OpenText Corporation is a software company headquartered in Waterloo, OntarioWaterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. As Canada's largest software company, it produces and distributes computer software applications designed to enable
Enterprise content managementEnterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...
(ECM) solutions for large corporations across all industries.
OpenText software applications manage content (or unstructured data) for most types of governance, efficiency and monetization requirements in large companies, government agencies and professional service firms. OpenText solutions address information management requirements including:
- Securing and managing rapidly growing volumes of content
- Ensuring compliance with continually changing regulatory requirements
- Enabling a mobile workforce
- Creating an online experience for customers, partners, and employees
Its primary offerings include the OpenText ECM Suite, BPM products, mobile enterprise applications, content solutions for law firms and mid-sized businesses, secure social networks, web content management and cloud services.
OpenText employs approximately 4,450 people worldwide. It is a publicly traded company, listed on Nasdaq and TSE.
History
OpenText’s history has centered on the development of ECM software that combines content lifecycle management, business processes and user engagement. OpenText software includes the underlying platform to manage most content types, ranging from user generated content in social networks to data in enterprise resource management systems. These ECM technologies can be used to address end user engagement, business agility, and cost and risk reduction.
OpenText originated in 1991 as a small three-person consulting operation. The company was a spin-off of a
University of WaterlooThe University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
project that developed technology used to index the
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
. In partnership with colleagues from Oxford University, participants in the project included two professors of Computer Science, Dr. Frank Tompa and Dr. Gaston Gonnet, along with their Faculty of Arts colleague, John Stubbs. Later founders of the business application of the technology developed during the course of this project include Tom Jenkins, who joined the company as COO in 1994 and Tim Bray. Tom Jenkins later became President and Chief Executive Officer. Today, John Shackleton serves as CEO of OpenText, and Tom Jenkins as Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer.
1991-94
- OpenText Corporation was incorporated in 1991, a spin-off based on a project at the University of Waterloo to create an electronic Oxford English Dictionary— an undertaking that required developing search technologies that could be used to quickly index and retrieve information. The technology developed for this project was recognized as being useful for other business applications. As a result, the company was incorporated and started shipping product in September of the same year. Early customers include Oxford University Press, the Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, and University Libraries.
- In 1993, the first Windows-based applications delivered to UBS in Switzerland.
- 1994, Tom Jenkins joins company as COO, later to become President and CEO.
1994 - 95
- From its origins as creator of one of first Internet search engines and early Web-based document management, workflow and portal software, OpenText realized the potential of the Internet as a platform for collaboration, along with the value of digital content as a strategic knowledge asset that must be managed throughout its lifecycle.
- The company grew as organizations found they needed to index and search their existing and growing stores of electronic information. In 1994 OpenText began hosting its OpenText 4 search engine on the Web, competing directly with the AltaVista
AltaVista is a web search engine owned by Yahoo!. AltaVista was once one of the most popular search engines but its popularity declined with the rise of Google...
Web search engineA search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
. In 1995, OpenText provided the search technology used by Yahoo!Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
as part of its Web index.
- In 1995, OpenText purchased Odesta Systems, producer of Livelink, a Web-based electronic document management system
A document management system is a computer system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. It is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions created by different users . The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management...
. In that same year OpenText shipped its first Web-based product, Latitude Web Server (later renamed Livelink Web Server), which gave Yahoo! the capability of searching every word on every Web page. It also co-developed ArchiveLink with SAP and the first standard ArchiveLink product for SAPThe SAP ERP application is an integrated enterprise resource planning software manufactured by SAP AG that targets business software requirements of midsize and large organizations in all industries and sectors...
.
1996 -99
- In 1996 OpenText launched its initial public offering of 4.6 million shares raising $61 million.
- OpenText acquired Information Dimensions in 1998, an electronic document management company, adding offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Ohio.
- IDC report declared OpenText the market leader (64 percent share) for Web-enabled electronic Document Management.
- Although OpenText was originally known as a vendor of content management and collaboration software, the company started to invest in records management and archiving software to provide capabilities that would protect the knowledge created through collaboration.
- In 1999, OpenText acquired PS Software, records management software that gave organizations the option to safeguard content created through collaboration. Content and metadata collected through collaboration and social networking using both handheld and desktop devices can be managed in the archive, reused and analyzed to drive the reuse of information.
- In 1999, OpenText acquired Microstar Software – for additional XML expertise to enhance collections of records management.
2000 - 03
- May 2002, OpenText is positioned as a leader in the Gartner Team Collaboration Support Magic Quadrant.
- In September 2002 FirstClass
FirstClass is a client/server groupware, email, online conferencing, voice/fax services, and bulletin-board system for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux...
groupware for CA$The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
19 million, bringing collaboration software and expertise to advance its software’s collaboration capabilities.
