Outlook Series | AT&T, Pyxis Team for Financial Services

AT&T, Pyxis Team for Financial Services

May 9, 2008

AT&T and Pyxis Mobile entered into an alliance to deliver a suite of wireless solutions that could accelerate the adoption of mobile applications by financial services professionals, enabling them to maximize productivity, stay more connected to clients and keep up with the fast pace of Wall Street.

Under the agreement, AT&T will be the exclusive carrier distributor in the United States for Pyxis Mobile. Combined, AT&T and Pyxis Mobile serve more than 200 of the largest global financial services companies.

"We're pleased to be working with Pyxis Mobile to deliver solutions to the financial services community that will enhance the ability to use mobile technology to serve clients, monitor portfolios and stay connected to the minute-by-minute changes in financial markets around the world," said Regina Egea, senior vice president, Business Marketing, AT&T Global Business Services.

"By combining with the vast resources of AT&T, we will have the scale to elevate our industry-leading platform throughout the financial services industry," said Robert Mazzarella, chairman, Pyxis Mobile. "As more financial services companies turn to mobile technology as the linchpin to deliver corporate data and other information to their field forces and clients, we are best-positioned to provide the solutions they require."

This agreement is the latest example of AT&T's recent initiatives to broaden its capabilities in the financial services industry. In the past three years, the company has created an industry solutions mobility applications practice focused on delivering line-of-business applications to banking, investment and insurance firms.

The practice, consisting of dedicated marketing and mobility applications consultants, extended AT&T's leadership position in wireless e-mail for financial services to also provide:

Expertise to mobilize financial services business processes.
A portfolio of line-of-business mobile applications tailored to the work flows and compliance requirements of financial institutions.
Wireless strategy consulting for financial firms.

"AT&T has gained respect for its thought leadership approach in mobilizing the strategic business process," said Sheryl Kingstone, director, Enterprise Research, Yankee Group. "The increased momentum with industry solutions makes the exclusive distribution relationship with Pyxis Mobile a natural extension of that strategy."

"Mobile communications has moved from being a technology of convenience to a technology of necessity in financial services," said Daniel M. Cain, managing director and chief executive officer of New York investment bank Cain Brothers. "Our team has to have instant access to key data in order to be able to respond to changes in the market or the needs of our clients at any time and from any place. This alliance holds the promise of bringing tremendous scale and resources toward integrating a major wireless provider with a strong mobile application built specifically for the financial services professional."

AT&T and Pyxis Mobile are creating several new solutions as a part of their alliance, including linking AT&T's new Navigator Global Positioning Service (GPS) with the Pyxis Mobile platform. The combination will enable a financial services professional, for example, to access customer data, such as a company's address, from a corporate database and then easily map the location on a wireless device to schedule daily sales appointments.

Single Source, Single Bill

The AT&T and Pyxis Mobile solution will provide end-to-end services from a single source with a single bill. The solution has been thoroughly pretested and certified by AT&T on key enterprise devices, such as BlackBerry smartphones.

Financial services professionals can use pre-built applications or use Pyxis Mobile's Application Studio to create their own customized mobile applications. With these, professionals can improve productivity and work flow to perform a wide range of tasks by using the AT&T/Pyxis Mobile solution, including:

Integrating directly with existing sales, CRM and other enterprise systems.
Accessing static and real-time reports, such as portfolio holdings, research reports, issuer ratings and commission compliance and performance reports.
Logging contacts, entering notes, ordering literature, sending e-mail and managing a schedule while in the field without the need for inside support.
Viewing sector and position-related market research.
Gaining real-time access to lending approval and status process.
Accessing a 360-degree "total client" account view across multiple enterprise systems.
Mobilizing executive dashboards and management reporting.

The agreement also calls for AT&T to provide extended support for Pyxis Mobile's customers through AT&T call centers after Pyxis' normal business hours. AT&T will handle not only network issues but also provide initial software and other product support. In addition, the firms will provide professional services and custom integration through AT&T.

AT&T offers a wide range of strategic mobility products and services to the financial services industry, including wireless e-mail and laptop mobility, on the largest wireless voice and data network in the United States. The AT&T network provides voice connectivity in more than 200 countries and data capabilities in more than 145 countries.

Pyxis Mobile offers mobile financial applications for the investment, insurance and banking industries that provide secure access to enterprise data, where and when users need it. Whether the customer's business process includes data from one source or from many, Pyxis Mobile's industry-specific wireless applications are purpose-built to meet their needs.