I think what might help is if you create the text using the polygon option set to quad instead of triangles. Then go in and delete the history on them so they're no longer associated with the control curves that maya used to create it. Next I would merge all the individual characters together into a single mesh (just so they're easier to deal with) and extrude to get depth. Then you can smooth away and it will round everything off.

Oh and before you do extrude you may have to adjust your topology a bit to make sure you get rid of any stray three sided and five sides polygons to get a nice clean smoothing effect. If you don't you'll get weird bends and waves in it.

There may be other simpler options but this might be a good starting point for something you're already familiar with.