Lava Systems Africa, an affinity partner of Canadian-based Open Text Corporation, today announced a record attendance of almost 1 500 people at LinkUp Europe 2004, the company`s European user conference series held recently, a 150% increase over 2003.
The high turnout demonstrated the continued focus on enterprise content management (ECM) solutions among customers as a way to improve processes, information management and collaboration, as well as regulatory compliance in large organisations.
The events, which took place in London, Paris and Munich, covered the full spectrum of ECM issues, from market trends, to customer applications, to the critical ties between ECM software and storage.
LinkUp Europe included customer keynotes from Audi, BT and Abbey National, and more than 160 breakout sessions covering product applications and demos, as well as customer case studies from Siemens, Barclay`s Bank, Sony, Airbus, AXA France, T-Systems, Aventis, Cisco, Air Liquide and many others.
LinkUp Europe 2004 was the first European user event since Open Text`s business combination with Munich-based IXOS Software late last year. The conference series gave Open Text and IXOS executives an opportunity to present their strategic direction and technology roadmap for the combined company. The management team also unveiled plans for the first integrated product offering: Livelink Web Content Management Server, which offers customers a single platform to manage all of their Web content management requirements. Together, Open Text and IXOS form the largest ECM software provider in the world.
"LinkUp Europe was an important opportunity for us to present our strategy to customers in Europe, and to get their feedback," commented Tom Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of Open Text. "The overwhelming response we received shows that ECM is top of mind for customers and the key to addressing the challenges they face managing content and worker collaboration across large, global enterprises."
The events also included presentations from experts at Hitachi Data Systems on storage strategies, BearingPoint on compliance issues in Europe and analyst firm The Butler Group on content management. Some 28 Open Text and IXOS partners also participated in the events as exhibitors, including Adobe, Network Appliance, IBM, StorageTek and Hitachi Data Systems.
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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 seats across deployments in 31 countries and 12 languages worldwide and includes among its client base the governments of Australia, Canada and Japan; the UK Metropolitan Police; the United Nations and the US 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, scanning 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 now a South African-based BEE company dedicated to the sales, marketing, support and consultancy based around the Livelink product from Open Text, a product that the staff have been involved with since 1998. Lava Systems Africa 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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