“AmberPoint’s solutions were more comprehensive than any other we evaluated,” said Ernie Smith, divisional information officer, H&R Block Financial Advisors. “We were impressed by the functionality and flexibility of the solutions, which met our management requirements. AmberPoint is now a strategic part of our enterprise SOA.”
H&R Block Financial Advisors began its relationship with AmberPoint through testing its Web services with AmberPoint’s free developer edition software, AmberPoint Express. AmberPoint Express provides visibility into the performance and behavior of Web services in test environments, enabling fine-tuning before deployment. AmberPoint Express quickly convinced H&R Block Financial Advisors’ IT and Operations teams that AmberPoint solutions would address their greater management needs. H&R Block Financial Advisors is one of thousands of AmberPoint customers that have downloaded AmberPoint Express.
According to Investment News, H&R Block Financial Advisors is one of North America’s largest broker-dealers. It is one of several business units of H&R Block, Inc., the world’s largest tax services company. H&R Block delivers tax services and financial advice, investment and mortgage products and services, and business accounting and consulting services.
“H&R Block Financial Advisors has a forward-thinking vision for its IT infrastructure, with a complex SOA that requires comprehensive management,” said AmberPoint CEO John Hubinger. “We’re pleased to have them join the ranks of our growing list of marquee customers, illustrating AmberPoint’s leadership in the market and validating the advantages of our solutions.”
In related news today, AmberPoint announced other marquee customers of its leading software solutions (see related release, “AmberPoint Signs Significant New Customers and Partners Including Motorola, Northern Trust, Cegetel, H&R Block Financial Advisors and Accenture).”
With its uniquely non-invasive approach that quickly integrates into a service-oriented environment, AmberPoint provides the management layer that is critical for realizing the return on investment from distributed, heterogeneous service-oriented systems. AmberPoint’s solutions provide their comprehensive management, monitoring and security capabilities without requiring any changes to the services themselves. AmberPoint was the first Web services management vendor with solutions that run natively in both .NET and Java, enabling its software products to fully leverage the advantages of both prevailing Web services platforms.
About AmberPoint
AmberPoint is the leading provider of management software for service-oriented systems. With its modular, distributed architecture, AmberPoint radically simplifies the management and evolution of service-based business solutions. For more information, contact AmberPoint at 510.663.6300 or info@amberpoint.com, or visit the company website at www.amberpoint.com for a complimentary developer’s edition of AmberPoint software.
About H&R Block
H&R Block, Inc. (www.hrblock.com) is a diversified company with subsidiaries that deliver tax, financial, mortgage and business products and services. It is the only major company with subsidiaries offering a full range of software, online and in-office tax solutions, combined with personalized financial advice about retirement savings, home ownership, and other opportunities to help clients build a better financial future. As the world’s largest tax services company, H&R Block served nearly 21 million clients in the U.S. and 11 countries in 2003. H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc. offers investment services and securities products. With more than 1,000 financial advisors serving clients at more than 400 offices, H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc. is a member NYSE, SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and a registered investment advisor. H&R Block Inc. is not a registered broker-dealer and is not a registered investment advisor. H&R Block Mortgage Corp. offers a full range of retail mortgage products. Option One Mortgage Corp. provides mortgage services and offers wholesale mortgage products through large financial institutions and a network of 24,000 independent mortgage brokers. RSM McGladrey Business Services Inc. and its subsidiaries serve mid-sized businesses and their owners with tax, accounting and business consulting services, as well as personal wealth management services.
Press Contacts:
AmberPoint, Inc.
510.433.6553
bdever@amberpoint.com
Kim Abreu
Atomic Public Relations
415.439.4205
kim@atomicpr.com
Dan Grubbs
H&R Block Financial Advisors
816-932-4894
dgrubbs@hrblock.com
