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Embracing the iPad [Credit Union Management](Credit Union Management Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) CU directors find much to love about Apple tablets. It's a-probably the-classic song of love at first sight: A stranger across a crowded room haunts your dreams until you're compelled to make him/her your own. Playfully substitute a few words, and you can easily turn "Some Enchanted Evening" into the story of credit union directors and Apple's iPad. This has nothing to do with simply liking the newcomer to the board room. Many directors have dumped their old companion, the laptop, for the slim, attractive and talented computer tablet with the kind of speed that makes you realize why they call it falling in love. The iPad, like other tablets, such as the Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, Galaxy Tab and HP TouchPad, offers most of what the sturdy laptop does - file storage, spreadsheets, word processing- in a user-friendly, compact package. In almost all cases, credit unions are choosing iPads rather than one of the competing tablets. It's possible the media frenzy around the devices is helping entice credit union CEOs into the Apple camp. They're hardly alone. In its July 19 earnings report, Apple said iPads became a $6 billion business in the most recent quarter- twice the size of Dell's entire consumer PC business. Sales of iPads nearly tripled to 9.25 million worldwide as the company increased production and started clearing a backlog of orders. Apple also said 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies were either testing or already using the iPad in their offices. Alaska Airlines has even replaced the traditional pilots' "brain bags"- black Gladstone-type bags stuffed with hefty manuals and instruction books- with the iPad. But for some credit unions, the romance goes back to when the iPad first debuted. Jackson, Tenn.-based Leaders Credit Union (www.leaderscu.com) was an early adopter, according to CEO Todd Swims, adding the tablets shortly after they were introduced. Why did the $145 million, 25,000-member credit union bring iPads into the board room so quickly? It's a reflection of Leaders CU's culture, explains Swims, a CUES member. "We embrace the use of technology in more ways than our banking friends," he says. "We don't use paper much, and we don't store paper." Instead, Leaders CU prefers electronics, down to using signature pads in branches for account opening and the like. Benefits Abound The credit union held training sessions for board members after they received their iPads, so directors quickly became comfortable with the new devices. The CU also set up email accounts for directors to use for their volunteer work, separate from their personal or work accounts. The iPad offers myriad benefits, Swims says. Mainly, he notes, "It's just easy to use." And it offers a simple solution to the paper problem: Directors are no longer burdened with carrying and storing a lot of physical material. At Leaders CU, board members now have access to over a year's worth of committee and audit reports and more on their tablets, which use a 3 G data network connection. Directors use a secure Web site to reach material that must be kept restricted, helping to enhance security. The "cloud" is used for non-confidential reports and information, so they don't eat up storage space. "Cloud computing" means, basically, using a virtual server over the Internet- you rent or borrow online software instead of buying it, installing it on your computer and using up precious gigabytes. Examples that have been around for a while include photo storage services and email services like gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Companies that host these servers charge according to usage; those like Dropbox that supply storage often offer a moderate amount free. Using the cloud when possible means credit unions can avoid the expenses associated with purchasing more gigabytes or adding wireless storage devices, although these are still viable options for those who prefer them. There are also smaller but important, pluses to the iPad, Swims says. For instance, if a document is in small print, it's simple to blow it up and make it easier to read. And directors enjoy sharing useful apps they've discovered. "Apps" (short for applications) let you do almost anything you can think of, from dictation- using voice-recognition technology- to reading a compass. The iPad can also be helpful in protecting credit unions against lawsuits. Richard Powers, national academic director at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management (www.rotman.utoronto.ca), told attendees of the most recent CUES Directors Leadership Institute: Governance (cues.org/dligovernance) that on an iPad, when you delete notes, they are permanently gone. Keep any notes until the next meeting to be sure the minutes are accurate, he suggests, and then delete them, since notes are compellable in a lawsuit. The need to handle ever-increasing amounts of material, along with ease of use, made the iPad attractive to CUES Supplier member PSCU Financial Services (www.pscufs.com), according to Chief Information Officer Steve Lattman. But the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based CUSO took a somewhat more cautious approach than Leaders CU, getting to know the tablet via a pilot program for several board meetings before distributing them to the CUSO's board. "It's a matter of getting comfortable enough to take advantage of the iPad's capabilities," he says. "There's lots of information the board needs to review from remote locations," Lattman points out, from booklets to reports. "This is an attempt to streamline it." Tablets are all about personalized preferences, he says, and as a technology company, PSCU Financial Services prepared each