A Question of Trust: The SNU Trust

Embarking on a large, complex and potentially expensive development project is often an act of faith. Without prior experience of software development, clients have to be able to trust their development partner — and when the business in question manages money for its customers, that trust becomes even more important.

This was especially true for the Spiritualists' National Union Trust (SNU Trust) when they needed a more flexible solution to manage their range of financial services. As both a mutual building society and registered charity, the SNU Trust couldn't afford to make the wrong decision.

The client

The SNU Trust is a mutual building society that supports churches in the UK. Operating as a separate, independent entity to the Union itself, the Trust is a registered charity bound by both Bank of England and FCA guidelines. As a financial institution, it steps in where high-street banks and building societies cannot, offering churches affordable interest rates.

The challenge

The SNU Trust were using a system built on Microsoft Access to manage their client base and products — which needed to be updated significantly to meet growth objectives, provide more accurate financial information, and continue to deliver high levels of customer service.

The existing software met their security needs, but gathering and processing account data was becoming increasingly labour-intensive. They needed a partner who understood their business model and their sector — one who would provide the reassurance, security and clarity they needed before investing in change. As the Trust's Lesley Gilbey explains, they'd tried elsewhere and it hadn't paid off:

"We had one attempt with another provider, but the system they provided was too simplistic."

Before a solution could be proposed, Technonerds needed to show the Trust they could safely put their faith in us. So we did what we do for every client — we got to know and understand them. Lesley continues:

"Dave [Gibson, Technonerds MD] took the time to research our company and asked dozens of relevant questions. It proved that we mattered to him, and that Technonerds were incredibly organised. This was key for us."

By understanding the Trust's exact requirements and laying out our step-by-step process, we allayed Lesley's concerns and gave her the peace of mind to commit. A demonstration of our Adam platform, and examples of similar financial projects, sealed the deal.

This new project — a bespoke CRM system — would enable the Trust to manage interest-bearing accounts and asset-backed loans easily and effectively. Seven different account types would be supported, with flexible interest calculations, and the software itself would be secure and future-proofed. Following our five-step development process, we designed, built and delivered a system that could:

• Allow back-office teams to manage a variety of financial products.
• Track and manage asset-backed loans, record payments and assess maturity.
• Reconcile bank accounts and report on non-payments.
• Store signed PDF contracts securely.
• Help segment members and market to them effectively.
• Provide simple, transparent reports.
• Work effectively for a minimum of 10 years and support partner changes.

The system Technonerds designed and built is already meeting all of the Trust's needs. Lesley and her team were delighted with the simplicity and effectiveness of the development process, including how we worked around the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Close cooperation and in-depth testing ensured the team was always informed and there were no surprises at go-live.

"The process went better than expected. The team were patient and went over things multiple times when required. We felt confident enough to ask questions and were happy with the answers."

"We're now getting much more accurate information, but it's really the additional functionality that's the benefit. Churches have been setting up different things for loan repayments, and now we can record that on the new system instead of spreadsheets. We're able to be much more efficient."

Trust earned, and trust repaid — no wonder the SNU Trust is happy to recommend Technonerds.