Why Credit Union Data Integration Is Not a Technical Problem; It’s An Organizational One.

At Geear, we’ve done over 60+ HubSpot implementations and data integration projects with credit unions. The majority of these integrations go smoothly. The data lands in HubSpot as expected in the expected timeframe. But, as is the case with many large-scale data migrations, issues can arise causing the integration to take longer than you’d hope or expect. Our years of experience have exposed a trend. And while most attention is usually placed on the technology used in the integration, we’ve found that organizational alignment is the most common reason integrations stall or fail altogether.

It goes something like this…a credit union invests in a marketing automation tool like HubSpot. They choose an integration solution (e.g. middleware or API). The kickoff with their agency goes well and everyone's aligned (or, at least, everyone feels aligned). Then a few months pass and the data still isn't where it needs to be in HubSpot. The credit union still can't do what it hoped to do in HubSpot. Slowly (and understandably), confidence starts to drain from the project and the platform itself.

When we look back at the projects that stalled, we found that the technology was almost never the constraint. Instead, the alignment across the organization was the cause. Moving data across systems is complicated and time-consuming, requiring a lot of coordination and collaboration. When this isn’t taken into account at the outset of a project, the likelihood of completing it on time is low.

Why Framing Data Integration as a ‘Technology Problem’ Leads Credit Unions Down The Wrong Path

The conversation about data integration for credit unions almost always begins with the tech. It includes discussions around legacy core systems, disconnected platforms, API limitations, and the complexity of connecting Fiserv DNA or Symitar to a CRM and a loan origination system. And while these are very real and legitimate challenges to be solved, when data integration is only framed as a technology challenge, it can lead everyone to believe that to have better data integration they simply need better tools. Then, when the new tools ultimately don't deliver the transformation everyone hoped for, the natural assumption is that they were the wrong tools. So, the shopping starts again. Our experience over the years has taught us that the tool is rarely the primary blocker. Getting the right people aligned on both sides is.

How To Improve Organizational Alignment Around Credit Union Data Integration

In our experience, credit union data integration projects most often get delayed, stalled, or derailed for these reasons…

1. The HubSpot Vision Lives With One Person, Making Departmental Buy-In Break Down

The person we've built the relationship with, whether it’s the marketing director or the VP of digital, understands the vision. They are on board and bought into the process and the end goals. But moving data touches IT, operations, and compliance, so the understanding and vision need to reach teams who weren't part of the original conversation. This is the scenario we see consistently, and it’s an early indicator that a project may stall. When the vision lives with one person, who does not have authority over the other contributors, achieving buy-in across all the necessary departments becomes a challenge. Years of experience here have taught us that every team the data touches needs to be involved as early as possible and understand exactly what is required from their end.

2. IT Teams Stall Data Integration Projects When They're Brought In Late Without Full Context

There's a common data integration scenario we encounter that looks like IT resistance, but is really an issue of timing. We've worked with IT teams that are fully willing to help and genuinely trying to complete their portion of a project, but lacked the context or didn’t understand the desired outcome to deliver on their piece quickly. A lot can depend on WHEN IT teams get involved and WHAT they are provided when they do. If they are brought into the process early, walked through how HubSpot's object model works and why the data needs to be structured a certain way, it makes for a more seamless, collaborative process. When IT is brought in late and without the full context, their ability to deliver successfully goes down. In order to set every team up for success, especially IT, they should be brought in early and provided full context around the project and its goals.

3. Credit Union Teams Across Finance, Marketing, and Operations Often Have Conflicting Definitions of the Same Data

We've sat in meetings where finance, marketing and operations departments all claim different member numbers, despite the fact that they are all looking at the same core. By their own definitions, they’re all “correct,” because each team built its view of the data to answer its department’s questions.

These aren't technical questions, they're alignment questions that often haven't needed a single answer before, because the organization never had a reason to reconcile them. The integration project is often the first time anyone has seen the discrepancy between the data, and we've learned it's far better to surface that early and work through it together than to trip over it mid-build.

