Background
Founded in 1954 to serve employees and families of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, APL Federal Credit Union today is known as “Howard County’s Community Credit Union.” Headquartered in Laurel, Maryland, the credit union received its community charter in 2001 and now boasts over $720 million in assets and 31,150 members. Given the cooperative’s roots in the scientific and academic communities, it has always made technology innovation a key area of focus. In fact, in 1996 APL FCU became one of the first six financial institutions in the country to offer online banking. The Credit Union maintains a mission “to improve lives and make a positive impact in the community,” and is committed to offering its members the lowest fees and best rates in town.
The Challenges
When APL FCU decided to convert its on-premises core banking system to a cloud-based solution, it also sought an experienced, credit union-native managed services partner. Under its prior core system, the Credit Union dealt with numerous challenges, including high hardware costs; frequent, disruptive downtime of up to eight hours for system updates; and limited third-party integrations and customization capabilities. In addition, disaster recovery was labor-intensive and unreliable due to the location of the prior core’s backup centers, with service gaps of up to 15 minutes to manually enter transactions.
The Solution
Once APL FCU selected Corelation™ KeyStone as its new core, it began researching core hosting partners. Wescom Resources’ UNITRI core hosting services quickly rose to the top of its list due to the CUSO’s experience with KeyStone, its geographically diverse disaster recovery sites in Anaheim, CA and Phoenix, AZ, and a client-first philosophy that assured a “good fit” between the two organizations’ cultures.
APL FCU began its conversion in March 2024 and went live on KeyStone on April 1, 2025. The Wescom Resources support team was instrumental in ensuring a smooth and successful transition to the new, cloud-based core.
For example, when the prior core’s offshore help desk showed a lack of urgency and knowledge during the transfer of Zelle® P2P service to the new core, Wescom Resources stepped in at the 11th hour, helping to facilitate a six-hour emergency call with all parties to solve the issues.
“Zelle is a major product for us, and our members love it,” says Marie White, VP of IT, Chief Information Officer at APL FCU. “There was a fear that we wouldn’t have Zelle available to our members for six to eight months, so we were feeling strapped. But with the help of Wescom Resources, we were able to initiate testing right after go-live, and we only lost 15 days. The whole Wescom Resources team went above and beyond in that instance.”
The Results
Saved Time Through Automation of Routine Processes
Through the deployment of OpCon from Continuous workload automation, Wescom Resources has helped APL FCU automate dozens of jobs and processes, including ACH processing, end-of-month jobs, daily file transfers to XDI for member statements, IRS tax form submissions, and internal batch jobs. As a result, the IT department was able to streamline a seven-page manual daily checklist down to just a single page, slashing the time spent on routine tasks by four hours per day.
“We knew some tasks would be taken off of our plate, but I don’t think any of us realized how many,” says Emily Miller, Cybersecurity Generalist. “It’s given us four hours back each day—time that was previously spent on those small items that simply add up. It’s been super smooth, and I love it!”
Better Security and Compliance
As IT has gained time back from the outsourcing and automation of routine tasks, the team has been able to devote more effort to ensuring locked-down cybersecurity and compliance. With the support of Wescom Resources, IT controls and cybersecurity audits are now smoother and drama-free
Freed Up Accounting to Focus on Higher-Level Projects
Wescom Resources has helped streamline processes in functions outside of IT, including the accounting department. This has empowered staff to focus on more urgent and strategic tasks, such as fraud prevention and a recent general ledger conversion project.
Higher Accuracy and Fewer Errors
The potential for human error increases when staff must manually enter code to run a job. With the help of Wescom Resources, APL FCU has successfully eliminated data entry errors, improving accuracy.
“It could simply be a mistyping of a key,” Miller says. “Previously, we had to manually type in the commands to get the job to run. But now that it’s automated, there’s no physical typing. The jobs are all spelled out in the automation, so it’s impossible to mistype a command.”
Improved Quality of Life
Previously, IT staff were required to work nights and weekends to run routine jobs and reports and perform needed software upgrades. With Wescom Resources, this is no longer necessary.
“My staff was always on call weekends and overnight,” White says. “We used to manually initiate upgrades from 11pm to 6am. Now, my team actually enjoys having their life back.”
Attained Peace of Mind
Change management is a challenge for every
organization, especially when the technology can
potentially impact people’s roles and livelihoods.
But Wescom Resources works with its clients to
ensure a smooth transition that considers the
potential impacts on every stakeholder group.
“As an organization, we’ve been leery about
moving to the cloud for a very long time, so the
decision to move our core off premises was nerve
wracking,” White says. “But given how positive
our relationships with Wescom Resources and
Corelation have been throughout the whole
project, it’s given us great peace of mind.”
“Working with the Wescom team has been
one of the highlights of our core conversion.
Their well-designed infrastructure and deep
expertise in supporting the KeyStone core as
well as connections with the many other services
that integrate with our core have proved highly
valuable.”
David Woodruff
President & CEO