CU*Answers, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based cooperative CUSO, has been approved to participate in a newly announced IBM program for its business partners called the Managed Service Providers, or MSP program.  As an MSP partner, CU*Answers will be able to leverage IBM co-marketing, training and technical support services designed to help drive opportunities with mid-market companies looking to deploy online data processing solutions.

“IBM Corporation has been an important part of our business plan for nearly two decades,” said Jody Karnes, Chief Information Officer at CU*Answers.  “We have been an authorized Business Partner since 2003, but when they announced their new MSP program to focus on helping application solution providers like us become even more successful, we quickly determined it was something that we wanted to participate in.  Recently, I had the opportunity to experience first-hand IBM’s commitment to MSPs by attending their Edge2013 summit designed specifically for core data processing companies like ours.  And in November several members of our leadership and technical teams will be attending a planning session at IBM’s Rochester, Minnesota Executive Briefing Center to explore even more ways we can leverage their products and services to support our customer-owners more effectively.”

Karnes added, “We see this new IBM program as an important component in our overall strategic deployment of proven, reliable and secure solutions for our credit unions.”