Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

E-Z Data, a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) and practice management solutions for the financial services industry, has announced that the Knights of Columbus has completed the roll-out of the Web-based SmartOffice solution.


More than 1,400 agents serving more than 1.75 million Knights of Columbus members and their families will benefit from the SmartOffice solution, which is customized and hosted by E-Z Data.

This innovative solution was delivered on time and on budget, and has increased data security and centralized distribution of member data to streamline operations and effectively reduce costs.

The Knights of Columbus project adds more than 1,000 users to the SmartOffice user community. This specific community is made up of financial services professionals, including insurance companies, banks, broker-dealers, general agents, agents, and investment advisors.

"Our goal is to continue to deliver the highest possible service to our members. To do so, we needed to shift to a web-based, hosted CRM solution that was easy for our agents to learn and use, and that delivered deep customizations delivered by a partner we could trust," said Thomas Smith, executive vice president, Knights of Columbus, in a Tuesday statement.

 

"SmartOffice provides us with the ideal solution. Now our entire sales force has access to the most current data using the web. From conversion services to customizations to training, E-Z Data delivered on time and on budget,” added Smith.

To ensure that it could gain the greatest benefit from this solution, the Knights of Columbus tailored the solution to satisfy the unique business requirements of a fraternal benefit society.

The organization worked with E-Z Data’s development team and the company’s DataXchange platform to load policy, agent, contact, user and office data directly from the source system into SmartOffice. 

The team also relied on E-Z Data’s integration toolkit, SmartIntegrator, to deliver a custom integration to an existing inforce illustration system. The solution supports the U.S. and Canadian field forces in both English and French Canadian languages.

As a result, it helps to create a virtually paperless environment that streamlines and accelerates the sales, marketing, and member servicing.

"I compliment the Knights of Columbus and the E-Z Data teams that started the project at the beginning of 2008 and completed the rollout to the entire sales force in less than 10 months with excellent results," added Smith.

"SmartOffice is giving us better visibility and control of data that used to reside on hundreds of laptops. We now have a platform to support stronger marketing, sales, and client servicing processes. SmartOffice also keeps us on track to support our 2009 plans to add additional integrations such as pending case status feeds, leads management, and licensing and appointments," Smith further explained.

By relying on E-Z Data and SmartOffice, the Knights of Columbus can ensure that as an organization, it is better equipped to serve its members. This is essential as consumer expectations are rising as people demand more from the organizations with which they interaction and do business.

This migration to SmartOffice will ensure that all aspects of the Knights of Columbus’ operations are putting the customer first to effectively drive revenues and increased membership numbers to sustain long-term growth.