Breaking Barriers: Unlocking Innovation Through Seamless Core Integration
Kyle Stutzman, CEO and CoFounder
Janusea
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Are you feeling excited and ready to tackle 2025, or are you uncertain and stressed? As a credit union, starting the new year often means embarking on a variety of projects: launching new member-facing initiatives, enhancing internal operational efficiency, and even exploring mergers and acquisitions. The list is long, the resources are few, and the impact will be meaningful for your members and community if you can accomplish your top initiatives.
The financial services landscape is rapidly evolving, and credit unions are uniquely positioned to lead the charge in delivering personalized, community-centered solutions. But how do we innovate when the very systems we rely on can feel like barriers holding us back?
Long implementation times, limited choices of who you can work with, and "innovation inertia" have been the norm in our industry. It doesn’t have to stay that way; the world is changing and will continue to change.
Tomorrow can look different. Imagine a world where credit unions could adopt a true integration strategy that transforms the way they interact with technology, complete projects, and partner with innovative solutions. Picture a future where testing new solutions, piloting innovations, and forming strategic partnerships isn’t bogged down by the intricacies of core integration. Instead, it’s streamlined, agile, and designed for growth.
The Challenges of Yesterday... that you may still be facing
The current state of core integration presents significant hurdles:
Lengthy Implementation Timelines: Adopting new solutions often requires significant internal or third-party resources, leading to prolonged implementation and costly projects.
Limited Choices: Many credit unions find themselves confined to a narrow selection of “pre-approved” solutions, stifling creativity and competition.
Competing Priorities: With so much on their plates—regulatory demands, member needs, and operational goals—credit unions often struggle to make decisions about which technology investments to prioritize.
In this environment, it’s easy to see why some credit unions choose to postpone innovation projects altogether. However, delaying innovation comes at a cost: missed opportunities to better serve members, reduced competitiveness, and slower adaptation to a rapidly changing industry.
A Vision for Today
At Janusea, we envision a future where integration is no longer a barrier but a key to unlocking boundless innovation. Credit unions can and should adopt an integration strategy that empowers them to:
Pilot New Solutions with Ease: Quickly test and adopt new tools without worrying about months of development work.
Embrace Flexibility: Have the freedom to switch solutions when they no longer meet the institution’s needs—without fearing disruption or downtime.
Manage Multiple Projects Simultaneously: Tackle regulatory changes, product launches, and member experience improvements in parallel, thanks to streamlined processes.
Anticipate and Adapt: Stay ahead of industry trends and compliance requirements with a system designed to accommodate new demands seamlessly.
This vision doesn’t require breaking the core model – it enhances it. By adding an integration layer, credit unions can easily access and leverage their data more efficiently without depending on internal teams or third-party core providers for every innovation project.
The Janusea Approach
At Janusea, we understand the challenges credit unions face because we’ve designed our solutions with those very challenges in mind. Our platform creates an integration layer that simplifies the process of connecting new technologies to existing core systems. By doing so, we empower credit unions to focus on innovation, member experience, and growth — without being held back by the limitations of their core infrastructure.
We believe that:
Integration Should Be Seamless: Credit unions shouldn’t need a team of developers or months of planning to adopt new technologies.
Innovation Should Be Accessible: Whether you’re piloting a cutting-edge fintech solution or implementing a regulatory requirement, the process should be straightforward and cost-effective.
Flexibility Is Non-Negotiable: The ability to pivot, adapt, and scale is essential in today’s fast-paced financial services environment.
Turning Vision Into Reality
The journey from today’s fragmented integration landscape to a future of seamless innovation starts with a shift in mindset. As one of our strategic partners, Elizabeth Osborne,COO of Great Lakes Credit Union, says: “Credit unions must see integration not as a technical challenge but as a strategic enabler. And with the right tools and partners, that shift is entirely achievable.”
At Janusea, we’re proud to partner with credit unions to break through the barriers of core integration. We work within the core model to create more opportunities to leverage its strengths while mitigating its limitations.
We’re excited to see credit unions adopt new external solutions - covering lending, AI member communication, call center, CRM/data, business service toolsets, and debit disputes – in just the last six months. Once these barriers are removed, credit unions can unlock a world of new possibilities. Existing CRM or data solutions can be transformed into real-time member servicing platforms. Merger and acquisition plans can be streamlined with shared tools for employees and members, even across multiple core systems. Expensive legacy integration tools can be replaced with a consistent platform that fosters collaboration among credit unions. With these obstacles out of the way, innovation doesn’t just start — it gains momentum, driving growth and progress throughout the industry.
The credit union movement has always been about serving communities, empowering members, and making a difference. By overcoming the challenges of core integration, we can ensure that these principles remain at the heart of everything we do — even as we embrace the future of financial technology.
Integration shouldn’t hold us back — it should drive us forward. Let’s make it the foundation for a future of innovation, flexibility, and growth. Together, we can unlock the full potential of credit union systems, strategies, and – most importantly – our service to members.
Kyle Stutzman, CEO at Janusea
Kyle's experience includes 20 years in the community financial industry space, 25+ year in the technology and financial services industries, and leadership roles for the last 20 years. He is passionate about transforming and advancing the community financial industry through innovation and connections. He has developed a network of FI and Fintech leader relationships which provide excellent opportunities for collaboration, partnership, and information on the landscape in the industry. No matter his title, his role in his more than 25 years in the IT and business world always included bridging the gap between business and IT to enable value for any business, bank, or credit union involved.
About Janusea
Fintechs have innovative solutions. Financial Institutions want to take advantage of those offerings, whether it be lending, digital banking, call center, conversational AI, member identity, automation, security, and more. But who has the resources, financial systems experience, or time to develop and maintain all the connections themselves? If you are a Credit Union with digital transformation ahead, leveraging Janusea as a middleware solution is key to ensure seamless integration. Janusea’s goal is to provide fintechs and financial institutions with speed to market, choice to work with the best solutions, and sustainable API integration.
