Farewell, RedDot. Viva Open Text Web Solutions

By Irina Guseva (@irina_guseva) Feb 25, 2009

Open Text retired RedDot, farewell reddot

It’s the end of an era for RedDot.

Enterprise content management vendor Open Text has retired its web content management arm RedDot in a recent consolidation/rebranding attack. The Web CMS software is staying put, but it is no longer to be called RedDot.

Say hello to the new Web Solutions family and to Daniel Kraft. Kraft is Open Text’s SVP for Corporate Strategy, and we had the pleasure of chatting with him in pursuit of answers to some red hot RedDot questions.

The Preamble

It really is no news anymore that the Web Solutions group has replaced RedDot in the Open Text’s landscape. We covered Web Solutions late last year when this new brand name surfaced the news.

As of October of last year, there’s a total of six solutions that are part of the Open Text Web Solutions offering:

Web Solutions for Intranets
Web Solutions for Multi-Sites
Web Solutions for Enterprise 2.0
Web Solutions for SAP
Web Solutions for Microsoft
Web Solutions for Livelink

All these solutions are covered in (some) detail here.

Most recently, we’ve heard more from the Web Solutions for Multi-Sites module with the newest globalization capabilities and management of multiple sites in multiple locales and languages.

While these are all good developments, we do miss RedDot. After all these years of seeing that little red dot in a corner of our screens, who wouldn’t shed a little tear?

So we talked to Open Text to get the skinny.

The Interview

CMSWire:
How and why did the decision to "shut down" RedDot come about?

Daniel Kraft:
First of all, we don’t “shut down” RedDot. This is the final step of a two-year project and a testament on the success we had turning Open Text into a more web centric company.
Many of our customers made further investments into other Open Text products and the rebrand is an expression of this progress we are making to offer much more than traditional WCM but valuable Web Solutions that helps organizations drive revenues, improve communications, reach new markets and protect and grow their brand.

CMSWire:
You so fondly say in your blog "We will keep RedDot in our hearts." What was the OTEX internal reaction to the announcement?

"On December 2008 we had to say good bye to one of our dearest friends - the RedDot. In an emotional ceremony all of his fellow co-workers gathered together to share great stories and express their respect for one of the greatest web visionaries of all times. When we had to enable everybody to change the web, RedDot was there for us! When 3,000 companies knocked on our doors to help them with their web solutions, RedDot was there for us! When two Canadian software companies looked for great acquisitions in WCM, RedDot was there for us. He was always there for us, our great friend, co-worker and admired leader. We have to say good bye now, but we promise that we will keep RedDot in our hearts…”

Daniel Kraft:
It is no secret that we love the “RedDot” and saying goodbye is never easy. But the team is even more excited to see the transition from a web technology provide to a leader in web centric solutions. This is not an end; it is the next step to underline our leadership position in that space.