Jack Henry & Associates is emerging as a strong competitor in the mid-tier U.S. banking market. Well-known as a solution provider among smaller community banks, Jack Henry now holds 15-16% of the mid-tier segment, which is defined as banks between $1 and $30 billion. Jack Henry mid-tier banks now number 62 – double that of only two years ago.

Marsha Cansler: When did Jack Henry begin to focus on a mid-tier strategy?
Kevin Marsh: Our SilverLake System® core product has always been able to handle large banks. Because SilverLake runs on the iSeries platform, it is dramatically more cost-effective than a mainframe. However, it wasn’t until about three years ago that IBM increased the size of the iSeries to handle banks up to about $40 or $50 billion. We had a modern system in place; now the hardware has grown up to handle the size banks for which SilverLake is designed.

Cansler: Why are mid-tier banks choosing Jack Henry over the competition?
Marsh: SilverLake is more robust than any of the choices in the marketplace. Our last release – the 13th – was the result of 30,000 hours, or over 15 man-years, of programming. Jack Henry puts enormous resources into research and development. We’re listening to banks in the mid-tier segment and have formal mechanisms in place to discuss our clients’ strategic needs – not only for today, but five years down the road. We understand that an acquisition could make a $7 billion bank today a $15 million bank tomorrow.

Cansler: How do Jack Henry complementary products measure up?
Marsh: The fact that they are tightly integrated to the core – and to one another – is a great distinguisher. Many banks in the mid-tier market are working with mainframe-based legacy systems and may have 70 or 80 different products to interface from different vendors. Jack Henry, on the other hand, has a totally integrated core application set on a relational database and an integrated suite of complementary products that go around the core. Banks have truly seamless integration and a single 1-800 number to call for support.

Cansler: Can you share some mid-tier success stories?
Marsh: Just this summer, we converted AMCORE Financial, Inc. in Rockford, Illinois, from an outsourcing to in-house environment, probably cutting their bill in half. This conversion also included the beta rollout of our ArgoKeys Platform and CRM system to all branches on day one. Forty-five business days later, AMCORE was hosting reference visits.

Another is Capital City Services in Tallahassee, Florida. We secured their business in 2001, after one of the most intense RFPs I’ve ever seen. Ten vendors were evaluated based on twenty-two different ratings. Jack Henry placed first in nineteen of those categories and second in three.

The bottom line is Jack Henry offers a product that is more advanced architecturally, richer in feature and function, and less costly. As a result, we’ve had some very nice wins. Click here to learn more.