Pyxis Provides Easy Mobile Access for Ixis

Boston-based IXIS Asset Management Advisors has deployed Waltham, Mass.-based Pyxis Mobile's - co-exhibiting at both the Oracle (3007) and RIM (1604) booths - mWholesaler, which leverages the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution from Research In Motion (RIM), to connect IXIS' retail sales team to real-time enterprise data.

With $546 billion in assets under management, IXIS Asset Management is one of the 20 largest investment management firms in the world and offers a diverse lineup of investment strategies. So it was essential that the company's outside sales team could access IXIS' customer relationship management and sales systems anytime, anywhere, according to George Patsouris, vice president of business systems at IXIS. Along with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, Pyxis Mobile's mWholesaler puts real-time enterprise data - including vital sales and back-office data, as well as IXIS' existing Siebel CRM data - at the sales team's fingertips, Patsouris says.

Because of its ease of use and the resulting productivity gains, mWholesaler has been welcomed by the wholesaling team, with more than 95 percent user adoption of the application in the field, according to Patsouris. Additionally, Patsouris says, IXIS realizes benefits beyond field productivity, including better management of adviser data due to the up-to-date information entered by the sales team at the point of contact.

"We looked for a mobile application that was easy to learn, easy to use and that wouldn't be information overload," says Patsouris. "MWholesaler allows our team to drive business by making it easy to get all the critical information on top producers throughout their territory."

The No. 1 benefit for the sales team, Patsouris notes, is that it is mining more data out of the CRM system instead of just feeding it. In addition, configurability of the solution was fast and easy, while the implementations time was minimal, he adds.

Pyxis CEO Shane Hughes says that the solution also enables sales managers to make more-informed decisions based on the latest sales activity detail. "We take a very industry-specific view to our offerings by designing applications for business users, not tech users," says Hughes. Sales managers can access updated sales representative information and sales reports, and view firm, branch, or rep-level data in real time. Additionally, the internal sales staff, which previously was required to spend time supporting inquiries from the mobile sales team, is freed to work on increasing sales leads.

As part of the mPlatform product , Pyxis offers a suite of wireless financial applications - including mWholesaler, mInstitutional, mPortfolio, mAdvisor and mReports - that provide remote access to a company's back-end enterprise data.