Overview

Sunrise Credit Union is a $2 billion institution serving 35,000 members across 19 branches in southwestern Manitoba. They run on tight margins across a wide geography, and when a vendor stops delivering, the whole operation feels it.

The relationship with Identifi started not by design but by necessity. Sunrise’s core banking provider had sunset their existing ERM solution with little warning and no obvious replacement in hand. A contact recommended Identifi as the right fit for the transition, and CIO Kelly Scott reached out, evaluated the fit, and moved forward. Identifi handled the ERM implementation, and it set the tone for everything that followed.

“That was one of the smoothest implementations we’ve ever seen,” Scott said. “The integration went fine, the training went fine. My team really liked working with the Identifi team. It was honestly just awesome.”

Running alongside that project was a different problem. Sunrise’s statement provider had been quietly failing them for the better part of two years, and Scott was running out of patience. One afternoon, fresh off a frustrating meeting with the statement provider, he asked a question at the end of an Identifi call he didn’t expect to go anywhere.

“You guys don’t happen to do statements, do you?”

A year later, the Identifi team found Scott on the trade show floor at the Canadian Credit Union conference in Halifax, and before he left the building, he had signed on.

What started as a practical fix for a sunset ERM solution grew into statement services when Identifi came back with an answer Scott hadn’t expected, and then into a full ECM migration as the natural next step. It happened because Identifi’s focus on partnership, solutions, and service gave Scott every reason to keep saying yes.

Challenges

Late Statements, Frustrated Members

Sunrise’s membership relied on physical statements arriving by a specific date each month. When they didn’t, members came into the branch, and staff pulled records, manually reprinted statements, and reassured them it wouldn’t happen again. After two years of the same cycle, working around it had become as routine as the problem itself.

Tax receipts carried the same risk. A provider that couldn’t consistently deliver monthly statements was one missed deadline away from creating real consequences for members at tax time, and that wasn’t a risk Sunrise was willing to carry.

“As unsexy as statements sound, it’s a critical service our members are counting on,” Scott said. “Every time it fails, you’re eroding that trust a little more.”

An ECM Reaching the End of Its Runway

Highland OnBase had served Sunrise well for over a decade. With end-of-support approaching, the question of what came next was already on the table, and given what Sunrise had already seen from Identifi through the ERM implementation, the answer didn’t take long.

Too Many Systems, Too Many Manual Steps

Behind the vendor problems sat a broader operational reality. Sunrise’s core banking platform, CRM, and loan origination systems weren’t communicating the way they needed to. Staff worked around the gaps, replicating data entry, managing handoffs, and processing documents that should have moved automatically. Identifi’s capabilities aligned directly with the consolidation work Sunrise was already trying to do.

“It’s a people issue, it’s a process issue, and it’s a system issue all at the same time,” Scott said. “We’ve got to leverage change across all three of those dimensions.”

Solution

How a Conference Conversation Became a Project

The ERM implementation had already shown Sunrise what working with Identifi looked like, so when Scott asked whether Identifi handled statements, it was the kind of question you ask when something has been bothering you long enough and you already trust the person you’re asking. Identifi didn’t have print-and-mail capability at the time, but they remembered the conversation and came back to Halifax a year later with an answer.

Identifi had the statement solution designed, configured, and ready before the legacy provider had even begun transferring its historical archives. When that transfer stalled, Identifi pushed on the legacy provider directly rather than handing the problem back to Sunrise. The statement solution is now live and Sunrise’s membership is being served.

“Everything was ready to go on the Identifi side,” Scott said. “The challenge was getting the archive out of the previous provider. They dragged their feet, but Identifi was incredibly patient with a very frustrating process.”

An ECM Implementation That Didn’t Drain the Team

When the ECM question came up during those same conversations, adding a full document management migration to the scope felt natural. Two projects in, Sunrise already knew what working with Identifi looked like, and the ECM migration represented the next logical step in addressing the people, process, and systems challenge Scott had been working toward.

The migration is currently underway. Folder structures are established, staff training is next, and the historical archive migration from the legacy Highland server follows. From there, the focus shifts to workflow automation: cleaner audit trails, automated document ingestion, and an end to the manual handoffs that slow member-facing work.

“We’re really excited to get the baseline in and then start working on the operations and the workflows,” Scott said. “That’s where the real change happens.”

A Vendor That Manages the Complexity Around Them

At Sunrise, Identifi handles inter-vendor coordination directly. Conversations with Fiserv, escalation management with the legacy statement provider, alignment across two concurrent projects: Scott’s team doesn’t have to broker any of it. For Scott, that distinction shows up in how the calls feel.

“When I have conversations with most vendors, it always feels like a sales pitch,” Scott said. “When I have calls with Identifi, it’s: tell me what you’re working on, what problems you’re having, and if there’s a solution, we’ll find it. It just feels like an extension of your own team.”

That working model reflects something Identifi is deliberate about. Kyle Donovan, Chief Operating Officer at Identifi, describes it as showing up across every dimension Scott named: the people, the process, and the systems.

“That means delivering service excellence from day one, applying best practices that prevent future problems from taking root, and where legacy issues already exist, working through them systematically rather than around them. Service automation is a big part of how we do that, and it’s what allows Sunrise to focus on their members instead of their workflows.”

For Shane Asbel, Senior Vice President of Business Development, the approach is straightforward. “When Sunrise came to us with the statement project, we knew we were building something new for the Canadian market. The only way to earn the next project is to deliver on the first one completely. That’s what we brought to Sunrise, and it’s exactly how a relationship that started with one project becomes three.”

Results

Statement Delivery the Team Can Count On

The days of manual reprints, reactive branch conversations, and unexplained delays are behind them. Sunrise now has a provider that understands what’s at stake for their members, surfaces problems early, and manages escalation before anything lands on Scott’s desk.

A Relationship Built One Project at a Time

with little time to replace it. Identifi handled it, and handled it well enough that when Scott found himself frustrated with a failing statement provider, the question wasn’t where to look next.

It was whether the vendor already in the room could help.

When the ECM question came up, the conversation was even shorter. Two projects in, Sunrise already knew what working with Identifi looked like. The ECM migration was the next logical step in the consolidation work they’d been trying to do all along.

“It’s been kind of a ‘what more can you do for us?’ situation,” Scott said. “They have not overpromised and underdelivered in any way, shape or form. What they say they do, they absolutely do.”

Where Sunrise Goes From Here

Scott has already fielded a reference call from another Canadian credit union exploring Identifi for statement services, and he expects more to follow. Identifi’s print-and-mail capability is new to the Canadian market, and Sunrise is among the first institutions running it.

“We may be one of the early ones here in Canada,” Scott said. “But once word gets out, I think there’s going to be a bit of a groundswell.”

Conclusion

Sunrise came to Identifi to fill a gap left by a sunset ERM solution. What they found was a vendor that handled that transition cleanly, came back a year later with a solution to a statement problem Scott hadn’t expected them to solve, and kept earning more scope with every project that followed. Each expansion came from the same place: Identifi’s consistent focus on relationship, solutions, and support, and a track record of delivering exactly what it said it would.

For credit unions in Canada navigating aging document systems, unreliable statement services, or operational workflows held together by habit rather than process, the Sunrise story makes one thing clear: a vendor focused on partnership and service excellence changes what’s possible for your institution. The question worth asking before your next implementation is whether yours is.

Exploring a statement solution or ECM migration for your institution? Contact Identifi to talk through what the transition would look like for your environment.