CHOICE FINANCIAL
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST
02 WRIT TEN BY
ANDRE W WOODS PRODUCED BY
TOM VENTURO
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We speak to CIO Tim Heilman at Choice Financial regarding its recent technological innovations that place people front and center
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here is a certain tale that typifies Choice Bank, according to its Chief Brand and Innovation Officer, Tim
Heilman. “We had a customer call one of our locations, simply needing to run to the bank to do a deposit; I believe the account was overdrawn,” Heilman explains. “However, this 04
customer had run out of gas on his way to the bank and so he was simply calling the bank to say: ‘You’re not going to believe this but I am on my way to see you, and now my car’s out of gas.’ I think the typical response from a bank would be something like, ‘Oh, we apologize, that’s too bad. Just run that check in whenever you can.’ However, the employee said, ‘Where are you at? I will be right there.’ The employee went straight to the customer, took receipt of his check, and actually delivered some gas to get his car started, so he could go about his day. People first, banking second,” he summarizes. People First is an enduring mantra for the North American community bank. Headquartered in North Dakota, Choice is a financial
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“ This isn’t banking first: it’s whatever you’re shopping for, or whatever you’re doing, that initiates a desire or a need for banking” — Tim Heilman, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer, Choice Bank 06
institution that prides itself on a communal responsibility and personal touch. Heilman often describes the company has having a family feel – and the loyalty this engenders has kept him at the company for the past 15 years, where he has seen the bank grow immensely since its founding in 2001. Choice is the result of a merger involving four local banks: Citizens State Bank GraftonPetersburg (with locations in Grafton and Petersburg), First Capital Bank of North Dakota (with locations in West Fargo and Goodrich), First State Bank Langdon and Walhalla State Bank.
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Each local bank was known for its strong community banking culture and it’s clear that Choice Bank has kept this up as a sum of those parts.
PEOPLE FIRST Heilman is in charge of the bank’s technological solutions and his enthusiasm is infectious. “I am in charge of the overall brand for the organization. Choice is a community bank and forwardthinking in the technological sense so we blended that together in People First. We truly put people before banking. We w w w.ba nk wi t hc ho i ce. com
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have created an atmosphere of empowering employees to do things that go above and beyond what a typical banking experience would be. That is our focus.” Heilman has been involved in a lot of technological changes at Choice since he took on the role. The North Dakota native has overseen and directly led numerous IT operations, with his role evolving to include brand marketing and innovation. “My role allows me to really focus in on communication,” he explains. “Externally, we are building
some great community involvement
more banking locations in a specific
pieces where we take a truly philan-
community, we might partner with
thropic approach, when it comes to
a handful of other community leaders
giving back to our community. Obvi-
to help build something that the com-
ously, that’s a responsibility of a commu-
munities can actually use. We’d rather
nity bank, but we really like to show in
do that than have a lavish facility; it just
big ways how we can make those diff-
isn’t that important to us. We’d rather
erences to people’s lives in the comm-
give back to our communities.”
unities we serve. I want to have genuine,
Choice has recently reinvigorated an
authentic relationships and be able to
initiative to get children interested in
serve customers with value-add services
personal finance and savings called
that are not expected or typically deliv-
Adventure Club, which incentivizes kids
ered by a bank. Part of what we’re doing
to save. “If you empower your children
internally is the initiative I call ‘being
to make their own decisions, they might
philanthropic’. Instead of adding five
actually impress you with what they
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Tim Heilman Tim Heilman joined Choice Financial in 2004 where he started as a single IT department. Through the years, Tim’s role has expanded into executive leadership and currently serves as EVP, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer. Tim’s leadership has guided Choice to be a leading edge innovator in community banking technologies, and an early adopter of IP technology and online account opening. He has successfully guided Choice through multiple software and system conversions and several other organizational initiatives. Tim believes in the concept of high tech and high touch, and above all else the importance of great culture and great service.