- In 2002, OpenText released Livelink Wireless, the first mobile application from OpenText built on the BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
- OpenText acquired Gauss, a developer of Web Content Management based in Germany (WCM) and high-throughput business process management solutions. WCM complemented OpenText’s ECM solutions by adding the ability for organizations to publish content in context through Web properties for Web and mobile access, while maintaining a link back—and the ability to manage—content in the core ECM repository for valuable meta-data and audit information.
2004 - 07
- In 2004, OpenText acquired Munich-based IXOS AG, software vendor with 15 years experience integrating with SAP solutions. IXOS archiving solutions consolidated with Livelink records management and collaboration solutions (content from SAP, Lotus Notes, Microsoft SharePoint and Outlook). The long term preservation of knowledge created through collaboration activities is used to ensure business continuity within organizations.
- Later that same year, to enable organizations to manage rich digital content types, OpenText acquired Artesia Technologies, a supplier of digital asset management software for the media and entertainment industry.
- October, 2004, Analyst firm Gartner, Inc. positioned OpenText in the Leaders quadrant of its first Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, 2004 published on October 19, 2004.
- With the acquisition of Hummingbird Ltd. in 2006, OpenText added several more businesses to its portfolio, including Hummingbird Connectivity and RedDot
RedDot, founded in 1993, is a business unit of Open Text Corporation and is referred to as the Web Solutions Group of Open Text.RedDot's software aims to help companies manage many business challenges that revolve around managing content, as well as help with regulatory compliance and industry...
Solutions Inc, further enhancing its enterprise content management solution.
- In 2007, OpenText acquired Momentum Systems, which provided government implementation expertise to fulfill OpenText’s commitment to government.
2008-10
- In 2008, OpenText expanded its ECM portfolio to include Captaris, Inc. and Captaris Document Technologies (CDT), makers of the RightFax digital fax series of products—adding fax, document distribution and document capture software.
- Acquired Spicer Corporation, specialists in file format viewer solutions for desktop applications, integrated business process management (BPM) systems, and reprographics.
- On April 8, 2009, OpenText announced that that acquisition of Vizible Corporation, makers of a digital media interface solution. This allowed for the 3-Dimensional navigation of digital media for enriched user experience, intended for development of virtual interactive and collaborative immersive environments and next-generation ECM platforms.
- On May 6, 2009 OpenText announced an agreement to acquire Vignette Corporation, another ECM software company, for $310 million. On July 21, 2009 OpenText Corporation completed its acquisition of Vignette Corporation. This acquisition introduced secure social media into the ECM platform, along with consumer-based features into enterprise software.
- On February 22, 2010 OpenText announced it entered an agreement to buy Nstein Technologies for $35 million CDN.
- On April 1, 2010 OpenText Corporation completed the acquisition, adding content analytics to its ECM Suite. Content analytics, or semantically-based search engines, filter out ambiguous terms from a person’s true intent, as well as the structure, entities, concepts and relationships between content in a document or on a page.
- June 2010, OpenText announced it had been chosen to provide a confidential and highly secure social networking application for the G-8 and G-20 leaders to exchange ideas and information on important world issues. For the first time in the history of G-20 Summits, policy makers from around the world were able to collaborate over secure social networking software in advance of, during and following the G-20 Toronto Summit.
- On October 27, 2010, OpenText announced the acquisition of StreamServe, Inc., a provider of business communications software, for approximately USD $71 million, adding document output management (DOM) and customer communication management software.
2010-11
- On February 2, 2011, OpenText announced the acquisition of Metastorm Inc. a provider of Business Process Management (BPM), Business Process Analysis (BPA), and Enterprise Architecture (EA) software, further expanding its ECM portfolio capabilities with process management functionality including the ability to bring together business and IT to discover, model, analyze, and optimize business processes.
- On March 8, 2011, OpenText announced the acquisition of London-based weComm, a mobile application pioneer that offers technology for deployment of high-quality, media rich applications across more than 900 mobile devices and platforms. This strategic acquisition advanced OpenText’s Mobile App Strategy.
- On July 13, 2011, OpenText announced that it had acquired Global 360 Holding Corporation, a leading provider of process and case management solutions and document-centric Business process management
Business process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
, for approximately USD $260 million. Companies use BPM software to create and manage various business processes, such as the steps involved in purchasing supplies, fulfilling orders, or hiring new workers.
Offerings
OpenText is an
independent software vendorIndependent software vendor is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, designed for mass marketing or for niche markets...
which sells software licenses including support and maintenance. OpenText offers worldwide consulting services, software training and individual support packages.
OpenText ECM Suite
The OpenText ECM Suite integrates multiple technologies for document management,
records managementRecords management, or RM, is the practice of maintaining the records of an organization from the time they are created up to their eventual disposal...
, web content management,
digital asset managementDigital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets...
, email management and
information lifecycle managementInformation Lifecycle Management refers to a wide-ranging set of strategies for administering storage systems on computing devices. Specifically, four categories of storage strategies may be considered under the auspices of ILM.-Policy:...
