E-Z Data, a top provider of customer relationship management (CRM) and practice management solutions for the financial services industry, announced today that M Financial Group has completed its move to E-Z Data’s standard SmartOffice solution to support its Member Firms. E-Z Data is hosting the application.

M Financial successfully completed the upgrade to the non-customized version of SmartOffice on October 13, 2008, six months ahead of schedule. The project brings an additional 1,000 users to the SmartOffice user community of financial services professionals, including insurance companies, banks, broker-dealers, general agents, agents, and investment advisors.

“Less than a year ago, we decided that the opportunity to transition to the E-Z Data hosted version of SmartOffice would allow us to deliver even greater support for our Member Firms by shifting the resources we needed to support the application,” said Curt Rynties, Vice President, IT, M Financial Group. “SmartOffice has been enhanced to include nearly all of the customizations we had built to service our unique client base, as well as a powerful integration toolkit, SmartIntegrator, which facilitates the delivery of additional functionality at a fraction of the cost of traditional custom development.” The company is using SmartIntegrator today to deliver upgrades to its proprietary SmartOffice extensions, M Lightning and M Black Lightning, which provide streamlined access to the most common uses of SmartOffice from desktops and Blackberry devices.

The switch to the hosted environment reduces the resources required of M Financial to manage SmartOffice. The company’s Member Firms continue to receive support from M Financial’s Customer Service group through personalized training, custom report writing, integration with carriers and other M technology tools, and inforce policy data feeds.

“While E-Z Data did not offer hosting services when we first purchased the SmartOffice product, they’ve since built a very mature infrastructure service group with a proven track record of performance and reliability,” added Rynties. “The extensive testing, communication, and training resulted in a very positive Member Firm experience with the upgrade. Many users have already commented that the new interface is more flexible and intuitive, and the solution is faster than ever.”

About M Financial Group

With over 115 Member Firms in 36 states, M Financial Group is one of the nation’s leading financial services design and distribution companies. Since 1978, M Financial’s network of independent insurance, investment, and executive benefit firms has served the needs of ultra-affluent individuals, corporate executives, successful entrepreneurs, and Fortune 1000 companies. For more information about M Financial Group, please visit www.mfin.com.

About E-Z Data

Leading financial services organizations and top financial advisors worldwide rely on E-Z Data’s practice management, agency management, and CRM solutions to systematize proactive, hi-touch communication with clients, increase sales, and reduce operational costs. E-Z Data solutions are used by more than a quarter million financial services professionals and industry-leading firms including HSBC, M Financial, MetLife, National Financial Partners, ProEquities, Prudential, Royal Alliance, and Securian. For more information about E-Z Data’s solutions, go to www.ezdata.com or call 800-777-9188.