How a growing credit union replaced a legacy budgeting platform with an integrated planning and profitability solution built for long-term growth.
Arbor Financial Credit Union, a community-focused credit union headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan serving more than 47,000 members across southwest Michigan, replaced its legacy budgeting platform with Empyrean Budgeting & Planning and Empyrean Profitability. Empyrean Solutions provides integrated budgeting, forecasting, and profitability software built specifically for financial institutions.
As Arbor Financial grew in size and complexity, its previous system could no longer support the level of planning, analysis, and financial visibility the credit union needed for future growth. The result: greater operational efficiency, improved financial visibility, enhanced accuracy, and a unified view of organizational performance that supports better strategic decision-making.
The Challenge
What challenges led Arbor Financial Credit Union to modernize its planning and profitability processes?
Arbor Financial Credit Union had relied on a legacy budgeting solution that was being phased out. At the same time, the credit union had grown significantly in scale and operational complexity, creating the need for a modern financial planning platform that could support long-term growth and provide deeper analytical capability.
The finance team needed a solution that could do more than replace existing functionality. They wanted a platform that would:
- Support a growing and increasingly complex organization
- Improve budgeting and forecasting accuracy
- Reduce manual effort and increase productivity
- Deliver deeper insight into organizational performance
- Provide a modern, user-friendly experience for finance users
- Scale alongside future growth initiatives
Like many financial institutions, Arbor Financial also needed better visibility into how business lines, products, departments, and operational activities contributed to overall performance. Disconnected reporting and planning processes make it difficult to build a complete financial picture, particularly as institutions grow.
The Solution
How does Empyrean Solutions support strategic planning and profitability analysis for growing credit unions?
Arbor Financial Credit Union selected two integrated solutions from Empyrean Solutions: Empyrean Budgeting & Planning and Empyrean Profitability.
Empyrean Budgeting & Planning is a purpose-built budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning solution designed specifically for financial institutions. It helps finance teams automate planning processes, improve forecast accuracy, and streamline collaboration across departments.
For Arbor Financial, the solution provided a modern alternative to its legacy budgeting platform along with the scalability needed to support future growth. Its intuitive interface also simplified adoption and improved efficiency across the planning process.
Empyrean Profitability enables financial institutions to analyze financial performance at a granular level, providing insight into profitability by branch, product, customer relationship, department, and other dimensions.
A key advantage for Arbor Financial was the integration between planning, profitability, and underlying data structures. Detailed mapping between the planning model, Dataverse, and profitability analytics created a unified foundation for financial analysis and decision-making, giving the team a more comprehensive view of organizational performance and how individual components contribute to overall results.
Beyond the technology, Arbor Financial valued Empyrean’s collaborative approach and commitment to customer success. Participation in Empyrean user groups reinforced the credit union’s confidence that the company listens to clients and continuously invests in product enhancements that address real-world needs.
The Results
What results did Arbor Financial Credit Union achieve with Empyrean Solutions?
Arbor Financial Credit Union realized measurable benefits across its financial planning and analysis processes.
Greater operational efficiency. Automated planning workflows and improved system integration reduced manual effort, freeing up time for the finance team and increasing overall productivity.
Enhanced scalability. Arbor Financial now has a planning and profitability platform that can support continued organizational growth and increasing business complexity without requiring significant process redesign.
Improved accuracy and confidence. Integrated data structures and detailed mapping capabilities provide a more consistent foundation for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and performance analysis.
Deeper organizational insight. With Budgeting & Planning and Profitability working together, Arbor Financial evaluates its business more cohesively, helping leaders understand performance across the institution and make more informed strategic decisions.
A stronger technology partnership. Ongoing enhancements, responsive support, and active customer engagement help ensure the platform continues to deliver long-term value.
“Empyrean has provided us with far more than a budgeting and profitability platform. The integrated data structure gives us a comprehensive view of our organization, enabling more informed decision-making and deeper insight into performance across the credit union. Combined with an intuitive user experience, continuous product innovation, and an exceptionally responsive support team, Empyrean has become a valued strategic partner for our organization.”
— Kayley Tindall, Senior Financial Analyst, Arbor Financial Credit Union
“As financial institutions grow, the ability to connect planning, profitability, and data intelligence becomes increasingly important. Arbor Financial Credit Union embraced that opportunity by modernizing its financial management processes with Empyrean. Their team has used our integrated platform to gain deeper visibility into performance, improve efficiency, and build a stronger foundation for strategic decision-making and future growth.”
— Chris Maclin, Chief Executive Officer, Empyrean Solutions
Why Empyrean
Why did Arbor Financial Credit Union choose Empyrean Solutions?
As Arbor Financial Credit Union evaluated alternatives to its legacy budgeting solution, the organization looked for a platform that could support a growing institution while providing greater visibility into financial performance and strategic planning. Empyrean Solutions delivered a combination of technology, usability, and partnership that matched those goals.
Key factors influencing Arbor Financials’ decision included:
- A modern, intuitive user interface that simplifies budgeting, forecasting, and analysis workflows
- Integrated Budgeting & Planning and Profitability solutions that create a unified view of organizational performance
- Scalability to support a growing, increasingly complex credit union
- Detailed data mapping and analytics capabilities that improve visibility and accuracy
- A customer-first culture demonstrated through responsive support, collaborative user groups, and ongoing product enhancements driven by client feedback
For Arbor Financial, Empyrean represented more than a replacement for a legacy budgeting tool. It provided a strategic financial management platform capable of supporting long-term growth and more informed decision-making.
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Get a DemoKey Takeaways
- Replaced a legacy budgeting platform with a scalable planning solution.
- Improved productivity and reduced manual effort through streamlined budgeting and forecasting processes.
- Enhanced accuracy and consistency across planning and financial analysis.
- Created a unified view of organizational performance through integrated planning and profitability analytics.
- Gained deeper insight into financial, operational, and organizational performance drivers.
- Established a long-term partnership with a solution provider committed to customer success and continuous innovation.