dedicated internet access.
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“The Magnet+ team were able to offer all of these in a single package which makes the Finance team’s lives much easier. Additionally, as we fully embrace hybrid working, flexibility of a hosted PBX provided by Magnet+ has ensured that any of our staff members who are mobile or working from home have the telephony they need either on a hot-desk phone installed in an office branch or a softphone installed on their mobile device.”
What benefits has St. Canice’s Credit Union experienced since implementing services from Magnet+?
One of the key drivers for implementing the hosted PBX solution was to give St. Canice’s Credit Union the flexibility to redirect calls in a Business Continuity event. For example, should they find themselves in a position where they have to ask staff to work from another branch they can do so easily and efficiently.
At the time of implementation, the key internal stakeholder was their Member Services Team. The team had to be 100% happy with the services provided before St. Canice’s Credit Union switched over to the Magnet+ solution, which they were.
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“Since switching over to the Magnet+ solution the flexibility of adding and removing team members to the Member Service Centre call tree at busy times is seamless and instantly effective – full control lies with the team leader, not the IT department, and this is the right place for the control to be”.
St. Canice’s Credit Union has seen a reduction in its overall costs and the opportunity to decommission legacy copper-based services will provide significant savings to the organisation over a number of years.
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“Additionally, the ease of use of the hosted PBX software provided by Magnet+ means that we can adjust our messaging to members almost immediately, and completely under our own control”.
What has impressed St. Canice’s Credit Union most about Magnet+?
As a complex organisation with staff located in multiple branches the rollout of both the hosted PBX solution and dedicated internet for St. Canice’s Credit union was handled with ease by the Magnet+ team. Over several sessions, a detailed plan was developed where both the IT team in St. Canice’s Credit Union and Magnet+ project teams collaborated to ensure the switchover was seamless.
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“There were many technical teams involved in the implementation but every time we asked the Magnet+ team, the answer was either “no problem” or “we’ll get that done for you””.
St. Canice’s Credit Union were also impressed that every time they called the Magnet+ team were on hand to support them and provide any information they needed.
If you had to give Magnet+ a rating out of 5, what would it be and why?
Ciaran Byrne, Head of IT at St. Canice’s Credit Union, said:
“Without a doubt, the answer is 4.9 (because the world of technology is ever-changing). St. Canice’s Credit Union has benefitted in many ways since working with Magnet+ – the ease of the technical implementation, the significant reduction in our overall call costs and most importantly, the human touch. We had responses from our friends at Magnet+ when we needed them and it’s as simple as that”.