ECM Briefs

On Tuesday, OpenText announced a series of enhancements to the rich media handling capabilities of its Web Experience Management offering, giving marketers new tools for captivating global audiences with visually appealing content and dynamic, interactive experiences across the Web and mobile devices. The new platform also includes new enhancements for optimizing visitors' Web experiences.

According to Gartner, by 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets. Apple's iPad is just the first of what promises to be a huge wave of tablets focused on content consumption. In response, corporate public Web sites will need to morph into various customer-driven, context-aware online centers of rich content that allows people to consume and engage with organizations through different channels, applications and devices.

"The way forward for corporate websites is clearly much different than it has been over the past few years, with much more use of video and interactive personalized ways of consuming content along with better support for mobile devices," said James Latham, Chief Marketing Officer, OpenText. "With this release of Web Experience Management, we are continuing to deliver the robust Web marketing tools our customers need to make this happen."

In other news, OpenText announced its third quarter fiscal 2011 financial results on Wednesday, April 27th. Details on the company's performance can be found in the press release here.

In his blog this week, Chief Strategy Officer Tom Jenkins discusses the emerging content "mega trends" from his travels across Europe and Asia. Make sure to check out the video of Tom's travels included in this post!

Also in OpenText's blogs, Martin Sumner-Smith discusses the push/pull effects of social media and Marci Maddox shares "why the customer experience is all about ME."
  
Two new customer testimonials were made available this week! See how Hatch used OpenText's solutions to promote social interaction and collaboration between its 8,700 global employees...and read up on how OpenText helps reduce physical paper storage, eliminate duplication, provide management reporting, and streamline end-to-end "invoice-to-settle" process times for the Derbyshire County Council.

As a reminder, the Canada 3.0 2011 Digital Media Forum is being held in Stratford, Ontario next Monday through Wednesday, May 2-4. In addition to being a platinum sponsor and having several executive keynote sessions at the event, OpenText will be providing a social networking platform to connect attendees and presenters before, during and after the conference. Several OpenText representatives will also be reporting from the conference via their personal blogs, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

For more information about the conference, please review OpenText's recent press release and the Canada 3.0 web site. To read live updates from the conference via Twitter, please follow the hash tag #cda30.

OpenText announced that it will provide a social networking platform to connect attendees and presenters before, during and after the Canada 3.0 2011 digital media forum being held in Stratford, Ontario May 2-4. The social networking software is the same solution that OpenText provided for delegates at both the Toronto and Korea G-20 Summits held in 2010, and is now customized for the Canada 3.0 forum.

"As a Platinum sponsor of the Canada 3.0 2011 forum and major proponent of digital media progress in Canada, OpenText is pleased to provide a social collaboration tool that will make connecting attendees, presenters and other subject matter experts easier and more efficient," said Eugene Roman, Chief Technology Officer at OpenText.

OpenText's Social Workplace solution will be accessible from mobile devices on-site, linking more than 3,000 past and new attendees and enabling them to share ideas and converse with presenters from the conference. Participants can access the OpenText application from their BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPads at http://talk.canada30.com/login.

Roman will be leading the Public Sector stream, sponsored by OpenText, at Canada 3.0 and will be compiling outcomes to present at the conclusion of the forum. OpenText will also have a major presence in the Interactive Showcase area of the forum showcasing the latest ECM solutions. Tom Jenkins, OpenText Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, who is also Chair of the Advisory Board for the Canadian Digital Media Network, will be among those officially welcoming attendees to the forum.

OpenText employees were busy developing new posts for the blogs this week!

On the Innovate blog, Tom Jenkins recaps a conversation he had with Matthew Finnegan of Techeye.net about his vision of the web and how it will evolve in the near and distant future;
Jeremy Reed outlines how customer case studies are going to be handled at Content World; and Liz Kofsky discusses what we should be considering when we're governing information using SharePoint.

On Conversations, CMO James Latham discusses how a revised content strategy can lead to greater social media power in his blog, "Social Commerce: The New World of Marketing;" Jennifer McCredie talks about some of the most interesting metrics from the research report OpenText recently conducted with AIIM; and Martin Sumner-Smith gives his views on the true meaning of "E2E" and why it is overdue for recognition.

Finally, check out these new videos showing how OpenText's solutions have helped Menzis improve its efficiency and performance, and have simplified media management for Compassion International.

WEBINARS:

1. Tuesday's webinar will focus on OpenText's Content Server 2010, the core technology for many of our ECM Suite programs. Attend this session to learn about new developments and features geared towards improving performance. Click here for more details.
   
2. Questions and answers take on a higher meaning in Thursday's 'Interviewing Techniques' webinar. Hone your skills! Learn how to implement effective questioning methods, practice the magic of probe, and employ the art of active listening. Register here to participate.
   
3. Did you miss a webinar? Looking to catch up on past information sessions? Please view our select 'Webinars on Demand'; they're ready when you are! Click here for more information.
    

