Microsoft and Open To deliver Powerful ECM Capabilities

Microsoft Corp. and Open Text™ Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX, TSX: OTC) announced a new strategic relationship to optimize Open Text’s comprehensive enterprise content management (ECM) solutions for the Microsoft® platform.

This effort will take advantage of both companies’ global scale and complementary products to enable ECM solutions in large, complex customer environments.

As part of the announcement, Open Text, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, becomes a worldwide ECM partner with Microsoft. By deepening the relationship between Open Text and Microsoft, the companies will work to enhance Open Text solutions in ways that combine the power of the Microsoft platform and Open Text’s deep understanding of the ECM needs of large enterprises.

The resulting end-to-end solutions from Open Text, which will include vertical-market offerings in financial services and government, will help companies address the complexity of managing an ever-growing volume of online information, a major source of productivity loss and compliance risks.

With today’s announcement, Open Text is also introducing two new solutions that use Open Text’s Livelink ECM suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003.

The expanded relationship and new solutions were unveiled to customers at Open Text’s LiveLinkUp Orlando 2005 user conference, underway this week in Orlando, Fla.

“Managing information more effectively is a priority, both to improve our business and manage compliance,” said Raj Patel, chief information officer at Forest City Ratner Companies, an affiliate of Forest City Enterprises Inc., a $7.4 billion U.S. real estate company, which is adopting a new solution that tightens integration between Livelink ECM and the company’s Microsoft® SharePoint®-based solution.

“Our expanded relationship with Open Text will mean more innovative solutions that will reduce the complexities and risks of managing enterprise content,” said Rob Bernard, general manager of global ISVs at Microsoft.

“We see our close relationship with Microsoft and our commitment to the Microsoft platform as essential to meeting the new challenges our customers face,” said John Shackleton, president and chief executive officer of Open Text.

The new solutions introduced this week include an Open Text records management solution for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, which allows customers to extend compliance-driven records management retention and disposition policies to content maintained in SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

Open Text is also introducing Web Parts that expose Livelink ECM content and functionality in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This new level of integration between the two solutions will allow SharePoint Portal Server 2003 users to utilize specific Livelink ECM capabilities and access content stored anywhere in Livelink ECM.

Future versions of Open Text solutions will be built on Microsoft Office “12,” the code name of the next major release of Microsoft Office products. Livelink ECM will connect directly with Microsoft’s ECM capabilities and extend the content created in Office “12” into key business processes.

“In Office ‘12,’ we will offer powerful new capabilities to help companies manage content. Livelink ECM integration with Office ‘12’ will enable customers to easily deploy solutions that increase the efficiency of content-driven business-critical processes across their organizations,” said Sanjay Manchanda, director of SharePoint Products and Technologies at Microsoft.

Last week, Open Text announced plans to offer its Artesia Digital Asset Management on the Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database. The combined offering is aimed at media and entertainment companies that need to more effectively manage vast stores of digital assets, such as video, audio and graphics files.

Open Text has also agreed to support the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship development tool, Visual Studio® 2005, for the development of new Livelink ECM solutions that integrate with SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

Open Text™ (Nasdaq: OTEX, TSX: OTC) is the leading independent provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions that bring together people, processes and information in global organizations. Today, the company supports 20 million seats across 13,000 deployments in 114 countries and 12 languages worldwide.