Open Text announces Livelink ECM Services Architecture

Issued by Lava Systems for Enterprise Content & Wireless

Johannesburg, 26 Nov 2004

Lava Systems Africa, an affinity partner of Canadian-based Open Text, today announced the latter`s next-generation services-oriented architecture.

Called the Livelink ECM Services Architecture, the platform provides a layer of software `services` that link corporate applications to repositories of information, no matter where they reside.

The Livelink platform also facilitates the smooth evolution of existing applications, speeds the development of new applications targeting new segments of the enterprise content management market, and provides easier integration of the company`s acquired technologies.

"More than ever, customers want greater functionality in their applications while demanding greater flexibility and reduced cost in their deployments. This is a huge challenge given the current diversity of architectures, interfaces, languages and integration mechanisms in large organisations," commented David Glazer, Chief Technology Officer at Open Text. "Our new services architecture is the key to creating easy-to-deploy ECM solutions that bridge the divides between people, information and applications like never before."

The Livelink ECM Services Architecture is built entirely in Java and includes native support for SOAP-based Web services. It contains a family of federated services, an integration framework and a flexible, extensible object layer. Customers can more easily deploy composite applications that build on Open Text`s broad family of ECM solutions, and Open Text can more quickly add new solutions to the family. In addition, partners or customers have an open platform to easily build and add specialised components when needed.

The Livelink ECM Services Architecture includes these services:

* Collaboration services to support person-to-person interaction: Provides an easy way to enable powerful cross-application collaboration. Collaboration services include presence, messaging, blogging and discussions. Livelink Touchpoint, Open Text`s latest collaboration application set to be announced later today, will be the first deployment of the collaboration services.

* Content services to provide a single point of access to all content: Content services include application `doorways` to manage access to documents, content and metadata across the enterprise and storage doorways to fully leverage any mix of storage devices from all leading storage vendors. The content services build on the existing successful Livelink Doorways and IXOS archiving content integration strategies.

* Business process services to automate processes around content: Provides a common framework for automating the routing of information and documents, for presenting information to users via forms, and for notifying users of critical tasks via a shared inbox. The services allow business processes to span multiple applications, providing the ability to automate highly structured processes and more flexible workflows within a single solution.

* A user directory service for single point of user management and single sign-on for applications.

Open Text

Open Text is the market leader in providing enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that bring together people, processes and information in global organisations. Since launching the world`s first Internet search engine and the first Web-based enterprise collaboration and knowledge management software, Open Text continued its leadership in providing global enterprises with innovative and effective solutions.

Throughout its history, Open Text has matched its tradition of innovation with a track record of financial strength and growth. Today, the Canadian-based company supports 15 million end-users across deployments in 31 countries and 12 languages worldwide and includes among its client base government departments in Australia, Canada and Japan; the UK Metropolitan Police; British telecommunications, UNHCR and the USA Department of Defence.

Open Text`s flagship product, Livelink seamlessly combines collaboration with content management, helping organisations transform information into knowledge in order to provide the foundation for innovation, compliance and accelerated growth. Open Text acquired Germany`s Ixos Software AG in February this year to become the largest ECM software vendor in Europe and the largest pure-play ECM software vendor in the world, according to Bradley West, an analyst with Southwest Securities Inc.

Lava Systems

The Lava Systems Africa (Pty) Ltd team originated in the late 1990s with the objective of becoming a premier supplier of enterprise systems based around knowledge management, document management, records management, image management, collaboration and workflow solutions. The emerging demands that were identified included government process re-engineering, supply chain co-ordination, customer relationship management, e-government and B2B processing.

In support of these business aims the technology platforms chosen had to enjoy a proven global track record and adhere to open Internet architecture standards and developments. Lava Systems Africa is a South African-based BEE company dedicated to the sales, marketing, support and consultancy founded upon the Livelink product suite from Open Text, a product that the staff have been involved with since 1998.

Lava Systems Africa`s user base embraces customers from both the private and public sector and includes organisations such as Bateman Projects Limited, Alexander Forbes, the Gauteng Provincial Government and the National Social Security Fund of Uganda.

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