THE CLIENT: JACK HENRY & ASSOCIATES, Inc. provides more than 300 products and services that enable our customers to process financial transactions, automate their businesses, and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Our three brands – Jack Henry Banking®, Symitar®, and ProfitStars® – support financial institutions of all sizes, diverse businesses outside the financial industry, and other technology providers. Today, with more than 11,300 customers and over 5,600 associates, we combine this idea with the pursuit of one common goal – excellence in financial services.

THE CLIENT’S OBJECTIVES: Jack Henry Associates has several user conferences each year to coach their financial partners on how to best utilize their vast array of financial technology products. These user groups include credit unions, banks, financial advisors, and other financial institutions. The expectations of the attendees are to learn how to better manage the process and service areas of their individual departments and/or businesses through technology.

ROSS’S DELIVERABLES: Ross Shafer was hired as the keynote speaker for the annual Jack Henry Banking technology solutions conference in Dallas (Ross had previously spoken at the JHA Credit Union tech solutions event four months earlier). The banking audience consisted of about 1,500 attendees (bankers and team members). The topic chosen was “Are You Relevant?” Since Ross had worked with JHA once before, he was very familiar with the company’s products and culture. Ross’s focus was on improving operations through customer empathy, urgency, and accountability. He delivered humorous case studies drawn from companies inside and outside of the banking world – paying particular attention to the human integration of technology. Ross introduced the practice of “Humalogy” as a process to marry humanity and technology functions for the purpose of improving profitability. Ross knew that the conference would be instruction-intensive so he kept the tone of his keynote energizing and fun.