Open Text Introduces New KM Tools for Large Organizations at Live LinkUp 2002

Solutions Define What's Relevant in the Knowledge Management Hay Stack, New Search, Expert Identification Technologies Solve Information Overload

Chicago, IL - 2002-11-05 - Open Text Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX, TSX: OTC), provider of Livelink®, the leading collaboration and knowledge management software for the global enterprise, today introduced solutions for Livelink that will allow users to evaluate the quality of knowledge across a large enterprise, dramatically improve the precision of search results and provide integrated expert identification. The easy-to-implement solutions offer a fast way to address information overload in large companies by helping users find information quickly, and helping companies better leverage knowledge across the enterprise.

Open Text introduced the solutions, Livelink Naturalizer and Livelink Recommender , at Live LinkUp 2002, its annual user conference held this week in Chicago. The solutions represent a major leap forward in search technology by Open Text, which got its start with the first successful search engine deployment for the Internet in 1991.

Livelink Naturalizer, which will be offered as part of the core Livelink product, improves search precision by using built-in intelligence to interpret natural language queries and return exactly what the user wants to find. Livelink Recommender brings expert identification, often a stand-alone solution, into the knowledge management fold, integrating it with search capabilities. It also empowers users to evaluate the usefulness of content as they browse or search in Livelink, and identifies other potentially useful related items. Recommender will be offered as a module for Livelink.

"The ability to find specific information in a sea of disparate content is critical to an organization's ability to innovate and create. Organizations must offer strong and varied information retrieval capabilities to internal employees, partners, and customers to achieve ROI and adoption goals," says David Yockelson, Executive Vice President, META Group. "Building upon traditional information retrieval facilities with rules-based natural language query capability and the ability to return results that identify relationships between users and information based on their habits within the system can provide substantial productivity and knowledge management benefits for organizations."

"The great store houses of knowledge companies maintain today can be both a blessing and a curse. Too often the typical user is overwhelmed when browsing or searching for relevant information to solve a problem or answer a question," said Anik Ganguly, Executive Vice President for Products at Open Text. "Information overload is a significant barrier to successful knowledge management. The solution is to provide tools that define what is most useful and make it easy to find, and tools that connect users to others in the organization who can contribute to a person's understanding of an issue. We have integrated these capabilities into Livelink with the release of Naturalizer and Recommender."

Naturalizer lets users enter their query as a natural language question, rather than having to learn the computer's query language. Naturalizer then goes a step further by applying sophisticated algorithms that leverage all of the meta-data in the Livelink repository to interpret the meaning of the question and return the precise results sought by the user. Users no longer have to weed through results that may contain the terms in their query, but that don't reflect the intent of their query.

Naturalizer uses a set of complex rules that allow it to interpret natural language queries in a highly precise way. Each rule has a set of characteristics that define a "match" for the rule. When a query is submitted, Naturalizer breaks it down and maps particular words and phrases to particular rules. Rule matching helps Naturalizer interpret the true intent of the user's query and return far more accurate results. Companies can also customize the rules in Naturalizer to fit specific needs, such as the terminology used in a specific industry or company. Compared to a traditional natural language search, results from Naturalizer are fewer in quantity, but higher in quality.

Recommender helps organizations overcome the fact that not all knowledge is written down or on computers, but rather resides with experts. Recommender identifies experts based on who has created content, and identifies other users with similar interests. By identifying experts and other important users, Recommender gives people sources in the organization who can answer questions and provide additional information.

Recommender also enhances knowledge management by enabling users to rate information or add specific comments on the usefulness of documents or other content discovered by browsing or searching. Other users can then more effectively evaluate the usefulness of content by viewing how others have rated and commented on individual items. Recommender identifies the newest, the most viewed, and the most highly rated content, and can suggest documents to individual users based on their activity in Livelink and the activity of other users with the same interests.

About Livelink

Livelink is the leader in collaboration and knowledge management for the global enterprise. Its richly- featured enterprise services include virtual team collaboration, business process automation, enterprise group scheduling and information retrieval services, all tightly integrated into a solution that is easily customized and extended. Livelink is essential to the effective management and development of communities of interest that span organizations and industries. For everything from the creation of complex e-community relationships to the automation of simple e-business processes, Livelink delivers true dynamic collaboration between individuals, organizations and large trading communities. Livelink servers are fully Web-based and open-architected to ensure rapid deployment and easy access to its full functionality through a standard Web browser. For more information, visit www.opentext.com/livelink/.

About Live LinkUp Chicago

Live LinkUp Chicago, Open Text's 2002 user conference, will be held November 4-8 at Navy Pier in Chicago. The event will bring together Open Text customers, technology partners, industry leaders and Open Text technical staff to share new ideas and past experiences in collaboration and knowledge management. Live LinkUp will feature keynote presentations by major users, industry leaders and Open Text's senior management team, as well as compelling breakout sessions, workshops and product demonstrations focused on advanced Livelink applications and solutions. More information on the event can be found at http://www.opentext.com/livelinkup/2002-chicago/.

About Open Text

Since 1991, Open Text Corporation has delivered innovative software that brings people together to share knowledge, achieve excellence, deliver innovation, and enhance processes. Its legacy of innovation began with the successful deployment of the world s first search engine technology for the Internet. Today, as the leading global supplier of collaboration and knowledge management software for the enterprise, Open Text supports six million seats across 4,500 corporations in 31 countries and 12 languages throughout the world. As a publicly traded company, Open Text manages and maximizes its resources and relationships to ensure the success of great minds working together. For more information, visit www.opentext.com.

Trademark

Copyright © 2002 by Open Text Corporation. LIVELINK, LIVELINK MEETINGZONE, LIVELINK RECOMMENDER, LIVELINK NATURLIZER, and OPEN TEXT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Text Corporation in the United States of America, Canada, the European Union and/or other countries. This list of trademarks is not exhaustive. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names, company names, brands and service names mentioned herein are property of Open Text Corporation or other respective owners.

Release Disclaimer

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the deployment of Livelink, Livelink Naturalizer and Livelink MeetingZone Recommender by customers, and future performance of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks involved in the completion and integration of acquisitions, the possibility of technical, logistical or planning issues in connection with deployments, the continuous commitment of the Company's customers and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the final prospectus for the Company's initial public offering of common stock in January 1996, Form 10-K for the years ended June 30, 1998, June 30, 1999, June 30, 2000, and June 30, 2001, and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended September 30, 2001, December 31, 2001 and March 31, 2002. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and opinions at the time the statements are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligations to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's beliefs or opinions change.

For more information, please contact

Margaret E. Dobbin
Director, Industry Analyst Relations
Open Text Corporation
+1-519-888-7111 ext.2410
mdobbin@opentext.com

Richard Maganini
Open Text Corporation
1-847-961-0662
rmaganin@opentext.com