BPB Gypsum Selects Open Text's Livelink To Centralize Its Globally Distributed Knowledge Base And Dramatically Improve Project Timelines

Waterloo, ON - 1998-10-27 - Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX; TSE:OTC) today announced that BPB Gypsum, one of the world's largest gypsum¹ building material groups, has chosen Livelink to provide a cost-effective way to disseminate information and share knowledge amongst its engineering and R&D departments. Livelink, the market-leading collaborative knowledge management solution from Open Text, is being used to help BPB Gypsum design and build plaster board factories around the world. BPB Gypsum expects that Livelink will reduce time to market by 25 per cent.

"Livelink allows us to have a continuously up-to-date reservoir of knowledge, which is easily accessible from all our sites around the globe. It enables us to improve the quality of the information we gather, which is crucial to implementing our best practices program. The discussion groups we have created on Livelink are generating a better response to the technical queries we have," said Dave Banton, Senior Mechanical Engineer at BPB Gypsum. "We were initially looking for a more traditional engineering document management solution, but when we realized the breadth of applications offered by Livelink, particularly collaborative knowledge management, there was no contest."

Livelink enables project teams within BPB Gypsum to work more effectively, especially when a newcomer joins. The information about each project is centrally stored in Livelink, which means each new member can quickly and easily get up to speed on the history as well as the latest developments and become considerably more effective from the outset.

By transferring historic information into Livelink, the Engineering and R&D departments have been able to reduce the number of paper-based archives. They have also been able to cut down the amount of paper flowing around the office in day-to-day employee communications. Employees no longer need to photocopy documents or disseminate them to team members - they simply send an e-mail containing the location of the document within Livelink, for colleagues to access it.

Derek Buchanan, UK Country Manager, Open Text, said, "BPB Gypsum was looking for a high performance, multi-platform solution which would be easy to implement and use. Because it is web-based, therefore very easy to deploy, Livelink was up and running two weeks after the order was placed."

¹ Gypsum is a mineral used in the manufacture of plasterboard, bag plaster, coving, plaster of Paris, cement and paint.

About BPB Gypsum

BPB is one of the world's largest gypsum groups, operating more than 90 manufacturing plants and serving markets in over 45 countries. BPB is the leading producer of plasterboard in Europe, Canada and South Africa and has substantial European investments in the manufacture of complementary building materials and paperboard products.

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Open Text, Livelink and Livelink BASIS are trademarks of Open Text Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

Release Disclaimer

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are 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, 1997 and June 30, 1998, and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended September 30, 1997, December 31, 1997, and March 31, 1998.

For more information, please contact

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

Monta Kerr-Johnson
Account Director
High Road Communications
(416) 368-8348
mkerr@highrd.com