Announcing The 2025 LEAP Award for Financial Institutions!

Strata’s 2025 Bank of the Year: CB&S Bank

About

CB&S Bank was founded in 1906 in Russellville, Alabama, with a focus on the unmet needs of farmers and town merchants in the region. Now, CB&S Bank’s footprint extends over 50 offices in three states across the Southeast. A leading community bank with over $2 billion in assets and 56 branches across Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee markets, CB&S Bank has served the needs of its customers and shareholders for over 100 years.

Area of Focus 

After learning that their financial performance management tool was being sunset, CB&S Bank partnered with Strata to roll out a solution that could turn their increasing supply of data into accessible, actionable information. CB&S kicked off the now years-long partnership with Strata and implemented the Axiom™ Financial Institutions Suite to move away from more manual processes and toward a more complete, holistic financial picture. 

Our Partnership

In rolling out the Axiom solutions, CB&S leaders were extremely effective in identifying immediate needs and staging areas of focus. The team was able to adopt faster, easier-to-use streamlined reporting for income statements, balance sheets, and variance reports. Most notably, they collaborated with the Strata Product Management and Professional Services teams to create visualizations and models that have since become the standard for all Strata FI customers.  For the first time, using Axiom Financial Planning in 2024 allowed CB&S Bank to create a bottom-up approach to empower branch managers and hold them accountable to the budget. Today, they also use Axiom to deepen their understanding of relationship profitability and to gain visibility into key value-drivers.

Strata’s Credit Union of the Year: Great Lakes Credit Union

About

Founded in 1938 and headquartered in Northern Illinois, Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU) is “banking for a greater good.” This not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative with over $1.6 billion in assets is proud to serve more than 116,000 members in Chicagoland and surrounding areas. With a focus on expanding access to essential financial services for those who need them most—including no-cost credit builder loans, fresh-start checking accounts, and more—GLCU serves as an essential part of its community. 

Area of Focus

GLCU implemented the Axiom Foundations product for Reporting and Profitability in 2018. After developing a new strategy for growth at the organization, they chose to move to the NextGen product and implemented Reporting & Analytics, Profitability and added Planning in 2024. GLCU’s adoption of the Axiom Financial Institutions Suite led to their ability to complete their budget on the tool and use reporting and analytics to make data-driven decisions and better serve their community as a result. Their use of Axiom Funds Transfer Pricing & Profitability has given them the opportunity to analyze profitability and ensure resources are aligned to value-drivers, helping them make informed decisions and support profitable customers, segments, branches, and products. 

Our Partnership

Aside from just their own success utilizing Axiom, GLCU exemplifies the Axiom FI community through not only their ongoing partnership with Strata but also by continuously sharing their Axiom experience with other financial institutions. They continue to go above and beyond to assist others that can leverage what they have learned.

The Strata LEAP Award:

The Strata LEAP (Lead, Excel, Achieve and Progress) Award honors exceptional financial institutions that use Strata’s tools and services to solve real-world problems related to financial analytics, business intelligence and decision support. 

This prestigious customer success award recognizes and celebrates the outstanding achievement of Strata’s financial institution customers.  

Each year, the LEAP Award is given to Axiom Financial Institution Suite customers who use Strata tools to strengthen financial performance for their institutions and the communities they serves, as well as partners who helps Strata to propel its products forward to benefit banks and credit unions across the country. 

The Strata Financial Institutions LEAP Award also celebrates Axiom customers for how their work—and lessons learned, strategies, and advice—have benefited the entire Strata network of financial institutions nationwide. Often, LEAP Award winners support their peers by serving as members of Strata’s Product Advisory Council as key development partners providing feedback that guides the refinement of Strata solutions as they meet real-world needs for customers. LEAP winners also commit to sharing knowledge and best practices with peers throughout the year at networking events, speaking engagements, Town Halls, and more.