From 6 Vendors to One View: The Real Cost of Disconnected Systems

Your operations team is toggling between five browser tabs. Your consumer service reps are copying and pasting account numbers between systems. Your IT director just approved another $15K integration project that’ll take six months to complete.

Sound familiar?

Most credit unions and community banks didn’t set out to build a Frankenstein tech stack. It happened one vendor at a time, one “best-of-breed” solution at a time, one well-intentioned purchase at a time. Now you’re here: six (or eight, or ten) different systems that don’t talk to each other, and a team that’s spending more time switching between platforms than actually serving consumers.

The Invoice You See vs. The Cost You Don’t

Let’s talk about what vendor sprawl actually costs you, because it’s not just the line items on your P&L.

The obvious costs

• Annual licensing fees are stacking up across platforms
• Per-user seat costs that multiply with each system
• Custom integration projects that drag on for months
• Ongoing maintenance every time a vendor updates their API

The hidden costs that show up everywhere

Your new hire spends their first three weeks learning six different systems instead of serving consumers. Your best rep just spent 10 minutes hunting through platforms to answer a simple question about a loan status. Your IT team is maintaining custom integrations instead of working on strategic initiatives.

Meanwhile, your consumers are getting inconsistent experiences because the rep helping them can’t see their full conversation history. Your compliance team is attempting to consolidate audit trails across disparate systems. Your leadership team is making decisions based on incomplete data because valuable insights are trapped in separate silos.

Every disconnected system creates friction for your team, for your consumers, and for your bottom line. It’s not always easy to quantify, but walk through your operation for one day and you’ll see it everywhere: the extra clicks, the duplicate entries, the “let me check another system” moments that turn quick interactions into lengthy ones.

What “One View” Actually Means (And Why It Matters)

When we discuss transitioning six vendors to one unified view, we’re not suggesting that you replace your core banking system or abandon tools that work. That’s not realistic, and it’s not necessary.

What we’re talking about is consolidating your consumer communication and engagement stack into a single, integrated platform where:

• Your team sees the complete consumer conversation across texting, video, voice, and chat
• Data from your core, loan origination system, and CRM flows into conversations automatically
• Workflows trigger across channels without custom code
• Compliance monitoring works across all communication channels
• Your consumers get consistent, informed service no matter which channel they choose

Think of it like moving from having six different messaging apps (each requiring its own login, training, and process) to one intelligent platform that handles everything. Except instead of just consolidation, you get tools that work together intelligently.

How Eltropy Solves the Vendor Sprawl Problem

Here’s where most credit unions and community banks get stuck: They know they need to consolidate, but they’ve built their communication stack piece by piece. One vendor for SMS, another for video banking, a third for voice, and a fourth for chat. Each requires separate contracts, training, and integrations.

Eltropy changes this equation by replacing multiple point solutions with a single Unified Conversations Platform, purpose-built for Community Financial Institutions (CFIs), giving your team the tools to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

One platform for all consumer communications:

• Text messaging (SMS and RCS)
• Secure chat and messaging
• Video banking
• Voice and contact center

Native integrations with your existing systems:

• Core banking systems (Symitar, Corelation, Fiserv, and more)
• Loan origination systems
• Document management
• Identity verification services

Built-in intelligence and automation that eliminates manual work. AI-powered routing sends conversations to the right team. Automated workflows handle routine requests. Consumer data is populated automatically, so your team always has the necessary context.

Enterprise-grade compliance that works across every channel. PII monitoring, authentication management, and complete audit trails, all in one place, instead of trying to stitch together compliance across multiple vendors.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Example Scenario: Consumer texts about a loan application.

The old way (6 disconnected vendors):

1. Rep sees text in SMS vendor platform
2. Opens the core banking system to verify identity
3. Switches to the loan origination system to check application status
4. Checks the Video Banking platform to see if the consumer has a scheduled appointment
5. Goes to a separate chat platform to check previous conversations
6. Returns to the SMS platform to respond
7. Logs interaction in CRM
8. Updates the task in the workflow management tool

Total time: 8-12 minutes of system-hopping for a 2-minute conversation.

The Eltropy way:

1. Rep sees text in unified conversation view with full consumer context, loan status, authentication, and conversation history already displayed
2. Responds with accurate information across any channel
3. System auto-logs the interaction and updates workflows

Total time: 2 minutes. Everything else happens automatically on one platform.

The Consolidation Impact

When CFIs move from multiple communication vendors to Eltropy’s Unified Conversations Platform, they see immediate operational impact:

Vendor reduction: Replace 3-5 separate communication vendors with One Platform.

• Eliminate the SMS vendor
• Eliminate the video banking vendor
• Eliminate separate chat/messaging vendor
• Eliminate standalone voice/contact center system
• Consolidate authentication and security tools

Cost reduction:

• Reduce vendor management overhead (fewer contracts, invoices, renewals)
• Eliminate duplicate per-user seat costs
• Cut integration development costs (pre-built connections vs. custom APIs)
• Reduce training costs (one platform vs. multiple systems)

Operational efficiency:

• Single interface for all consumer communications
• Unified analytics and reporting across channels
• Consolidated compliance monitoring
• Streamlined vendor management
• One support relationship instead of many

The ROI Timeline

Most CFIs see measurable impact within the first quarter:

Month 1-2: Immediate reduction in vendor count and associated contract management burden

Month 2-3: Faster consumer service as teams work on one platform instead of six

Month 3-6: Decreased training time for new hires learning one system vs. multiple platforms

Month 6-12: Reduced operational costs from vendor consolidation become fully realized

Ongoing: Better consumer satisfaction scores, higher employee satisfaction, and the agility to add new communication channels without adding new vendors

Making the Move

Moving from vendor sprawl to a unified platform doesn’t have to be a disruptive process. Most credit unions and community banks transition in phases, starting with their highest-volume communication channels and layering in others based on impact.

The typical path looks like this:

1. Start with text messaging
2. Add video banking and secure chat
3. Integrate voice and contact center capabilities
4. Connect to core banking and other systems
5. Retire legacy vendors as contracts expire

The question isn’t whether you can afford to consolidate; it’s whether you can afford not to; when every additional vendor is costing you in ways that don’t show up on an invoice, but absolutely show up in your efficiency, consumer experience, and bottom line.

Ready to See Eltropy in Action?

Curious how much you’re losing to vendor sprawl? Let’s connect. No pressure, just real numbers.