Keith Harrison
“AFT is unique. It’s not solely about my customers here. It’s about building relationships with people with whom I do business.”
Keith Harrison
Vice President of Partner Operations
Q2ebanking
Q: How long have you and your company been with AFT?
A: I’m with Q2ebanking and they have been members of AFT for about six years. I’ve been a member of AFT since I joined Q2ebanking four years ago.
Q: Why is it beneficial for you to be a member of AFT? What makes AFT so special?
A: I’m starting my 40th year in the financial services industry. At this time in my career, it is important to me to find opportunities to mentor others and to give back to the industry. I’ve developed a lot of knowledge and skills over the years, and if I can offer my insights and assistance where they are needed I’ll feel like I’m doing my part to help the next generation of leaders. At AFT, I’ve found a place where I can do that. AFT is an organization that buys into the idea that “what goes around, comes around”. The Pay-It-Forward campaign was an idea that I shared with the Board before I was a Board member. They liked it and we ran with it. That really showed me that the Board is very focused on helping its members. When I heard that there were Board seats available, I wanted to have a bigger role. It’s rare to find an organization that is so focused on the idea of paying it forward – and paying it back. That makes AFT pretty special.
Q: You have a lot of resources within your organization and different contacts you’ve made in your career. How would you rank AFT in terms of viable resources?
A: Truly, the challenge is that I haven’t found any other place that’s like AFT. AFT is unique. It’s not solely about my customers here. It’s about building relationships with people with whom I do business. There really is no other group that I’ve ever interacted with that comes close helping me build better relationships than AFT does. Now when I’m working with another AFT member, it’s more than just doing business. There’s a personal stake in it, too. We certainly get the business done; and, we relate to each other on a personal level, as well.
Q: When is a good time for a company to join AFT?
A: Throughout my career, I’ve spent four tenures with different companies that had more than 1,000 employees. Today, I’m with a company that had less than 60 people four years ago and that now has over 300 people. I don’t think that the size of the company should be what drives the decision to join AFT. Instead, I think it should be the spirit of the company and what they are trying to accomplish. When it comes to relationships, there’s as much to be done in a 5-person company as there is in a 2,500-person company. In fact, I wish that I had joined AFT 20 years ago. Q2ebanking believes that there’s more benefit to our organization by sending more than one person to the conferences, so we usually send 4 to 5 people. We encourage other companies, regardless of size, to join and attend the conferences, as well.
Q: Why should another company that is working with financial institutions in the technical space join AFT? What would you tell the CEO of that company about why they should?
A: As a member of the membership committee I do a lot of recruiting. When I’m talking with other industry leaders, I ask them about the other opportunities that they have to really take their third-party relationships to the next level. Many times they tell me that they go to conferences. But they’re talking about conferences with booths, and demos, and exhibit halls. AFT is different. We are not into the exhibit hall and all the rest of that vendor stuff. What we are into is figuring out ways to make our lives easier and our current businesses easier, while at the same time putting some personal activities into it. There are people who are doing business and pitching their wares at the conference, and that’s perfectly fine. But that’s not the primary reason that people attend. That’s not the reason for AFT.
Q: Now that we’ve been talking about AFT and you’ve been thinking about the value of your membership, is there anything else that you would like to share?
A: Many times when people value memberships, or when they value anything, by nature they default to dollar signs. With AFT, there’s definitely a value that you cannot associate with the cost of joining or attending the conferences. I like to think of my membership with AFT as priceless. For me, the question is more about how we get the AFT experience into the hands of the next generation so they have the benefit of a long association that I wish that I had early in my career. I’m very jazzed about AFT. I believe that if you understand the true value of AFT, you will be a member for life.
Q: If you were talking to the full membership now, what advice could you share with them to get the most out of AFT?
A: My advice to our current members is to share the value of AFT with people who are not yet involved with AFT. The more members that we can get, and the more experience from all parts of the industry that we can gather, it will only mean good things for the future of AFT. So, come and join the conferences twice a year, spread the word within your company and your partners, and take advantage of all the resources AFT offers throughout the year.