Members 1st wanted to enhance operational efficiency & data management to continue to deliver personalized experiences to their Members.
Members 1st Federal Credit Union, with an extensive membership exceeding half a million, embarked on a journey aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and refining data management practices. The institution recognized the importance of maintaining its competitive edge by continuing to deliver highly personalized experiences tailored to the unique needs of its diverse membership base. However, conventional solutions such as SQL Server and on-premises data warehouses fell short in meeting the escalating demands of data volume and velocity. These legacy systems posed significant challenges, ranging from scalability limitations to the siloed nature of their data repositories, hindering seamless data integration and analysis. The lack of ability to scale efficiently, was leading to increasing costs and delays in data loading and request fulfillment. Members 1st recognized the need to transition towards a more adaptable and scalable architecture and develop an enterprise data warehouse leveraging Azure technologies.
Members 1st faced mounting difficulties in efficiently ingesting, processing and delivering the rapidly expanding volumes of data needed to meet the dynamic expectations of its membership base. The need for rapid insights and the ability to harness emerging technologies such as Python for machine learning underscored the imperative for a more agile and versatile data management infrastructure. While the institution heavily relied on R language for analytics and machine learning endeavors, the inadequacies of R support on SQL Server compared to platforms like Databricks became increasingly apparent, necessitating a strategic shift towards a more future-ready data architecture. This shift would enable a transition in how Members 1st approached data, enabling them to unlock actionable insights and drive informed decision-making processes. They wanted a knowledgeable partner with expertise in Azure and experience in architecting complex, modern data solutions – they found that partner in 3Cloud.
“It was refreshing to work with 3Cloud who always had in the forefront of their mind, ‘how can we bring value to be sure you’re getting what you need out of this engagement’? This is something that most vendors should be doing, but with 3Cloud it was clear that they genuinely cared about finding the value for us and in providing a true partnership.”
Long-Term, Trusted Relationship Led to Members 1st Choosing to Partner with 3Cloud.
The collaboration between Members 1st and 3Cloud has revolutionized data management and operational efficiency. Through the M1360 platform implementation and self-service capabilities adoption, administrative overhead has significantly decreased, and data access across business units has been streamlined. Centralizing enterprise-wide data and enabling self-service reporting with Power BI has empowered employees to access insights effortlessly, freeing the data team to focus on value-added initiatives and accelerating decision-making processes. The data lake refreshes in response to data being refreshed and available in their source system, which means data pulls are reactive for both scheduled and merged changes. M160’s speed in loading data has significantly compensated for delays in upstream and vendor system data processing, giving users access to the data faster. Members’ data lake refreshes daily in typically under 2 hours, with data being available to users by 6 a.m. The metadata drive approach enabled an ‘update in only one place’ solution for data transformation logic, ensuring that any changes in business logic can be done quickly.
This transition has not only improved data accessibility but has also paved the way for specialized member experiences and faster decision-making. By consolidating data sources and automating processes, Members 1st has achieved considerable time savings, allowing BI engineers to concentrate on enhancing enterprise-wide analytics and machine learning models. Additionally, the adoption of machine learning models on the new platform has led to substantial cost savings and improved runtime efficiency, further driving operational excellence and resource optimization. Through a collaborative partnership, Members 1st and 3Cloud have cultivated a culture of continuous learning and innovation, positioning the organization to leverage its data assets fully and deliver superior member service while embracing future challenges and opportunities.
Operationalize the cloud and enjoy the ultimate Azure experience with the experts at 3Cloud.