LexisNexis

Investment Bank, Sandler O'Neill & Partners, Selects LexisNexis Interface Software® for CRM

Strong investment banking focus, "ethical wall" security, and integration with Lotus Notes, Blackberry, and other systems influenced decision

OAK BROOK (IL), 2 March, 2005. LexisNexis Interface Software announced today that the New York-based investment bank, Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P., has selected InterAction, the leading CRM solution for investment banks and similar financial services institutions. Sandler O'Neill will deploy InterAction firm-wide to create a centralized management process for client information.

"Our goal is to increase revenues every year and we believe that leveraging the firm's Relationship Intelligence through this centralized system will help us accomplish our objective," said CK Smith, a principal at Sandler O'Neill. "We're confident that by virtue of its functionality InterAction will help us increase profitability."

Prior to its selection of InterAction, Sandler O'Neill had been using an in house-developed contact database that did not integrate the various islands of data growing within the firm, such as investment professionals' Lotus Notes® address books, Blackberry® handheld devices and other packages such as Blue Matrix, Factiva and Solomon. Moreover, because the bespoke system did not have multi-user support, user requests for reports and client data had to be channeled through one individual, which proved to be a cumbersome process.

"Our investment professionals need the ability to easily access client profiles and track growth histories — activities that are essential for our client and business development efforts," said Wilfredo Torres, Sandler O'Neill's managing director of IT. "Our goal was to provide as much information to users as possible, and tailor that information for users' needs, without bombarding or overwhelming them."

Moreover, because NASD and other rules require the firm to maintain strict separation of certain functions and areas, including the firm's research and investment banking groups, Sandler O'Neill also needed a CRM solution that offered a robust security model affording a global perspective on client data while at the same time limiting access of restricted information for certain users.

The software selection team considered various CRM products. However InterAction was deemed most closely tailored to the needs of the investment banking space. "InterAction was the overwhelming choice for our firm," said Torres. "It has strong integration with Lotus Notes, Blackberry, Blue Matrix, Factiva and Solomon. It supports our compliance requirements out of the box. And other firms in our industry are already using it successfully."

"We recognize that investment banks have unique CRM requirements relative to other financial services institutions and have tailored InterAction to meet those needs," said Barry Solomon, Interface Software's executive vice president. "We are delighted to welcome Sandler O'Neill as a new InterAction customer and look forward to being a partner in their success."

About LexisNexis and LexisNexis Interface Software
LexisNexis® (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc [NYSE: ENL; NYSE: RUK] (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based Lexis® and Nexis® research services, the company includes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.

LexisNexis Interface Software is the leading provider of CRM solutions enabling professional services firms and similar relationship-based organizations to create the Relationship Intelligence they need to generate new business and enhance client service. Its flagship product, LexisNexis Interface Software, is a flexible and uniquely designed platform that delivers this Relationship Intelligence throughout the organization, quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Relationship Intelligence is a firm-wide asset that reveals the unique and complex connections between people, companies, relationships, experience and expertise, empowering professionals to leverage who and what they know to uncover new revenue opportunities, differentiate themselves from the competition and enhance client service. InterAction is internet-enabled, allowing professionals to view information however they choose—through knowledge management platforms, corporate portals, intranets, extranets and wireless devices. InterAction supports the LexisNexis mission to provide a breadth of client development tools that enable professional services firms to find, win and keep clients. For more information please visit our website at www.interaction.com.

About Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P.
Founded in 1988, Sandler O'Neill & Partners is a full-service investment banking firm dedicated to providing comprehensive, innovative advisory, and transaction execution services to the financial industry. The firm specializes in strategic business planning, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, mutual-to-stock conversions, investment portfolio and interest rate risk management, fixed income securities transactions, and mortgage finance restructurings. Sandler O'Neill is also a market maker in hundreds of financial stocks and publishes equity and fixed income research focused on selected banks, thrifts and insurance companies, credit card companies, investment banks, asset managers and specialty finance companies. www.sandleroneill.com

 
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