Big Data Is Driving Big Insights At Community First

Community First Credit Union of Florida ($2.7B, Jacksonville, FL) is now a year into building out a business intelligence team, a small group of data divers and dashboard designers dedicated to driving value for the credit union through actionable insights.

Steve Kelsey, who joined Community First in March 2023, leads the team as vice president of business intelligence. He has 20 years of experience in operations management and analytical and consulting experience in health insurance and financial services.

Kelsey works closely with Jimmy Lovelace, who became the credit union’s chief experience officer in March 2023 after nearly 10 years in branch leadership and sales performance management at the big Florida cooperative.

Here, the duo talks about building out a data governance process that now yields new levels of insight from troves of information flowing in and out daily.

What was it like to build your team, its processes, and your approach to gathering data from scratch? Where did you start?

Jimmy Lovelace: Our primary goal was to get the data up to speed. We focused on finding individuals with experience in driving results. We found that in Steve, who brought in the necessary leadership qualities.

When putting the team together, we ensured we had a solid process in place. We outlined the team’s vision, structure, roles, and data processes in our business plan. This clarity helped in bringing Connor Hayes on board as our business reporting analyst, ensuring standardized processes across the team.

Steve Kelsey: We really got the BI unit set up in March of 2023. We started with one entry-level analyst from marketing. A year later, we still have Connor and now Brennan Hinck serving in a hybrid role as a business intelligence analyst and engineer. Our plans are to continue building that team.

How did you align skill sets and priorities?

JL: You don’t stand up a BI team just to do a bunch of dashboards. The goal is the insight they can provide. That means translating ambitious ideas into actionable plans. We addressed this by breaking down our goals into four key pillars: building the team, instituting data governance, making progress on the data warehouse, and activating line-of-business initiatives.

SK: When assembling the team, I prioritized individuals who were curious and had a desire to learn and innovate. I also emphasized results. It was crucial to have a team willing to take on new challenges and drive outcomes. I would put accomplishing that among our biggest successes so far.

We meet every morning from 10 to 10:30, long enough to see what everyone is working on and bring issues to the forefront. That touchpoint is the key to keeping those lines of communication open.

Regular communication and collaboration with key stakeholders is also vital. To ensure alignment, the first thing is for Jimmy and me to get together and synch up what we want to tackle and what we can tackle. We prioritize projects based on strategic objectives and ensure that our initiatives align with the organization’s goals.

Talk about your data sources. From where do you pull data? Do you have one source? Many? How do you ensure data from different sources is aligned?

JL: You hear a lot in the data world about a single source of truth. I don’t think that’s our journey. We’re focused on a trusted source of truth. It can come from a lot of places. Establishing a solid data governance structure was a significant win. That enables our BI team to become that trusted source of truth.

A big first step was the BI team’s creation of a glossary to provide clarity on what terms mean and how we got to the numbers the data provides. You know how tough it can be to get two credit unions to even agree on the definition of a “member.” It’s nice to have clarity and a good glossary; that and a new membership dashboard the team also produced have both helped build a nice foundation and a good early win for the BI team.

SK: Clarity and agreement on data definitions is truly important. We pull data for our dashboards from a whole host of sources: our own data warehouse, external loan records from PSCU and mortgages, Net Promoter surveys, our Webex telephony system.

We try to make sure that whether you’re looking at a dashboard or just an Excel file you can understand the source, the business rules, the KPIs, and other metrics.

Your data has to be reliable. If you provide low-quality data, you can expect low confidence from others.

Now that you have a team, what have you focused on so far?

SK: In our first year, we focused on projects such as improving active checking and membership. That included a dormancy project aimed at revitalizing dormant accounts. We produced dashboards that helped drive our cure rate from less than 10% to now more than 30% in the past several months.

JL: When you drive a car, and you see an engine light come on and you have to pull over, it’s great to be able to have a plug-in reader to tell you exactly what’s going on: your alternator, you need to add water, whatever. Then you act on that information. We look at data like that.

The dormancy dashboards that Steve’s team provided are a great example of that kind of actionable insight. They became a dormancy management tool that member service reps can use to identify members to establish some new correspondence, some kind of activity, including simply getting updated contact information.

Additionally, we undertook initiatives to drive deposit growth and ran contests at branch levels to encourage account renewals and CD roll-overs.

SK: Our priorities now include further building out our data warehouse, tackling more business problems, and enhancing our forecasting capabilities. We aim to continue driving value for the credit union through data-driven insights.

We’re also going to support one of Jimmy’s big projects starting in March, providing the call center team with BI info for an outbound sales call campaign.

Do something. Data is not something you can wait on anymore — you have to get in the game. The best way is to just start. Talk about what you want the data to solve for you. And then start anywhere.”

How do measure success?

JL: We track dashboard utilization and KPI improvements to demonstrate the unit’s impact. Regular communication and feedback loops with leaders ensure alignment between our efforts and organizational goals.

SK: We use various metrics, including dashboard utilization and feedback from stakeholders. By tracking these metrics, we ensure our initiatives are delivering tangible results and meeting organizational objectives.

What advice do you have for credit unions new to BI?

SK: For me, it’s not just about building something and getting that task done. I’m more excited about getting it into production and seeing performance improvement. My job as a leader includes making sure we don’t declare victory until we’re driving results.

JL: Start somewhere and focus on solving real business problems. Establish clear processes and governance structures from the outset. Encourage a culture of curiosity and innovation within your team.

Do something. Data is not something you can wait on anymore — you have to get in the game. The best way is to just start. Talk about what you want the data to solve for you. And then start anywhere.

This interview has been edited and condensed.