. Other components include
electronic discoveryElectronic discovery refers to discovery in civil litigation which deals with the exchange of information in electronic format . Usually a digital forensics analysis is performed to recover evidence...
, document
capture,
document imagingDocument imaging is an information technology category for systems capable of replicating documents commonly used in business. Document imaging systems can take many forms including microfilm, on demand printers, facsimile machines, copiers, multifunction printers, document scanners, computer...
and digital faxing solutions. The suite provides functions for team collaboration, forums, blogs, wikis, and real-time instant messaging and collaboration. These functions are connected through
business process managementBusiness process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
tools to each other and to other business applications and processes.
Applications for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP
OpenText offers multiple applications that extend the functionality of major business applications through partnerships with Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. In addition, SAP resells a number of the company’s software applications for document access, archiving and invoice management, digital asset management and employee file management.
Vertical, Horizontal Applications
OpenText offers content management applications for specific industries and business functions. These applications are built using OpenText ECM Suite technologies to address the requirements of a particular industry such as energy or pharmaceutical or particular business requirements such as human relations or accounts payable.
Document Management
OpenText document management software is designed to help organizations reduce time spent managing documents and projects by making content easier to find, allowing for consistent governance of corporate information and providing a central knowledge base of current and approved documents.
Records Management
OpenText records management products give organizations the software infrastructure necessary to ensure compliance with worldwide regulations, standards, and certifications such as DoD 5015.2, US FDA 21 CFR Part 11, SEC Rule 17a, MoReq2, and Section 508.
Email Management
The email management component of the OpenText ECM Suite addresses an organization’s key email issues, including storage, litigation, eDiscovery or compliance. The email management component of the OpenText ECM Suite is characterized by a centralized foundation of compliant archiving and records management, enabling the secure storage and management of email to ensure regulatory compliance and reduce litigation risks.
Business Process Management
OpenText BPM software products enable organizations to create, deploy, modify, and manage business processes. OpenText BPM software applications integrate people and content from multiple applications and support adaptive case management.
Collaboration and Social Media
OpenText collaboration software products enable employees and business partners to share knowledge, collaborate in the context of business processes, and form ad hoc teams. OpenText social media products help businesses capture user-generated content by taking features from consumer technology and adapting them to the security and compliance needs of large organizations.
Web Content Management
OpenText offers a set of offerings to manage and optimize Web-based content in order to establish intranets, extranets and external websites. This
Web content management systemA web content management system is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease...
is integrated with the OpenText ECM Suite.
Digital Asset Management
OpenText digital asset management (DAM) products provide organizations with a centralized management resource for digital media files and underlying metadata and provides facilities for discovery, access, editing, sharing, reuse, distribution, and archiving of rich media assets.
Mobile Solutions
OpenText offers an array of mobile capabilities for enterprises. The company's MEAP (
Mobile Enterprise Application FrameworkA mobile enterprise application platform is a comprehensive suite of products and services that enable development of mobile applications.-Purpose:...
) allows customers to deliver apps on multiple types of devices.
Competitors
Some of OpenText's key competitors in the enterprise content management market include:
- IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
> FileNetFileNet, a company acquired by IBM, developed software to help enterprises manage their content and business processes. The FileNet P8 platform, their flagship system, is a framework for developing custom enterprise systems, offering much functionality out of the box and capable of being customized...
- EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
> DocumentumDocumentum is an enterprise content management platform, now delivered by EMC Corporation, as well as the name of the software company that originally developed the technology. EMC acquired Documentum for $1.7 billion in December, 2003...
See also
- Tim Bray
Timothy William Bray is a Canadian software developer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Open Text Corporation and Antarctica Systems. Bray was Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems from early 2004 to early 2010. Since then he has served as a Developer Advocate at Google, focusing on...
- a co-founder of OpenText Corporation
- Gaston Gonnet
Gaston H. Gonnet is a Uruguayan computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is best known for his contributions to the Maple computer algebra system and the creation of an electronic version of the Oxford English Dictionary.- Education and professional life :...
- co-founder of OpenText Corporation, Professor of Computer Science at the ETH ZürichThe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
- OpenText Communications Solutions Group (FirstClass
FirstClass is a client/server groupware, email, online conferencing, voice/fax services, and bulletin-board system for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux...
)
- OpenText Web Solutions Group (RedDot
RedDot, founded in 1993, is a business unit of Open Text Corporation and is referred to as the Web Solutions Group of Open Text.RedDot's software aims to help companies manage many business challenges that revolve around managing content, as well as help with regulatory compliance and industry...
)
- Canada 3.0
The initial Canada 3.0 forum was held in Stratford, Ontario, Canada on June 8–9, 2009. Over 1500 attendees gathered in Stratford to begin discussions on making Canada a world leader in the digital economy. Canada 3.0 brought together industry leaders, researchers and students to discuss digital...
- OpenText is the platinum sponsor of this event
External links