Open Text Online Customer Community Applies Social Networking to Business
29 Mai 2007 - 4:15PM
PR Newswire (US)
Open Text at the Forefront of Innovation by Providing Ways to Use
New Technologies To Reach Out To and Interact With Corporate
Customers CHICAGO, May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Social
networks, online communities, blogs and wikis, have taken the
Internet by storm, giving savvy marketers powerful new ways to
reach consumers. So what about companies that sell to businesses?
Are they missing the boat on the social networking craze? Not
necessarily, according to Open Text(TM) Corporation
(NASDAQ:OTEXNASDAQ:TSX: OTC), a leading provider of Enterprise
Content Management (ECM) software, which helps Global 2000
companies manage information. While the challenges are different,
business-to-business firms are beginning to use online communities,
blogs and similar technologies to help establish deeper customer
connections that can boost the corporate bottom line. Compared to
social communities, such as Facebook or MySpace which target people
in casual, social settings, business communities must reach people
in the context of their professional lives, offering a wide range
of information in a self-service setting that helps them in their
jobs and careers. Open Text's customer community initiative, called
Open Text Online (OTO), has helped Open Text better connect with
its corporate customers, giving the large, global organizations
that use Open Text's software a powerful new resource over and
above the formal support and training programs. "What our customers
want more than anything is detailed, useful information they can
take back to their business, and a genuine exchange of ideas, minus
a heavy-duty sales pitch," said Open Text's Vice President of
Customer Partnership Programs, Martin Sumner-Smith, who recently
participated in a podcast
(http://podcast.opentext.com/public/channel/rss/ot-ecm-news/item/12-
OpenTextECMNews_OTO_final.mp3) on business-to-business customer
communities and Open Text's approach. "Through Open Text Online, we
have established customer communities which allow us to gain
enormous insights and new ideas on how to improve our products and
better meet the needs of our customers - all gained directly from
an open, ongoing exchange with customers." "Open Text's software is
strategic to our business," said Jeff Brown, Business Analyst with
BMO Financial Group and an OTO member. "The idea of a forum where
we could access information, share ideas with our peers in other
organizations, and learn about innovative things other Open Text
customers are doing appealed to us. Enterprise software, by its
nature, is very complex, so offering a forum like OTO which
facilitates knowledge sharing isn't a 'nice to have', it's a
necessity." OTO already boasts close to 9,000 active members and
many of Open Text's largest customers have as many as 50 to 100
members each in the community. Community members access a wide
range of information, including customer case studies, product and
strategy presentations, white papers, recorded webinars, and
detailed information on how to effectively deploy technologies,
such as enterprise records management software. OTO is divided into
three tracks, one for business and department managers and
executives that use Livelink ECM, one for technical and development
staff at customer sites, and one for partners. Open Text tracks
what type of OTO information is most popular, helping to keep the
site's content fresh and useful. OTO was a highly strategic
component which helped the company communicate with customers
during Open Text's acquisition of Hummingbird in October, 2006.
Following the acquisition, Open Text created a special site within
OTO for Hummingbird customers, where they could exchange
information, get questions answered, and find details on Open
Text's strategy and product plans. The site opened another channel
of communication to better understand customers' needs and
concerns. OTO uses Open Text's own Communities of Practice solution
built on Livelink ECM, which provides a central workspace where
users can establish communities, publish relevant news, share
documents and participate in blogs. For more information about
Livelink ECM - Communities of Practice, go to:
http://www.opentext.com/2/sol-products/sol-pro-docmgmt-collaboration/pro-ll-
communities-practice.htm. About Open Text Open Text(TM) is the
world's largest independent provider of Enterprise Content
Management software. The company's solutions manage information for
all types of business, compliance and industry requirements in the
world's largest companies, government agencies and professional
service firms. Open Text supports approximately 46,000 customers
and millions of users in 114 countries and 12 languages. For more
information about Open Text, visit http://www.opentext.com/. Safe
Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 This news release may contain forward-looking statements
relating to the success of any of the Company's strategic
initiatives, the Company's growth and profitability prospects, the
benefits of the Company's products to be realized by customers, the
Company's position in the market and future opportunities therein,
the deployment of Livelink and our other products by customers, and
future performance of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking
statements may also include, without limitation, any statement
relating to future events, conditions or circumstances.
Forward-looking statements in this release are not promises or
guarantees and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and
actual results may differ materially. The risks and uncertainties
that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others,
the failure to develop new products, risks involved in fluctuations
in currency exchange rates, delays in purchasing decisions of
customers, 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, demand for the Company's products and other
risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Form 10-K
for the year ended June 30, 2006. You should not place undue
reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which 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. Copyright (C) 2007 by Open Text
Corporation. LIVELINK 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. DATASOURCE: Open Text Corporation CONTACT: Rich
Maganini, Open Text Corporation, (847) 267-9330, x4266, ; Michele
Stevenson, Open Text Corporation, (519) 888-7111, x2594, ; Brian
Edwards, McKenzie Worldwide, (503) 577-4583,
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