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EMPOWERING
the Financial World
At FIS, we provide the technology and solutions to allow financial institutions of all sizes to empower their customers, their transactions, and their business. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW FIS CAN EMPOWER YOU, VISIT www.fisglobal.com
decide to do with their money,” Heil-
savings accounts) in what has been
man explains. “The solution has an app
a two-year relationship.” Every one of
that the child and parents both share
Choice’s fintech partners has to be
on their own devices. You can create
a cultural fit, first, offering a product the
goals, objectives, rewards; it could be
bank firmly believes in.
anything that the parent and children agree on. Once those goals and rewards
INTERNAL OPERATIONS
are set and achieved, then the money
2009 represented a seismic shift at
slides from the parent account to the
Choice when its internal communica-
child, which is instantaneous within the
tions became audio-visual. “It’s been
app. Apple Pay is tied to it, and it has
a 10-year transition,” Heilman explains.
real time notifications of what the child
“In fact, before that, in 2006 we switched
is spending their money on. We also
everything to full-on voice-over IP.
have a company working out of San
I think the biggest shift for us, and the
Francisco that does HSAs (health
biggest opportunity we have taken
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“ Again, we’re using a lot of Cisco equipment but we do have other vendors in the back that are helping us monitor the network very closely” — Tim Heilman, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer, Choice Bank
advantage of, with technology, involves the ability to communicate. Geographically, we are quite spread out across two states, and people that work with others on a daily basis now have the ability to see who they’re talking to at any given time. There’s nothing better than a face-to-face, in-person discussion.” A new employee receives a video phone on day one so they can start building relationships with other team members. “This has made an organization with close to 400 employees feel like a small, intimate and authentic w w w.ba nk wi t hc ho i ce. com
organization,” Heilman explains. “I’ve been really proud of how it’s brought people closer together.” Choice’s vendor of choice is Cisco which takes care of all of the network, infrastructure and security at the bank. “We’re using a lot of Cisco equipment but we do have other vendors in the back that are helping us monitor the network very closely.” Video communication, they like to call video collaboration, has allowed the bank to build greater bonds after a number of acquisitions. Choice is committed to keeping people in jobs 12
during acquisitions, a time when typically 30% of staff can be laid off right out of the gate. “Our goal, commensurate with our culture, is to not lay anybody off, and we’ve now done three acquisitions,” says Heilman. “Plus, the cultural shift (following an acquisition) can take three to five years to sync up when you bring two organizations together and video collaborations really help to reduce that timeframe.” Choice views its fintech vendors, such as Cisco, with the same value as its customers and they work together through those situations that need to be fixed, or tricky installations that require collaboration. “Collaboration
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gets results,” says Heilman. “So, I think maintaining the relationships and constantly seeing if there’s some reciprocating value that we can give back and forth always goes a long way.”
FINTECH Regarding the fintech side of Choice’s operations Heilman is proud to be building Banking-as-a-Service. “For about two years now, we’ve gotten into what we like to call Banking as a Service. If you have a really good idea that can improve banking, or you have a way to w w w.ba nk wi t hc ho i ce. com
“ PeopleFirst is what makes our organization come together. We have true purpose in defining why we do what we do, and not just what we do” 14
— Tim Heilman, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer, Choice Bank
reinvent banking and the experience that surrounds it, then we’d love to talk to you. We started that process a couple of years back.” Heilman enthuses about frictionless banking, which he sees as shaping the very future of fintech. “This isn’t banking first: it’s whatever you’re shopping for, or whatever you’re doing, that initiates a desire or a need for banking. It’s where we kind of come along for the ride,” he explains. “That’s currently being built into an existing system that’s already successful to provide a service that way. It’s another area that I see banking, as an industry, expanding into. As far as growth strategies, and what’s over the horizon, that’s typically what I’m seeing. We’re also going to work with a company in Sydney, Australia, which is getting a product developed that incorporates AI into mobile banking. It’s almost a personal finance coach and that’s where I see things going.” And It’s this rich combination of technology, fintech and people that will see Choice Bank continuing to grow across the everchanging financial landscape.
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Choice Financial 4501 23rd Avenue South in Fargo North Dakota 58104, USA T +(701) 356-9700 www.bankwithchoice.com