E-Z Data, Inc., a leading provider of front-office systems for insurance companies, broker dealers, banks, general agents and financial advisors, has announced its acceptance into the IBM SOA Specialty after successfully completing IBM’s rigorous SOA technical and business requirements.

With this achievement E-Z Data’s SmartOffice CRM application integrates with the IBM software and strategy for SOA.

"SOA is an increasingly important business requirement for organizations because of the business flexibility it enables," said Sandy Carter, vice president of IBM SOA and WebSphere. "E-Z Data’s commitment to SOA provides their customers with a powerful way to implement integration projects and extend SmartOffice quickly and cost effectively."

"E-Z Data's SmartOffice application is used by the distribution organizations of some of the largest financial services organizations in the country to help improve sales, marketing, and customer servicing efficiencies. Integration has always been a key component in the E-Z Data value proposition," said E-Z Data President Dale Okuno. “With this

validation, we have extended the ability of our clients' IT organizations to more easily integrate SmartOffice with other systems necessary for field support."

Financial advisors use E-Z Data’s SmartOffice application to capture information about clients and prospects in order to improve their sales and service activities while at the same time maintaining increasingly strict client communication compliance records. Organizations deploying SmartOffice integrate the system with legacy data feeds which provide users with in-force policy and investment information, as well as workflow integration with other applications such as sales illustrations, financial planning applications, order entry systems, etc.

"Support for SOA is critical in reducing the cost and time to deploy integrated systems, and value is increasingly measured by ease of interoperability with other applications," said Muthu Arumugham, E-Z Data’s Vice President, Technology. "With SOA compliance, our clients can leverage their IT organization’s skill set and knowledge to extend SmartOffice themselves. This frees us up to focus on improvements to the SmartOffice application."

About E-Z Data, Inc.

E-Z Data, Inc. provides proven Web- and Windows-based front office systems supporting sales, marketing, and customer service for leading financial services organizations and top financial advisors worldwide. E-Z Data solutions are used by many leading financial services companies, including Ameriprise Financial, HSBC, MetLife, National Financial Partners, Prudential, and Securian. The company’s domain expertise, coupled with mature, industry-specific business solutions, results in consistently successful customer implementations. For more information, visit www.ezdata.com.