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Close Collaboration
Connery and Wasilieff have a close working relationship, even though they are in the same place only once every five or six weeks. Connery reports directly to Wasilieff, with whom he worked closely when Wasilieff was Envision's COO, but has dotted line reporting to the CEOs of both credit unions. The two have houses on the same block in British Columbia and share a condo in Calgary. Both collect wine and they go on an annual sturgeon fishing trip on the Fraser River in British Columbia.
"We're actually friends," says Connery.
That kind of close collaboration is also what they hope to bring to the credit union industry in Canada through the shared services project when it enters its next phase in 2008: rolling out infrastructure and back-office support to other credit unions. In the U.S. such a model already exists: the Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO).
"We spent some time down there in the U.S. trying to understand their business models," Wasilieff says. "There aren't any IT CUSOs operating in Canada. We're targeting [credit unions with] $200 million to $1 billion in revenue. As unions get larger, they find that the service bureau model doesn't work so well for them [because] they get the lowest common denominator. Above a billion, they generally want to take control of their own IT. Our model plays to customers that require more customization. It requires a deeper understanding of the banking system."
But ramping up for the next phase has proved somewhat harder than expected in western Canada's booming economy. Filling a vacancy takes six months in Alberta and four in British Columbia. And finishing a new data center build-out in Calgary is taking far longer than planned. "We're spending $400,000 more than we thought and we're six months delayed," Connery says. "It's impossible. It's a very hot economy."
But even when the new data center is ready, Connery says he wants to keep the desk pods close together.
"People will have a little more room," he says, "but we want closeness and interaction. There's a buzz when you get crowded. There's an energy and excitement. People need the ability to get together and really talk." And share, too.
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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