Case Study: STAR Financial Bank achieves profitability transparency and 60% faster reporting with Strata Decision Technology

STAR Financial Bank Improves Transparency and Understanding of Profitability with Axiom Software

STAR Financial Bank, a privately held community bank in Indiana with 38 locations, $2.6 billion in assets and more than 500 employees, faced an impending sunset of its legacy systems and a growing need for robust profitability reporting. The bank selected Axiom software implemented by Strata Decision Technology to provide institution-specific profitability, budgeting and planning capabilities combined with strong customer support.

Strata Decision Technology deployed Axiom FTP and Profitability to consolidate data, drive granular profitability analysis, and streamline budgeting and reporting. The solution made profitability reporting 60% faster, cut time to produce a regional Top 25 customer list from two weeks to two minutes, reduced the number of reports by 4:1, and trimmed budget workbooks from 262 to 20 (reducing non‑finance budgeting time by over 80%). STAR Financial Bank moved from annual budgeting to quarterly forecasting, shifted finance into a more advisory role, and attributes roughly half of its ~8% commercial loan growth (2014–2019) to Axiom — equivalent to more than a 50 basis point gain in return on equity.

STAR Financial Bank

Mark Hutchinson

VP, Director of Financial Planning & Analysis