iPad to fit the personality of its user. "You have to configure them one at a time," he says; it's not simply a matter of taking the iPad out of the box. "There are nuances," Lattman adds. For instance, some directors want to take notes on the tablets, while others don't feel a need for that app. Digital Packages Now Using tablets can also save on copying costs as the pages in board packets multiply. That's one benefit that has PSE Credit Union Inc. (www.psecreditunion.org), based in Parma, Ohio, thinking about introducing tablets to the board room. Another hoped-for plus, according to Chairman Steele S. Nowlin, would be improved communication. A member of the Center for Credit Union Board Excellence (myccube.org) and a CUES Director member, Nowlin sees tablets enabling the simple use of cloud computing. That would be a huge advantage, changing the way the board receives information and the ease with which management can share it, he believes. "So we will wait to see how this newest advancement plays out," Nowlin says. The CU had planned to purchase tablets in September, but has had to cut back on expenditures. Nowlin is hoping fall or winter will be a prudent time to make the move. And he is uncertain whether PSE CU will choose iPads ortheHPTouchPad. Price and file formats familiar to IT people are TouchPad benefits, but the chair says after working on both platforms for about six months, he believes that working across platforms is not so difficult. For instance, if you are a Windows person with Word on your desktop, you can save your word processing in rich format, which works quite well. In California, Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union (www.lapfcu.org) Director Mike Moore remembers when the FedEx truck delivered reports from various committees and other sources in advance of each full board meeting. FedEx lost that business in 2006, when the 43,700-member, $741 million credit union created a secure Web site for the board. Directors were presented with laptop computers and trained in how to use them. They were notified by email when a report was available, which they could download before the next meeting, says Hanny Swart, VP/information services. A year ago, the iPad took over. "The iPad is much friendlier," says Moore, a CUES Director member. He cites the ergonomics- the iPad weighs only about one-and-a-third pounds- as well as its lengthy battery life and the convenience of having everything wireless. The use of apps also allows more experimentation because of their comparatively low cost. "With a laptop, software is expensive," Moore says. But, for example, for about $5, directors can download GoodReader to the iPad to manipulate files. If they don't like the way it works, it's not cost-prohibitive to try out a different app, such as Air Sharing. VP/Marketing Manny Padilla Jr., a CUES member, says it helps to have passion for the iPad at the top. President/CEO G. Michael "Mike" Padgett (also a CUES member) uses an iPad exclusively in his work. Padilla notes Los Angeles Police FCU held workshops to acquaint its directors with the tablets. One board member had won an iPad, but never even opened the box. "He became our biggest convert," Padilla says. iPad Security the Niggling Issue Now that everyone is thoroughly besotted with iPads, can we expect them to appear throughout the credit union? Well, if today's matinee was (see main article lead-in paragraphs) "South Pacific," tonight's show is "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." The problem is that while the iPad is good at a lot of things, it doesn't win any prizes in the security department. Boards are relatively small and access to information can be controlled; what's more, directors aren't examining member records or similar data that must be carefully protected. Loading sensitive information to a secure Web site should cover most concerns. But in a larger environment, things change. We all know that Apple products are much less likely to be targeted by hackers and other electronic deviants than Windows-based computers. But that's because the criminals go for the big hits, and if you want quantity, you don't think Apple-except in the tablet arena. Some 10 million of the devices have been sold and, at the beginning of the year, Apple said that more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies were using or piloting its tablet. That may just paint a big, fat target on its back. And you simply can't control an iPad the same way you can a laptop or workstation. For example, one of the more traditional devices could be limited in the number of applications it could access. That's not possible on an iPad. The iPad works on the same iOS platform the iPhone uses, but it's unknown how many credit unions have a smartphone security policy in place. In general, according to a recent survey conducted by nCircle www.ncircle.com), a leader in automated security and compliance auditing solutions, 58 percent of respondents have a corporate smartphone security policy in place, and 65 percent of those have measures in place to enforce it. Tony Bradley, co-author of Unified Communications for Dummies, writes in PC Magazine, "It is important for businesses to establish ground rules for the use of devices like the iPad, and to develop policies and procedures that take the security limitations of the device into consideration and adequately protect sensitive business data." Resources Read bonus coverage at cumanagement. org/082211 ipadsideal. Sign up for CUES' Directors Conference in December atcues.org/dc. Also check out DLI(TM): Governance at cues.org/ dligovernance. You can read the article "Virtual Board Meetings" on myccube.org. Not yet a member? Sign up for the 30-day free trial. Then log in and search for "virtual." Charlene Komar Storey is a veteran CU writer based in New Jersey. (c) 2011 Credit Union Executives Society |