Type | Public (NASDAQ: OTEX; TSX: OTC) |
---|---|
Industry | Computer software |
Founded | 1991 |
Founder(s) | Tim Bray, Gaston Gonnet, Frank Tompa |
Headquarters | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | John Shackleton, CEO Tom Jenkins, Chairman |
Products | Content management solutions |
Revenue | US$1033.3 million (FY 2011)[1] |
Net income | US$123.2 million (FY 2011)[1] |
Employees | 4,450 (2011) |
Website | www.opentext.com |
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
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 Waterloo project that developed technology used to index the Oxford English Dictionary. 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.
- 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.[3]
- 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 Web search engine. In 1995, OpenText provided the search technology used by Yahoo! as part of its Web index.
- In 1995, OpenText purchased Odesta Systems, producer of Livelink, a Web-based electronic document management system. 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 SAP.
- In 1996 OpenText launched its initial public offering of 4.6 million shares raising $61 million. [4]
- 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. [5]
- 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.
- May 2002, OpenText is positioned as a leader in the Gartner Team Collaboration Support Magic Quadrant. [6]
- In September 2002 FirstClass groupware for CA$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
- 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.
- 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. [7]
- With the acquisition of Hummingbird Ltd. in 2006, OpenText added several more businesses to its portfolio, including Hummingbird Connectivity and RedDot 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.
- 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.[8] 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.[9] On July 21, 2009 OpenText Corporation completed its acquisition of Vignette Corporation.[10] 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. [11]
- 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. [12]
- 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, for approximately USD $260 million.[13][14] 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.
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