[April 13, 2004] Pacific Capital Bancorp Selects Avaki Software as Core Data Architecture Component to Accelerate Strategic Systems Initiatives and Drive Customer Service Excellence BURLINGTON, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- April 13, 2004 -- Avaki 5.0 Data Service Layer Enables Leading Banking Group to Streamline Data Access and Integration Across the Enterprise, Easing Deployment of Customer-Focused Banking Systems Avaki Corporation, a leading provider of Enterprise Information Integration (EII) software, today announced that Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:PCBC), a California-based multi-bank holding company operating a network of community banks, has selected Avaki 5.0 software as a strategic architectural component of its multi-year, enterprise-wide systems initiative. With Avaki, Pacific Capital Bancorp can more efficiently access, provision and integrate data across the organization, accelerating execution of its IT strategy and deploying a flexible architecture that allows the bank's IT group to respond more quickly to new business requirements. Avaki is announcing its newest customer win in concert with the general availability of Avaki 5.0, the company's software for simplifying integration of data from diverse sources distributed across the enterprise (see related release, Avaki Redefines Enterprise-wide Data Integration with Introduction of Avaki 5.0 and Enterprise Data Integration Framework). We chose Avaki because the data service layer it provides is key to meeting our strategic business objectives, said William Grimm, CIO at Pacific Capital Bancorp. By incorporating Avaki as the foundation of our data architecture, we streamline data access and integration, shorten projects, and reduce costs. Because Pacific Capital Bancorp competes on customer service, we must be able to deliver the right data efficiently from many different sources to our centralized analysis functions and to branch customer service representatives across our banks. We could not do this in such a straightforward and cost-effective way without Avaki. Pacific Capital Bancorp is using Avaki 5.0 software to 1) make selected relational and file data available from several different sources including application databases, operational systems and the bank's data warehouse, 2) transform data into the various forms needed by applications for customer profiling, statistical analysis, reporting and production banking systems, and 3) deliver data efficiently to those applications. Avaki software is also playing a critical role in helping Pacific Capital Bancorp integrate transaction data from the systems of recently acquired Pacific Crest Capital into the parent company's core banking systems. Avaki - A Compelling Alternative to Custom Coding While Pacific Capital Bancorp's IT group had initially considered an integration approach that involved much more custom coding, Avaki proved to be a compelling alternative because its unified data service layer offered a streamlined way to make data from multiple, heterogeneous sources available to applications. With Avaki, Pacific Capital Bancorp can implement its strategic architectural vision to incorporate a layer of abstraction that hides the details of data sources from applications. With a data service layer in place, applications for multiple product lines, including deposit accounts, loans, leasing, and wealth management, will access data through one layer, reducing the complexity of accessing data from multiple, heterogeneous, distributed sources. Creating a single integration layer across the enterprise renders data integration rules much more visible and reusable compared with rules buried in databases or applications. Because the bank's vision for the future also includes Web Services, the IT staff found especially valuable Avaki's ability to make data available through a Web Service interface. Overall, the architectural foundation provided by Avaki will enable Pacific Capital Bancorp to support new lines of business and take customer service to a new level. Segregating the logic of data access, transformation, and integration from the application code helps our systems remain flexible and responsive to changes in the business, said Scott Matthew, Pacific Capital Bancorp vice president, Office of Technology, and one of the bank's technical visionaries. As data is provisioned from each source to the data service layer, we now we can reuse that work in other projects. As a result, we can work more productively and complete critical projects more quickly. Pacific Capital Bancorp CIO William Grimm added, As Pacific Capital Bancorp grows through acquisition, we consistently face new data integration challenges. The Avaki software and the Avaki services team have quickly demonstrated their value in helping us address these challenges, and the architectural approach promises to scale easily as our business grows. We look forward to taking full advantage of this valuable partnership. Pacific Capital Bancorp's enthusiastic adoption of Avaki demonstrates the software's ability to deliver value across a variety of industries, including financial services where the ability to integrate data from diverse, distributed product lines and acquisitions is a critical success factor that drives new opportunities, said Tim Yeaton, Avaki CEO and president. We're impressed by Pacific Capital Bancorp's visionary approach to the data service layer. We're especially pleased to be a part of this innovative systems effort by providing a key technology component that will help the bank continue to deliver world-class service to its customers. About Avaki Corporation Avaki Corporation provides enterprise information integration software that helps companies in data-intensive industries deploy business information systems faster and at lower cost through better data integration. With software from Avaki, companies such as Pfizer and Aventis are delivering applications faster, reducing data management costs, and making enterprise data more widely available within and beyond corporate boundaries. Backed by Polaris Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Sofinnova, Avaki is located in Burlington, MA. About Pacific Capital Bancorp Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:PCBC), with 5.5 billion in assets, is the parent company of Pacific Capital Bank, N.A., a nationally chartered bank with 44 branches that operate under the brand names of Pacific Capital Bank, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, First National Bank of Central California, South Valley National Bank, and San Benito Bank. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]