Kofax has announced the $US19.5M acquisition of Aia Holding BV, a Dutch provider of customer communications management (CCM) software that helps organisations manage interactive and ad hoc customer correspondence both electronically and on paper.

The platform leverages data from other business applications, enabling organisations to create personalized, customer-driven letters, contracts and other documents with minimal IT effort. Aia software is in use at more than 400 organisations across the globe, including ABN Amro, Allianz, Legal & General and LeasePlan.

Aia’s CCM software will be integrated with Kofax TotalAgility and continue to be offered on a standalone basis. The addition of CCM to TotalAgility’s capture, process management, information integration, analytics, e-signature and mobile capabilities will strengthen Kofax’s smart process applications.

Forrester Research reported: "For years CCM has been pegged as a back-office operation that produces statements and bills. Now, customer experience demands have thrust CCM into a major software category supporting the growing and diverse content that enterprises must assemble and deliver to customers."

Gartner estimates that CCM software was a $US910 million market in 2014 and expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11% to $US1.2 billion in 2017. Gartner attributes this growth to be driven by customer communications going digital, contextualized and consumed on demand via multiple channels, including the Web, mobile devices and social media. The research also highlighted a shift from in-house-developed CCM solutions to packaged apps as part of a strategy for customer experience management and digital marketing.

Reynolds C. Bish, Chief Executive Officer of Kofax, said: "The acquisition of Aia is a natural step forward in realizing our strategic vision for smart process applications. The need for a comprehensive, end-to-end customer engagement platform that handles content from any channel or device anywhere is becoming ubiquitous and urgent. Adding CCM to the award-winning Kofax TotalAgility platform will let organizations offer an even more compelling experience to their customers in the business critical First Mile. We’re very excited to welcome Aia to the Kofax family."

Kofax acquired all of Aia’s stock for total consideration of $US19.5 million in cash. The Company expects to complete the full integration of Aia by the end of its fiscal year on June 30, 2015.

Aia was a privately held company headquartered in Nijmegen, The Netherlands with approximately 70 employees. Its unaudited financial statements for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014 reported revenues of $8.9 million, of which 26% arose from software licenses, 29% from maintenance services, and 45% from professional services, an adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 million and gross assets of $4.2 million including $1.9 million in cash.