​Interac

It might be the oldest project on the track record list, but it is even more relevant today than ever. The entire Project and Interac itself is nothing but Systems Integration. The Portfolio of Projects that led to INTERAC and its success is something MY Integration Team continues to repeat in other Industries outside of Banking.  The Success Strategies outlined within this Web site are the same strategies that  were used to help make INTERAC successful.  They are also strategies that other IT Companies are not using, hence the high failure rate. 

As the INTERAC project was underway in the early 1980's, all financial Institutions in Canada had Information Technology projects underway to allow the exchange of financial transactions in a shared environment. This was a very large complex project.

As large, and complex as it was, for Credit Unions (outside of Quebec) it was even larger, more complex, and more politically challenged than it was for the Big banks of Canada.  The Credit Unions are Independent financial institutions and they have to work through Credit Union Centrals within each province. So a traditional IT approach to this problem would be to create a massive IT project with a hierarchy and nationwide controls. All Credit Unions, and Credit Union Centrals would have to get together to agree on requirements. Taking this approach would have guaranteed the project would have died under its own weight in processes, conflicts, and unresolved priorities. 

Instead, a small group of people took the lead and met separately with each credit union, and each credit Union Central. Respecting their uniqueness, yet learning how to create a common Vision.  A Vision that could be explained to smaller IT groups so multiple teams could work in parallel knowing how their project contributes to the overall goal of getting all Credit Unions into INTERAC.  Combine a common Vision with some well defined International Standards (ISO Standards) and you end up with multiple teams in multiple provinces all working towards the same business goal. (i.e. Portfolio Management).  The business goal was central to the very survival of the Credit Unions as they would run the risk of losing members if they could not participate in the shared Automated teller network when all other Financial institutions could. 

So instead of a large failed statistic we ended up with multiple historic and very successful projects.  The first Debit Card in Canada, the first point-of-Sale system in North America (in Swift Current Saskatchewan) and the creation of The Credit Union Gateway.  These projects were a means to an end to allow all Credit Unions outside of Quebec to participate in the shared ATM network now branded very successfully as INTERAC.

Credit Unions operate as Independent Financial Institutions, yet they need to act as one to participate in the shared automated teller environment
​known as Interac.

Credit Unions in Interac