Why Backbase’s Jake Henry™ integration will help customers turbocharge innovation

This game-changing update alleviates the painstaking work that internal teams put towards the manual building of integrations. Companies can now begin to think about crafting journeys through multiple underlying IT services, instead of just a single, point-to-point connection. The robust integration means new features and updates from Jack Henry are instantly available across every linked application. Best of all, companies don’t have to worry about the health of these critical integrations. Backbase manages it for them.

We wanted to delve a little deeper into why Backbase’s inclusion in the VIP gives banks and credit unions the speed and flexibility they need to win in today’s market. 

Many financial institutions simply would not exist without Jack Henry. Account information, transaction logs, payment histories, and personal details, like home address; Jack Henry manages this data for thousands of banks and credit unions in communities across the U.S., enabling customers to interact directly with their financial partners.

It’s critical information, particularly as businesses look to create more personalized experiences for their clients. New digital applications require constant access to this data. It’s how a customer can, for example, pay a bill or open an account, through a new, unified interface. 

Typically, enterprises have to build the connection themselves from the external application to the core banking system – which, in many cases, is Jack Henry. This takes valuable engineering time at a time when speed is paramount and wastes financial resources during challenging economic times. This process also requires internal teams to constantly monitor these integrations for problems. If there’s an issue, the impact is substantial, rendering applications useless in most cases. As the number of connections grows, it becomes harder to ensure the security of each integration, creating new risks for the business. 

These problems are why we sought to join the VIP and deepen our ties to Jack Henry. While some businesses may still want to build their own custom integration, many want to connect into an established blueprint and get value as quickly as possible. 

What was formerly an ad hoc process is now a plug-and-play feature in our Engagement Banking Platform. The system connects to SymXchange™, a services-based programming interface, giving customers access to over 400 composable capabilities that are pre-programmed to Jack Henry Symitar®. And any new consumer-facing applications our customers build can be automatically connected. 

The integration stays up-to-date. Any new updates to the core Jack Henry software are immediately reflected in the connected software, giving customers continuous access to the latest and greatest banking features. Best of all, companies don’t have to worry about managing this new, more dynamic integration.

It’s all part of our goal to make it as easy as possible for banks and credit unions to overcome legacy IT infrastructure and build better digital experiences for their customers. This is especially important, as it becomes harder for these institutions to find ways to differentiate their services. 

Part of the challenge is how long it still takes new features to hit the market. And without constant innovation, businesses can quickly fall behind their rivals. For many financial institutions, this means evolving beyond point-to-point connections that enable basic automation and data sharing, to more complex integration ecosystems involving many different endpoints.  

This was the motivation behind Grand Central, our Integration Platform-as-a-Service. To deliver the seamless user experiences clients demand, banks and credit unions need to connect their fragmented IT ecosystems. With Grand Central, they have a unified platform to manage the ever-growing number of integrations between applications. By making it easier to build and manage these connections, companies can undertake more advanced use cases. 

When we can simplify technology on the back-end, our customers can spend more time thinking about what they need to do to meet existing client demands, as well as win over new customers. And that’s an essential part of remaining relevant in the new generation of Engagement Banking.