Mt. Lehman CU continues its amazing path of innovation in the credit union movement. Mt. Lehman was the first credit union to offer text message alerts five years ago, and now they have created their own iPhone app for banking, called MobileWeb. Props to Gene Blishen and the team of foward-thinking CU professionals at Mt. Lehman! You’ve done it again!
One of the key takeaways here is that Mt. Lehman CU is innovative BECAUSE of their small size (less than 3,000 members and less than 12 employees), not in spite of their small size. That, and the fact that they have excellent brains. Oh yeah, and they live in one of the more beautiful parts of the world, British Columbia, home of the recent 2010 Winter Olympics!
BTW, I’ll be using Mt. Lehman’s latest innovation in an example of how to spread the word using social media techniques in the workshop webinar I’m delivering tomorrow: Bring Your Binoculars
Tags: Gene Blishen, iPhone, iPhone app, mobile, mobile banking, Mt. Lehman CU
EverythingCU.com World 2.0 Adventure 
March 17, 2010 at 7:14 am |
Mt. Lehman is an inspiration to every business that has ever complained that it was too small to do big things.
March 18, 2010 at 1:04 am |
[…] • Ooops, Mt. Lehman CU did it again […]
March 23, 2010 at 6:20 pm |
I love Gene, but is an iPhone app really that innovative? Aren’t two of seven employees developers? What if they had a CFA and CFP (Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner) on staff instead of two developers and could double the rate their investments were getting? Would that be innovative?
March 23, 2010 at 6:31 pm |
Robbie: Yes, an iPhone app is innovative. How many CUs or banks have their own? Still to this day? And your question about having a CFA or CFP on staff…. would do nothing for the membership of Mt. Lehman CU. Well, okay, maybe one member, but there are no guarantees that that one member would utilize the service. I believe they have one developer out of 10 or 11 staff total. Perhaps Gene can chime in with more details.
While it’s true that it’s not mind-bendingly revolutionary to have an iPhone app these days, I will bet that Mt. Lehman CU will continue to improve their first version based on staff and member feedback. That’s the real power of developing it in-house: control over further development.
March 23, 2010 at 6:35 pm |
I guess my point is that Gene could dedicate to FTE’s somewhere else and reap other gains. iPhone apps are cool and all, but having two professionals managing your investments will most likely gain anyone additional investment income. What would be better for members, an iPhone app that pays their bills (built in-house by their very talented staff) or 2% more return on their investment & loan portfolio, which would go right back to the members in more dividends?
July 9, 2010 at 1:53 pm |
[…] and cooperative principles while running a productive operation, one which has done some excellent technological innovation based on improving service to the […]