The strategy sets the direction.
The work determines the result.

Core conversions. Mergers. Digital banking implementations. Strategic planning. The projects that reshape a financial institution also land on a staff that still has one to run. That's where we come in: the plan, the meetings, the vendor follow-through, from kickoff through post-live.

Start a conversation See what we do

Core ConversionsThe vendor has done this a hundred times. You haven't.
Mergers & AcquisitionsThe model gets approved. The integration decides the outcome.
Digital BankingLaunching the platform is the easy half.
Strategic PlanningA plan your board recognizes and your staff can act on.

What we do

Six kinds of work. What financial institutions actually hire us for.

Each has its own challenges and its own vendor dynamics. All of them will occupy your team longer than anyone expects. Choose one to see how we take it off your team's plate.

The project your team has never done before, and your vendor does every month.

A core conversion touches every department, every member-facing process, and every downstream integration you have. We hold the plan, manage the meetings, keep the vendor honest against the statement of work, and make sure the questions that surface at 4pm on a Friday get answered before Monday.

Vendor-neutral evaluation, scoring, and selection support
Conversion plan, milestone tracking, and readiness gating
Data mapping oversight and mock conversion review
Staff training coordination and member communication planning
Go-live command and post-conversion stabilization

How an engagement runs

From board decision to a stabilized operation.

Every engagement moves through the same five phases. Where you enter depends on where you are — some institutions bring us in at selection, others when a project is already off track.

Phase one

Assess

Current state, contract obligations, system dependencies, and the honest capacity of your team.

Phase two

Align

Board, executive, and department leads agreeing on scope, sequence, and what success will be measured against.

Phase three

Select

Vendor-neutral evaluation, demos structured around your requirements, and negotiation support before signature.

Phase four

Execute

The plan run week by week — milestones, risks, escalations, and the vendor held to the statement of work.

Phase five

Stabilize

Post-live support, issue burn-down, adoption measurement, and knowledge transfer so the capability stays with you.

Our story

We work alongside your team, not above it.

Transformation demands more than tools. It requires partners who lead with clarity, empathy, and results — and who stay in the room when the work gets difficult.

Advocacy, not administration

We guide, manage, and advocate for your organization and for the community of people you serve. When a vendor conversation gets hard, you are not in it alone.

Vendor-neutral by design

We hold no reseller or referral arrangement with any core, digital, or payments provider. Our recommendation is shaped by your requirements and nothing else.

Mission before mechanics

Cheapest and fastest aren't always right. We'll tell you when a tradeoff costs more at the branch counter than it saves on the invoice.

You get the people who sold you the engagement

No handoff to junior staff after the kickoff meeting. The person in your planning sessions is the person in your status calls, your vendor escalations, and your board update.

Strategy and execution held by the same hands

Plans fail in the gap between the people who write them and the people who run them. We close that gap by doing both — the roadmap and the weekly discipline of getting through it.

Scope defined at the start, and an exit defined with it

We are not trying to become a permanent line in your budget. Every engagement has a defined end and a knowledge-transfer plan, so the capability stays with your team.

Reporting your board can read without a translator

Status that says what is on track, what is at risk, what it will cost to fix, and who owns it. No dashboards that take a meeting to interpret.

Leadership

Twenty years on the other side of the table.

Patrick spent two decades with two core software providers serving credit unions and banks, Sharetec and DDI.

He started as a core conversion project manager and moved into support management and oversight of implementation quality before stepping into leadership as Vice President. Along the way, he worked inside hundreds of financial institutions, supporting them, advising them on strategy, and leading complex software conversions from contract to go-live.

That experience taught him something most institutions only learn the hard way:

The vendor has a playbook, a timeline, and a team that has done this many times before.

The institution usually has a staff that still has a credit union to run.

Patrick founded Spayside Consulting to even that balance. Today he leads a team of experienced project and technology professionals who work on behalf of the institution, not the vendor. He sets the strategy for every engagement, assigns the right people to the right workstreams, and stays personally involved from kickoff through post-live. His team manages the plan, the meetings, and the vendor follow-through, making sure every milestone, deliverable, and critical step is completed on time and verified before anyone moves on.

The result is a partner with the capacity to carry a complex project and the leadership to keep it on course, so your investment in technology delivers the return you were promised.

Outside of work, Patrick lives in Central Indiana with his wife, Jackie, their four daughters, and his stepson. Most days end the way they start, in the carpool line, and weekends belong to the sidelines as a proud cheer and football dad. He believes in investing where he lives, giving his time to the credit union community he's served for decades, his local community, and his church. Between client milestones and family schedules, his calendar is always full, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Strategic partnership

A more complete advisory relationship, with ApexIQ Advisors.

Through an operating partnership between Spayside Consulting LLC and ApexIQ Advisors, institutions gain both specialized payments contract expertise and hands-on strategic execution support.

ApexIQ captures the value in your agreements

Network brand, card processing, PIN POS network, and core processing contracts — negotiated, then verified against the invoice for the life of the term.

Spayside executes the initiatives behind them

Strategic planning, project management, and leadership alignment that carry an initiative from concept through completion with accountability at every stage.

Together

Institutions unlock the opportunity, execute with confidence, and see a stronger return on the strategic investments they have already committed to.

The people behind ApexIQ.

ApexIQ is run by its founders. The same people who negotiated these agreements from inside the vendors lead every engagement.

Matt Bergman

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Matt has spent more than 25 years in financial technology and core processing. He began at Fiserv, FIS, and Xamin, selling core processing programs to banks and credit unions, and learned from the inside how vendors build and defend their contracts.

For the past 15 years he has worked with institutions up to multi-billion-dollar asset size on card brand, PIN network, and core, card, and digital processing agreements, using that vendor-side vantage point to find where the leverage actually sits.

Based in Naperville, Illinois.

Mike Elliott

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Mike has worked at the center of payments and card processing technology for more than 25 years, in sales and leadership roles at Fifth Third Bank, Worldpay, and Fiserv — long enough on both the bank and vendor sides to understand each perspective cold.

Over the past 20 years he has partnered with banks and credit unions of every size on card brand, PIN network, and core, card, and digital processing negotiations, spotting savings, interchange revenue, and service improvements a one-sided view would miss.

Based in Indiana.

News

What we're working on.

Project milestones, credit union events, and the occasional strong opinion about needs assessments. We post most often on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Article

Why Project Management Matters for Credit Unions and Banks

Every major initiative starts with good intentions. Whether it’s a core conversion, a merger or acquisition, a digital banking rollout, or a new strategic plan, what separates success from setback is how well the work is managed.

Strong project management delivers three critical advantages:

📋 Clarity

Clear scope, defined roles, and a realistic timeline mean everyone knows what’s happening, who owns it, and when it’s due. No guesswork and no dropped handoffs between departments, vendors, and leadership.

🛡️ Risk Control

Complex projects carry real risk: missed deadlines, budget overruns, compliance and regulatory gaps, and disruption to the people you serve. Disciplined project management spots issues early, tracks dependencies, and keeps small problems from becoming big ones.

🤝 Member and Customer Experience

When a conversion or merger goes sideways, your members and customers feel it first. Careful planning, thorough testing, and consistent communication protect the experience they count on before, during, and after go-live.

At Spayside Consulting LLC, project management is at the heart of everything we do. We bring the structure, accountability, and hands-on leadership that keep your initiatives on time, on budget, and on mission. Contact us today.

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We reply to every message. If a form isn't your preference, email ClientSuccess@spaysideconsulting.com directly.

A conversion date, a merger announcement, or a strategic plan that has stalled. Tell us where you are and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right help.

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