This week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference and exhibition in Las Vegas, OpenText delivered a well-received conference Info Session discussing Value Engineering and Mobile applications in media. There was a wave of pent-up demand at the show as many media companies are finally moving projects forward. A key need in most of those projects is Media Asset Management.

OpenText's message of manage, understand, mobilize and monetize media assets was supported by demonstrations showing faceted and semantic search capabilities, mobile review and approve processes, and Media Management 7. The OpenText crew did a great job showing the product's capabilities and they are already excited for next year.

On Tuesday, at the Eighth International SAP® Utilities Conference 2011 in Mannheim, Germany, OpenText announced that it was joining SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) in co-sponsoring UNICEF's Clean Water for Ethiopia project. The companies committed to donating a total of €20,000 to UNICEF.

This donation will assist UNICEF in building new water wells supplied with manual pumps, and separate latrines for boys and girls. These funds will also be put towards educating local residents on how to maintain the new equipment, as well as educating teachers and children in Ethiopia on the importance of proper hygiene. UNICEF expects that approximately 2,000 children will benefit from this donation.

"Whether matching employee donations to support Red Cross aid to the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan or co-sponsoring UNICEF in an effort to provide clean drinking water to the people of Ethiopia, OpenText has an ongoing commitment to improving the health and well-being of people's lives and their environment," said Patrick Barnert, vice president of SAP Solutions at OpenText. "This sponsorship shows that, while we are focused on technology solutions, there are many other unique ways in which OpenText collaborates with its partners to improve people's lives."

In OpenText's blogs this week, Chief Strategy Officer Tom Jenkins outlines how he believes Ottawa may be poised for a second technology boom in his post entitled "On Becoming a Digital Nation: Ottawa." He also talks about the potential for mobile content access and management in the Oil & Gas industry in his post, "Houston, we have a solution: Going Mobile."

Jeremy Reed discusses how OpenText will be improving the ability to network while at Content World in his latest video blog; and the Fax Solutions Group explains why you should stop the exhaustive search process by using an archive safety net in their post, "Search Yourself Fit!"

OpenText recently sponsored a participant in an Antarctic expedition intended to grow awareness of Antarctica and the importance of environmental concerns. The participant, Theresa Howland, is personally committed to environmental issues and has been employed in Canada's renewable energy sector for the past 13 years. Theresa travelled from Calgary to Buenos Aires, Argentina to link up with the expedition which left in late February, and carried with her a banner from OpenText while in Antarctica. 

Theresa joined Robert Swann, the environmental leader and public speaker who orchestrates the environmental trips to the Antarctic on behalf of his organization 2041.com. Swan has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by the promotion of recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change. For more information on Swan and 2041.com visit: www.2041.com.

Theresa described her trip as "an amazing opportunity." More photos and blogs collectively posted by participants in the excursion can be found at: http://2041ree.posterous.com/ .

OpenText was also involved this week in another environmental opportunity. OpenText joined SAP AG in co-sponsoring UNICEF's Clean Water for Ethiopia project with a joint donation of 20,000 Euros to UNICEF.

Emergency conditions are all too familiar to many families in Ethiopia. In 2010, flooding affected nearly one million people across several regions. Extreme conditions such as droughts and heavy rain augment existing challenges of high poverty levels, dependence on rain-fed agriculture, low availability of safe drinking water, poor hygiene and sanitation, and inadequate disease surveillance. Ethiopia has the highest mortality rate for children under the age of five, primarily from diarrhea resulting from the lack of access to clean water and sanitation, and lack of important knowledge about hygiene.

The donation from OpenText and SAP will assist UNICEF in building new water wells supplied with manual pumps as well as educating local residents on how to maintain the new equipment, plus educating teachers and children in Ethiopia on the importance of proper hygiene. UNICEF expects that approximately 2,000 children will benefit from this donation.

EVENTS:

1. Content comes to life today at the 2011 NAB Show! Through various info sessions, participants will learn to manage, understand, monetize and mobilize their media. Those who partake will also have a chance to win a GoPro HD Videocam! For further details and to register, please click here.
2. The SharePoint Summit 2011 gets underway today in Quebec City!  Click here for more information (French).
3. Germany is set to host the 8th International SAP Utilities Conference 2011 on Tuesday April, 12th. With a busy agenda lined up, the conference will cover topics ranging from customer importance to moving forward with IT-Technology. Click here for details.

WEBINARS:

1. Tuesday's webinar will focus on OpenText's Archive Server and provide an Overview & Roadmap. Start time is 11am EST. Click here to register.
2. Thursday's webinar will fill you in on what's new regarding OpentText's Web Experience Management and will give you the opportunity to share your input on future product direction! Click here to find out more.

On Tuesday, April 5th, OpenText announced that it joined the European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG). With this membership, OpenText will collaborate with other global companies in sharing thought leadership and expertise in an effort to set industry standards for the European smart metering industry.

