Relationship Study
H&R Block Canada
From small seeds great relationships (and great software!) grow
Some business relationships start with a bang, and some end that way too. But the most successful business relationships start small and grow slowly, gradually building trust, business knowledge and capacity. So it has been with H&R Block Canada and Jonah Group, who have seen a relationship that began modestly expand over time into the design, development and maintenance of a ground-breaking online financial services platform.
Product Platforms
About H&R Block Canada
H&R Block has been serving Canadians for well over 40 years. As the country's leading tax service company, they endeavour to help their clients build a better financial future by providing fast and accurate tax preparation services, offering reliable bookkeeping and accounting support, and delivering tax assistance and solutions. Since 2013 H&R Block has also been a leader in supplying online DIY tax software to Canadians.
Our Journey
In 2011 Jonah Group began working with H&R Block Canada on the design and delivery of a set of relatively simple web-based tools, including an office locator, tax refund estimator, and RRSP calculator application, updated and refined annually.
Then, in 2013, looking to get into the DIY tax software business, H&R Block acquired a small tax software engine and hired Jonah Group to help rebrand, update and roll out their new service. This helped H&R Block to appreciate the value of a vendor who really cared about the outcome of their major initiatives. And so it was logical that when H&R Block took its next big step – commissioning a new tax engine – that they would turn to Jonah Group. Today, with that powerful new tax engine fully implemented, Jonah Group and H&R Block continue to work together and to explore new opportunities.
When I arrived, Jonah Group had been supporting the new platform that we’d acquired. We decided to build a tax engine from scratch, with the confidence that we had a robust partner to stand with us as we aimed and reached higher. The team quickly grew from a couple of Jonah developers to as high as nine!
Director of Product Development and Compliance, H&R Block
Our Relationship
Dave Falkenberg is H&R Block Canada's Director of Product Development and Compliance. He has worked closely with The Jonah Group since his arrival at H&R Block Canada in 2014. Here he reflects on their long and fruitful partnership with Jonah Group.
The joint team gelled so well, that we continued to work with Jonah Group on the following year’s tax engine, as well as introducing them to our data analytics tools. Following that we triggered the platform rewrite, which was a very different style of working. We were outside of the heat and pressure of tax season and had a longer runway to rethink our tax engine platform. Coming of the intensity of the tax season, the joint teams developed a steady cadence that delivered new features and functionality onto the new platform.
Director of Product Development and Compliance, H&R Block
Our Work
In working with H&R Block to design and develop its online DIY Tax Engine, Jonah Group provided core design and development services from end to end, including web, mobile, business intelligence & infrastructure design.
I’m very clearly biased, but I'm incredibly proud of what we've built. There are a bunch of features that are part of our secret sauce that are really unique, that let us go faster, that let us be stronger. So, for me, having worked on and seen multiple different tax platforms and approaches, as far as I'm concerned this is absolutely the best one out there. In fact, our US parent is starting to apply aspects of our approach to their platform serving the American market, so for us here in the Canadian office that's a great endorsement of our work together.
Jonah was excellent. One of the things I observed from the first moment I started working with The Jonah Group, and I saw it happen continually over the course of the 4 years we've been working together, is that the Jonah developers were exceptional. Exceptional from a talent standpoint, exceptional with coding skills, exceptional with attitudes towards the project, thinking outside of the box, raising issues before they became problems. It's just been fantastic working with them.
Director of Product Development and Compliance, H&R Block
We’re experts in Tax Services technology
Contact us to for more details on the tools and technologies used in this project, or for more information about our full service technology solutions. Below, you can download a 1-page information sheet about our financial services experience.