Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:JKHY), a leading provider of computer systems and electronic payment solutions primarily for financial services organizations, today announced that it has been selected by Microsoft Corp. as an Office 365 syndication partner.
Office 365 is the cloud-based offering of the Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Lync. Jack Henry & Associates, the 2010 Microsoft ISV Partner of the Year, was selected to be an Office 365 syndication partner in the financial services sector.
Office 365 is a cloud solution that delivers Microsoft's productivity solutions over the Internet. Cloud-based delivery reduces the demands on financial institutions' IT departments for in-house hardware configurations; software installations; and ongoing support, maintenance, administration; and capacity planning. Another key benefit of the Office 365 suite is the hosting of Microsoft Exchange, the world's leading enterprise mail server. An intuitive control panel enables even non-technical associates to configure and customize Office 365.
The Office 365 pay-as-you-go model enables financial organizations of all asset sizes to provide their employees with world-class business tools, including reliable and familiar email services, for an established, per-seat monthly fee. Office 365 also benefits from Microsoft's uptime service-level agreement which is backed by financial guarantees.
Mark Forbis, vice president and chief technology officer of Jack Henry & Associates said, "As the economy continues to recover, virtually every financial institution is looking for solutions that will help them reduce operating costs while improving operating efficiencies. Office 365 clearly supports these industry-wide goals. This solution enables diverse financial institutions to 'outsource' another aspect of their technical infrastructure while adding a strategic component to our 'serverless strategy.' Implementing Office 365 means financial institutions will have more time and resources to focus on the actual business of banking and on serving their customers. We're very excited to be working with Microsoft to bring this new delivery model to financial organizations around the country."
Marco Limena, vice president, Business Services, Operator Channels at Microsoft said, "Jack Henry & Associates is a partner that delivers value to financial services customers. Given the company's existing Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, we are excited about its ability to bring Office 365 to market in the financial services arena."