"The utilities sector is growing organically and changing in new ways as a result of smart metering and other initiatives to increase energy efficiency," said Walter Köhler, OpenText's Vice President of Global Services, EMEA. "As a component of OpenText s ECM Suite, our customer communication management capabilities enable utilities to communicate more effectively with customers about their energy usage. This communication helps customers improve their energy efficiency while boosting the customer experience. By collaborating with other companies and integrators, we are helping EU institutions, consumers and utilities make the best possible decisions about smart meter adoption today and into the future."

Also announced on Tuesday, OpenText has been ranked Canada's top software company for the third consecutive year by the Branham Group, a leading Canadian industry analyst and strategic consulting firm serving the global information technology marketplace.

"OpenText is really a homegrown Canadian success story, given that the company evolved from an ambitious project at the University of Waterloo initiated 20 years ago," said John Shackleton, Chief Executive Officer at OpenText. "We're delighted to have become one of Canada's flagship high-tech companies, and to be named the top software company again this year."

"The Branham300 has highlighted the top Canadian and multinational ICT companies operating in Canada, as ranked by revenue, for almost 20 years. OpenText leads the Canadian Software sector on the Branham300 again this year, closing yet another year of positive growth," states the Branham announcement. The Branham300 is published annually in the April issue of Backbone Magazine, as well as on the Branham300 website.

In OpenText's blogs this week, CMO James Latham gives his perspectives on how you can use content and collaboration tools to do more with marketing; Liz Kofsky outlines why your information infrastructure is much more than just SharePoint; and Jeremy Reed explains how there will be more technical content offered in the program at Content World in Orlando. Finally, Dmitry Nekrasovski discusses how to decide whether a particular set of usage scenarios should be addressed by a single app or multiple apps.

EVENTS:

1. OpenText executives will be meeting with customers in Germany on April 5th and 6th for Content Days Germany. Further information (in German) is available here.
2. Content Day UK will take place on Thursday, April 7th. Those registered will have the opportunity to participate in over 60 interactive sessions! Click here for more details.

WEBINARS:

1. Aimed at organizations who are currently evaluating reporting or customization solutions, Tuesday's webinar will introduce you to WebReports the leading reporting tool for Content Server. Click here to register.
2. On Wednesday, April 6th, join the Product Marketing team from the OpenText Digital Media Group for an update on new product features, product roadmap and topics of special interest to the OpenText Digital Asset Management community. Click here to sign up. 
3. On Thursday, the RightFax team will host a webinar focused on how existing RightFax users can extend the value of their current system. The webinar will also provide compelling reasons to upgrade to RightFax 10. Topics to be covered include fax over IP, virtualization, fax archiving, faxing from OpenText Content Server, leveraging MFPs, fax automation, SecureDocs, Hosted Fax Services, RightFax 10 and an introduction to the Global Fax Summit. Click here for more information and to register.

On Tuesday, OpenText's Metastorm business announced that Metastorm M3, its cloud-based modeling suite, is Powered by Microsoft Windows Azure™. The Powered by Microsoft Windows Azure program recognizes that the Metastorm M3 cloud application has met a specific set of functionality and performance requirements set forth by Microsoft. Powered by Windows Azure, Metastorm M3 offers the most popular modeling types from Metastorm s enterprise architecture and business process management software and delivers them in a secure, easy to use Cloud-based environment enabling real-time collaboration, annotation and recording capabilities.

"As a strategic Microsoft partner, it was logical that we would be the first of the EA and BPM vendors to select Microsoft Windows Azure for its Cloud platform," said Greg Carter executive vice president and CTO of OpenText Metastorm. "Being recognized as a Windows Azure solution further extends our partnership with Microsoft and provides validation to our customers that we are committed to providing a dependable, flexible and proven software platform as they move enterprise modeling into the Cloud and start engaging in social BPM collaboration."

Tom Jenkins discusses the importance of supporting digital natives with new technologies in his blog post, "Houston, We Have a Solution: Digital Natives."  In other blog-related news, Jeremy Reed kicked off the Content World video blog this week, which will provide an ongoing, interactive dialogue about topics of interest from Content World. Joe Stewart also provided observations about social media use from his attendance at the HIMSS 2011 conference; and the Fax Solutions Group posted a brief document management case study on Fetim Retail Europe, a retail division that provides, creates and distributes Do It Yourself (DIY) products to the trades and DIY chains.

If you happen to be in the UK this weekend, stop by and see us on Sunday, April 3rd, at the UK Info & Records Mgmt Society Conf 2011. We'll be in stands 13-14.

EVENTS:

1. Today OpenText is at the LA Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit 2011. Click here for more details.
2. OpenText will be at the 2011 NAB Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada (April 9-11, Booth SL8821), where we'll be showing attendees how to manage, understand, monetize and mobilize digital content. Click here to register and for further information.

WEBINARS:

1. The OpenText Web Solutions Group wants to give you the latest and greatest in tomorrow's product update webinar. Click here to register.