4. No One Has Cross-Departmental Authority to Unblock Data Integration Issues

It’s not uncommon to have total buy-in from a single department head, who can move whatever mountains they need to within their own department to progress a data integration project. Problems arise when other departments are required to complete the project but lack that department leader who is on-board and willing to prioritize this work over everything else on their roadmap.

This is why having buy-in from as high up in the organization as possible is one of the best ways to ensure on-time delivery and project success. A VP or C-level executive can choose to prioritize this project over others, ensuring that each department’s contribution is done on time and to the necessary specifications.

5. Compliance enters too late, stalling a project as it’s gaining momentum

We've had middleware platforms get stuck in compliance review after purchase, sometimes for weeks, or sometimes long enough that confidence in the tool erodes entirely. In some cases, compliance requests SOC 2 documentation. In others, it's a middleware connection that opens a whole new set of questions about PII and where data lives. In our experience, getting compliance and platforms sorted from the very beginning ensures there are no surprises during the integration that could delay progress and slow results.

6. Not Enough Time Is Budgeted For Data Alignment

During data mapping, everyone is working from what they understand about the systems today. We agree on a set of data points and build toward them. Then, as the team gets comfortable with HubSpot and starts to see how the data will actually be used, new questions surface. For example, why is this field formatted this way? How do I segment on this? What does that product code actually mean? Often until credit unions see the data in use they can’t fully know what data they need. This way of working then creates rework which is a very time consuming process. Experience has taught us to plan for this discovery process in the beginning rather than be surprised by it.

7. Lack of Ownership Assignment for Key Deliverables

Even when everyone does all the right things, when IT is in the room from the beginning, when we've walked through a detailed data mapping template, when we've had what felt like complete alignment, the process can still wobble due to lack of clear accountability and responsibility. The credit union needs alignment AND accountability for complex projects like data integration. Each deliverable and timeline should have a department and name associated with it. It is that person’s responsibility to ensure the deliverable is done on time and to the appropriate specifications. If that deadline is at risk, it is that person’s responsibility to name the issue as early as possible so the appropriate steps can be taken. Naming this risk up front and assigning ownership within the credit union and Geear is how we keep it from quietly stalling down the road.

How a Readiness Workshop Front-Loads Data Integration Problems

Before we touch any data, and ideally before the formal kickoff, we run a readiness workshop.

This readiness workshop is a focused working session that brings the right people together early and takes an honest read on where the organization actually stands. The session covers the technical, the data, the connections, and the systems, but importantly, it also covers the organizational side too. We ask who owns which decisions and verify whether IT has the bandwidth and the context to take this on. We want to make sure the people who can unstick things when they stall are involved from the start.

This workshop either condenses the questions that used to surface downstream into a single session or surfaces issues that require resolution before the big work actually begins. While this approach doesn’t eliminate problems altogether, it organizes and front-loads them in a way that prevents unnecessary delays later in the data integration project.

Four Questions, Credit Unions Should Answer Before Evaluating Any Data Integration Tool

The most valuable conversation you can have before evaluating a single tool is an internal one. These are the four questions we recommend every credit union ask before undertaking a project like this:

1. Who has the authority to make cross-departmental decisions about how our data is structured and shared?
2. Has our IT team been asked whether they have the bandwidth and the context to take this on?
3. Has executive leadership bought into what this will involve, not just for marketing, but for every team whose data we're touching?
4. Who's going to help carry this forward on our side when it and when things get hard?

Those are exactly the questions our workshop is built to answer, together, before anyone moves a single record. Some credit unions can already answer them clearly, and for them data integration tends to move fast. For everyone else, that's the work worth doing first.

The technology will still be there when we're ready.

Geear is a HubSpot Diamond Solutions Partner specializing in data integration and digital marketing for credit unions and community banks. If you want to talk through what readiness looks like for a data integration project, we're happy to help.