Press Release
June 27, 2005
AXA Distributors Goes Wireless with Pyxis Mobile
Pyxis Mobile continues to gain momentum in annuities and insurance market
Waltham, MA - Pyxis Mobile, Inc., a leading provider of innovative wireless software that promotes asset growth for the investment industry, today announced that AXA Distributors, the wholesale distribution division of AXA Financial, has implemented Pyxis' mWholesaler®, as the company's wireless software solution. The win highlights Pyxis Mobile's continued dominance of the financial services marketplace, and shows the momentum Pyxis Mobile is gaining within the annuity market in particular.
AXA Distributors chose mWholesaler to support its U.S.-based wholesale insurance and annuity sales representatives. Installed in conjunction with the company's rollout of BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds™, from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM), mWholesaler is being used to support a wide range of sales activities, including activity logging, sales reporting, viewing real-time regional and rep-level activities, and real-time updating of broker contact information. Installed and up-and-running across AXA Distributors in just three weeks, mWholesaler provides immediate access to enterprise data, including vital sales, their proprietary CRM system, back-office data, and AXA's Lotus Notes email system to improve the efficiency of internal and external sales operations.
"One of the most telling statistics is an 85 percent adoption rate of mWholesaler among our wholesale salesforce," said Nicholas Volpe, Director of IT Strategy, AXA Distributors. "Almost immediately we have seen improvements in overall efficiency. And both our internal and external sales organizations have come to rely on their Pyxis-enabled BlackBerry devices. And Pyxis' ability to scale easily will allow us to bring these advantages to new reps and connected departments."
"AXA Distributors is a great example of the strength of the Pyxis Mobile brand and of the growth potential of the company. With the similarities in how sales representatives manage their accounts across many segments of the financial services industry, it is not surprising that we have seen interest from the insurance and annuity marketplace in mWholesaler, and are quickly on our way to becoming the standard wireless software within this industry," said Shane Hughes, CEO, Pyxis Mobile.
"Organizations around the world continue to embrace the BlackBerry platform to enhance communications and workflow," said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. "Pyxis' mWholesaler can help sales professionals achieve increased productivity and flexibility in their sales operations and allow them to be more responsive to clients and colleagues."
Pyxis offers a suite of wireless financial applications as part of their general mPlatform®, offering, including mWholesaler®, mInstitutional™, mAdvisor™, and mReports™, each providing remote access to vital enterprise data from a company's back-end network. Through the use of mWholesaler specifically, mobile wholesalers have instant read/write access to the information needed to improve sales and better manage the sales process. Additionally, the internal sales staff, previously spending time supporting inquiries from the mobile sales team, has been freed to work on increasing sales leads. Sales managers can now easily access updated rep information, sales reports, and view firm, branch, or rep-level data in real time.
About AXA
AXA Financial is one of the premier U.S. organizations providing financial protection and wealth management through its strong brands: AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, AXA Advisors, LLC, Alliance Capital Management, L.P., Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc, AXA Distributors, LLC, and the MONY family of companies, including MONY Life Insurance Company, U.S. Financial Life Insurance Company, Advest, Inc., and Lebenthal, a division of Advest, Inc. (Member: NYSE, NASD, SIPC.) AXA Financial had approximately $598 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2004. AXA Financial is a member of the global AXA Group.
About Pyxis Mobile
Pyxis Mobile delivers innovative wireless software that promotes asset growth for the investment industry. Pyxis Mobile's mPlatform solutions provide a suite of industry tailored wireless applications that extend critical business data from existing enterprise systems to the handheld devices demanded by mobile financial professionals. To date, mPlatform applications are in use at 10 of the top 20 asset managers and Pyxis Mobile's client list includes companies such as PIMCO, Putnam, AIM, Manulife, Evergreen, Hines, Deutsche Asset Management, Essex Corporation, IXIS, Pioneer, Eaton Vance, and John Hancock. For more information, contact Pyxis Mobile at 781.997.0328 or visit www.pyxismobile.com.
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