In forming banking technology partnerships, timing matters.

When Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union was readying to pick a mobile banking vendor more than three years ago, the Indianapolis-based institution was forced to put the project on hiatus so it could migrate from its Fiserv core banking solution to a core provided by Open Solutions.

“We wanted to do it three or four years ago, but the timing wasn’t ideal,” Tim Greene, AVP of eCommerce, tells Bank Innovation. “We had to put a hold on mobile.”

Still, Greene knew he wanted to keep mobile near the top of his to-do list because of its importance in remaining competitive.

“If you expect to compete with big banks, [mobile banking] is not a nice to have; it’s a must have,” Greene says.

When the dust settled from its core update, the credit union wanted to sign with either Clairmail or mFoundry, but opted for the latter because mFoundry became the core’s preferred vendor.

“Whenever you are dealing with integration points and multiple vendors, it’s nice to work with those who play nicely,” Greene says.

Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union, which has more than $1 billion in assets, officially introduced ELFCUmobile last week. The offering includes native mobile apps, mobile web and text banking. Since its soft launch three weeks ago, 1,100 unique users have used the channel, while nearly 500 members have already deposited checks through their smartphones.

In the next few months, Greene tells Bank Innovation that a full-fledged mobile marketing effort will be underway to foster more usage, with the messaging touting “access” as its strategy to garner adaption. Though the credit union has access to more than 60,000 ATMs, its physical footprint is limited to only six branches, which is why mobile banking functionality matters a lot to members of the credit union.

By the time more aggressive marketing takes place, Greene hopes to have tucked in a few more features into its mobile banking capabilities, including P2P integration, which he expects will hit this fall.