Ebix shells out $50M SmartOffice provider E-Z Data

E-Z Data Inc. —the company behind SmartOffice a web-based customer relationship management application used by investment advisers— was acquired today by Ebix, Inc. for $50 million. Ebix Inc. is an international supplier of online applications and e-commerce services to the insurance industry. E-Z Data’s customer relationship management software is used widely in the insurance industry — a prepared statement from Ebix states that more than 250,000 professionals are using it worldwide, including insurance companies, general agents, banks, investment dealers, agents, and financial advisers. As part of the prepared statement, Robin Raina, chief executive of Ebix was quoted as saying that the acquisition represented a strategic move on her company’s part because it would “…provide us access to a majority of the life and annuity brokers’ desktops in the United States.” In our 2008 technology survey of advisers InvestmentNews found that 7% of the 242 respondents were using CRM from EZ Data.