Open Text Announces Affinity Resellers Program for Livelink Intranet Products

Livelink Intranet - IDC's Declared Market Leader In Web-Enabled Document Management Arena - Is Now Available For Select Resellers Worldwide

Waterloo, ON - 1997-03-12 - Open Text Corporation (OTEX:Nasdaq), the market leader for 'web-enabled electronic document management' according to International Data Corp. (IDC) of Framingham, MA, today announced the Affinity Reseller Program, enabling software and hardware resellers across the world to be part of the rapidly-growing intranet applications market.

"International Data Corporation reports the intranet market will grow to $3 billion by the year 2000, and expects that as intranets are applied to more sophisticated applications such as business process management or support, the cost of implementation will rise," said Dan Latendre, Director, Open Text Business Partners Program. "This creates a great opportunity for resellers to provide integrated solutions such as Livelink Intranet."

"The Affinity Reseller Program is our global partnering vehicle for resellers worldwide to cash in on the movement to unique intranet solutions for enterprise-wide, document and business process management suites," said Latendre. "We're offering two levels of participation, designed to meet the specific needs and abilities of reseller partners. Open Text resellers have access to a host of marketing, services and support programs, backed by a team of professionals worldwide."

"We're excited about being one of the first resellers to offer the industry's leading intranet application suite," said Jill R. Dannemann, Director, Sales and Marketing Collaborative Computing for Strategic Technologies, "and we look forward to bringing the power of intranets to our customers in the manufacturing, finance and insurance sectors."

Affinity Reseller Profile

Open Text is seeking partnerships and alliances with key resellers in specific vertical market segments and into specific named accounts that complement the efforts of the Open Text direct sales force. (For more details, visit http://www.opentext.com/affinity/). A typical Affinity reseller will have many of the following attributes:

• Annual revenue of $5 million or more
• Specific vertical focus that increases Open Text's market coverage outside its direct sales force efforts.
• Development resellers embedding and/or adding value to the Livelink product suite, with expertise in imaging, forms processing, data conversion/management, search/retrieval.
• RDBMS resellers with experience in selling and supporting Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server.
• Resellers focused on providing document management, search, workflow and/or groupware solutions.
• Platform VARs of UNIX, SUN, HP, SGI, NT, Intel and SNI UNIX
• Resellers targeting the intranet market, including Netscape and Microsoft-based solution providers.
• VARs or System Integrators outsourcing or recommending solutions for large companies (packaged/customized software, data management, and/or embedded solutions).

Reseller Participation Levels

There are two levels of participation in the Affinity Reseller Program. Each level is designed to meet specific needs of a variety of reseller partners depending on their resource allocation and commitment to the program.

Level I Level I of the Affinity Reseller Program is for resellers intending to add significant value to the Livelink Intranet suite of products through additional development and integration. The value-added component may include such items as third-party product integration, vertical software customizations, or custom integration and implementation services.

Level II Level II is for strategic resellers and system integrators-independent companies worldwide that team with Open Text to solve intranet business challenges for organizations of all sizes in many industries. Level II resellers use Open Text products as the building blocks for various value-added services, such as consulting, software customization, integration, application development, technical training and support. These partners will provide enterprise expertise and may be brought in to assist Open Text in certain transactions.

Sales, Support and Marketing Benefits for Resellers

Depending on the level of participation, resellers are eligible for a variety of training and certification courses, professional services, technical support and maintenance and sales and marketing programs. For a complete description of each level and the benefits for each level, visit http://www.opentext.com/affinity or email affinity@opentext.com.

About The IDC Report

The IDC Report, 'Web-Based Electronic Document Management Year-End Market Review, 1996 (#B12915), which shows Open Text as having three times as many users as its nearest competitor, can be purchased by contacting Cheryl Toffel at (800) 343 - 4952.

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 year ended June 30, 1997, and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended September 30, 1997, and December 31, 1997. Note to Editors: Livelink Pinstripe, Livelink 8, Livelink Search, Livelink Library, Livelink Workflow and Livelink Project Collaboration are trademarks of Open Text Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

For more information, please contact

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