Print
Christine Bougie
Synergent’s mission is to ‘help credit unions succeed and improve the financial lives of their members.’ In our monthly Employee Spotlight series, we feature one of our dedicated staff members to help you get to know the people who are working as an extension of your credit union team.
Christine Bougie, Senior Business Analyst on Synergent’s Development team, celebrated 30 years with the company this past September. From forming and maintaining deep friendships with colleagues to constantly wanting to learn more about technology, there is never a dull moment for Bougie.
“The system today is far more complex than it was 30 years ago when I started, so it’s impossible for one person to know everything about it,” explained Bougie. “This means that most business analysts have become subject matter experts in certain areas over time. While I work on a broad spectrum of cases, my areas of expertise are rewards, digital banking, and overdraw tolerance, so I tend to work on cases involving these products or assist newer business analysts who require assistance in these areas.”
With 30 years under her belt, however, Bougie has gained extensive experience in various roles within the organization.
“I was initially hired as a Conversion Specialist (similar to an Implementation and Training Analyst today) shortly after graduating from Boston College and working briefly at a local credit union,” recalled Bougie. “As a Conversion Specialist, I traveled to credit unions, working with them as they converted from the Thrift platform to the VISION platform. Once these conversions were completed, I moved into a position in Credit Union Support (now Customer Service), where I worked as front-line support for our credit unions before eventually moving into the Business Analyst role that I hold today.”
Embracing Technology and Collaboration: Christine’s Dynamic Role
Having earned a degree in Computer Science, Bougie has always been interested in math and technology. She explained that she is a rather curious person by nature, always wanting to know how and why things work the way they do, and to determine if there are ways to make them work better and more efficiently.
“I also love working with people,” said Bougie. “Working in Development allows me to put all of these skills to use. And because technology is always changing, I never have a chance to get bored. “
In her role, Bougie works directly with Synergent’s credit union clients to develop the best solution for their needs. As a Business Analyst, there really is no typical day-to-day routine, as many of her tasks are dependent on the cases that are assigned to her, along with any new ones that come in.
“In the past week, I’ve worked on four different long-term projects where credit unions are implementing a new product with a third-party vendor,” explained Bougie. “This usually involves a weekly check-in meeting with the credit union and their vendor, as well as responding to any core-related questions that come up during the week. I’ve completed multiple specifications and quotes for customizations that credit unions are looking to do with Synergent, I’ve worked on numerous research cases for credit unions, and I’ve tested both standard and custom code.”
Driving Change and Collaboration: Change Administrator and Project Lead
Bougie is also one of Synergent’s four Change Administrators. She and the other three split up the week to take turns monitoring the initial and final change queues to review all change requests that come in. This team also ensures the rules of the change management process are followed.
“I meet with my Team Lead and the other business analysts and programmers on my team three times per week,” detailed Bougie. “During these meetings, cases and projects are assigned, discussed, and/or quoted. The meetings promote collaboration and enable me and my teammates to bounce ideas off of each other to come up with the best solution for our credit unions.”
Within the three decades that Bougie has been with Synergent, she has completed many projects of importance, although her work with Synergent Rewards is what she feels most proud of.
“I was brought onto the Synergent Rewards project team at the very beginning as the lead Business Analyst, so I had a lot of input regarding how it would be designed right from the start,” explained Bougie. “I was able to work closely with one of our amazing programmers to take that design and make it a reality and I’m very proud about how it turned out. I’ve also had the pleasure of working directly with credit unions on every implementation of the product to date and am currently working on testing some enhancements to the product.”
A Passion for Financial Technology and Connections
A role in the financial technology field keeps Bougie engaged. In fact, her favorite part of her job is the way technology is always changing, so each day is different. Her experience at Synergent has allowed her to learn a lot about the latest trends in the financial services industry and how they work from both the backend and consumer sides—making Bougie a valuable resource to both credit unions and her Synergent peers.
“The highlight of my career is more personal; it’s the numerous long-lasting friendships I’ve developed over the years with my colleagues,” expressed Bougie when reflecting on her career here. “I can truly say that some of my closest friends today are current or former Synergent employees.”
When not at her desk, Bougie enjoys fun and unique events and activities in the local area, takes long walks along Maine’s coast, does yoga, and spends time with friends and family. She loves the ocean and can’t imagine living far away from it.
