The social media phenomenon has spawned the need for organizations to employ social intranet solutions, a trend that is growing in the financial services industry.

There exists a correlation between the immediacy of texting and mobile banking and the declining usage of e-mail and online banking. Not surprisingly, more and more credit unions are enhancing respective mobile offerings.

In an effort to enhance the member experience, Cabot & NOI Employees Credit Union embarked on finding a virtual, secure way to handle signatures on important documents.

There is seemingly a never-ending pool of third parties offering technology solutions for critical services. But a number of credit unions continue to report having a hard time finding the right fit, especially when it comes to customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Perhaps the biggest technology decision a credit union can make is undertaking a core conversion. While there are longstanding, brand-name providers in a market that has been seeing consolidation, new competition is emerging.

Surprised at the absence of such solutions to date, one analyst anticipates more CUs-especially smaller credit unions-will have to find partners to deliver on social media in 2013.