For the past couple of years CU*Answers has been working on a long-term strategic project that will introduce a new face and platform for our CU*BASE core processing software.  With this new infrastructure, CU*BASE will be delivered to your credit union workstations via a browser window.  And to go along with the snazzy new look and feel, we’re even planning a rebranding of the name (subject to trademark approval, of course)!

Watch this recipe for more news throughout 2024!

Check out the slides from the 2023 Leadership Conference

Preview early design mockups (subject to change)

Review updated hardware/software specifications for running CBX

CBX Status Update: April 2024

Speaking just for CU*Answers (CU*NorthWest and CU*South will be setting their own timetable), as of April 2024 here’s what we’re shooting for. (Remember all of this is subject to change as we continue to refine and test the new interface.)

— CU*Answers will start rolling out an alpha version of CBX to our board member credit unions late this summer. Employees will use CBX and CU*BASE GOLD side by side as they verify the new layout and give feedback to our developers.
— Official beta-testing will begin with the 24.10 release. Beta-testers will also use CBX side by side with CU*BASE GOLD.
— Once we have some beta-testing under our belts, we will set a firm date for transitioning all credit unions to CBX, probably with or around the spring 2025 release.
— By spring 2025 we will also determine and announce a sunset date for CU*BASE GOLD, at which time the old GOLD interface will be taken offline. Don’t worry, everyone will be given plenty of notice!

Remember that our initial rollout is simply a transition to the new design. All the fields and buttons will be in roughly the same place and will work exactly the same as they do now. We expect the learning curve to be extremely short!

As a reminder about bandwidth, the requirements we published last summer were intended to allow the product to grow a bit. Websites today use a lot more bandwidth than they did 10 years ago, so just like anything else with technology, over time things will likely change. As always, we’ll work hand and hand with our clients to manage this growth and make sure everyone can take advantage of all the cool new things we’re planning for this interface.

You will have to keep your browser version up to date, of course. We’ve been talking about choosing one or two “preferred” browsers (such as Edge or Chrome), although others may work just as well as long as you are using the latest version. Stay tuned for more about that later.

We will soon begin our marketing for CBX, so watch your inboxes!

An Investment for Our Future

The investment to move CU*BASE to a new platform has been one of the largest we’ve made in many years, with the highest level of client impact. It’s akin to what we did back in 2000 when introducing the GOLD graphical user interface in the first place. We’re basically building a whole new user experience for CU*BASE, something that hasn’t changed substantially in 20+ years.

More importantly, our CUSO is investing in this for our collective future. Clients across the network will enjoy the benefits of the new platform and ongoing evolution for years to come…all with no change to their monthly invoice for core processing.

What’s Changing

• Data will be presented to users via a standard web browser, instead of client software loaded on individual workstations.
• Graphical design elements such as colors, buttons, fonts, and overall screen layout are being freshened up to use a more modern look and feel.
• Overall screen size of the browser window will be controlled by the end-user.

What’s Not Changing

• For the initial rollout, the layout of data on the screen will be pretty much identical to what users are familiar with now. The learning curve for your teams will be low.
• The underlying host screen, business logic, and architecture is exactly the same; only the UI presentation is changing.
• The underlying database and table structure is exactly the same. You’ll use the same analytics dashboards, reports, and Query tools to analyze and export data as you do now.
• A user must still be set up on our network to access CBX. We’re not building an web-based product that’s available via the Internet. We’re simply presenting the UI via a web browser.
• Although the user can resize their browser window and content will adapt, data will not necessarily expand to “fill up” a larger screen. (See “Dreams for the Future” for more on this.)

Dreams for the Future

Things that won’t change on day 1, but that we’re excited about for future phases:

• Screen layout innovations: Although the underlying host screen size isn’t changing, the new UI layer is much more flexible as to how much data can be displayed, even data that can’t fit on the host screen. For example, we can take advantage of the ability to scroll vertically and display far more accounts on the Inquiry, Phone, and Teller screens. We also use the larger screen real estate to eliminate the need to click on tabbed folders to display more content.
• Workflow innovations: Likewise, we can in some cases gather data from multiple screens, or even reach into the database and pull other related data to display on the larger display, without costly changes needed to the underlying host screen and business logic.
• Look and feel innovations: While we will no longer be offering separate user-defined color themes in the new design, the underlying architecture will allow us to get much more creative with colors and designs in the future, and we look forward to exploring those as things settle and we have time to experiment.

Finally, while we do have long-term plans to one day eliminate the need for print sessions and even Guapples, there are a many other moving parts that still need to be addressed. Solutions like Native Receipts and CU*Forms represent our first few steps along that journey, and CBX will take us even further down the road to eventually achieving that long-term dream.

What to Expect on Day 1

Most importantly, the learning curve will be very, very low!  Remember that all we’re doing, essentially, is changing the look.  The screens will work very similar to how they already look, just gussied up.  Most fields will be in the exact same place and the buttons will all act the same way they do now.

From a user’s standpoint, this will be an extremely simple adjustment.  However, it’s important that we are transparent about the realities of of a project of this magnitude:

• On day 1, things won’t be perfect, nor will we have all of our help and education materials converted to show the new look.
• While we will of course do basic QC testing, with 18,000 screens we will not catch every nuance. But your teams can help! Every screen will have a button you can click to report a problem or provide a suggestion.
• CU*BASE GOLD will continue to be developed in parallel and will be supported for a period of time during the transition. Once we’ve worked through any showstoppers we will set a sunset date for the old UI.

As with other foundation projects, CBX is a “base camp” for the next decade of evolution and innovation, and we’re chomping at the bit to get started on the journey!

Chefs for this recipe: Brian Maurer and Dawn Moore