Open Text Web Solutions News & Articles

Recently, the Real Story Group identified mid-market Microsoft .NET-based content management systems as the biggest Web CMS trend for Q3.

I was inspired to explore this topic a bit more, as industry anecdotes of organizations selecting one CMS vendor over the other based on the "We're a 100% .NET" claim sprang to mind.

With Open Text Content World under way in Orlando, here comes the announcement on Open Text’s (news, site) 2010 product roadmap and plans for its Enterprise CMS, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, DAM and Web CMS product lines.

Among the highlights -- we know ya'll are curious -- are rebranding changes to Vignette and Web Solutions (formerly RedDot).

Personally, I cannot wait for October to arrive. Open Text Content World will be in the lovely Orlando, and we all should expect to be enlightened on OTEX’s product map and strategy for its two web content management arms: Web Solutions (aka RedDot) and the recently acquired Vignette.

Commenting on my previous post on the Open Text WCM saga, Markus Giesen et al. -- representatives of an unofficial RedDot blog -- raised several worthwhile questions. Not with publicity in mind, but in an effort to get some real, transparent answers I reached out for comments to Open Text. Here’s what we learned.

Open Text (news, site) has finally revealed a bit more information about what the giant plans to do with its multiple WCM offsprings. More specifically, where the recently adopted Vignette child may be placed in Open Text’s Enterprise CMS and Web CMS families.

Enterprise CMS provider Open Text (news, site) announced unaudited financial results for Q4 and FY2009.

Despite the current economic climate, OTEX reports achieving bottom line target, although net income for fiscal year 2009, and license revenue and operating cash flow in the fourth quarter have dipped.

Conversations on Vignette's fate and product integration strategies are ongoing.

Open Text (news, site) said it’s a done deal. The planned acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Vignette (worth approximately US$ 321 million) has been completed late yesterday following a shareholders’ meeting where the voting and approval took place.

While Vignette (news, site) is busy nostalgizing, Open Text says it’s working on the strategic aspects of what may come next. Let’s not forget that Open Text already has a WCM-centric group called Open Text Web Solutions. Offering an even broader range of (quite similar) products is going to take some brain activity. Then again, this would not be the first quilting exercise for Open Text.

In the meantime, there’s still some Vignette cash to recognize on OTEX’s balance sheet.

According to the “big brother,” support will continue for Vignette's products and (the relatively quickly decreasing) installed base (bringing in the licensing revenue). The same applies to existing Web Solutions products and customers. No comment has been made in regards to new(er) Vignette products.

There is a talk about a “combined product,” but no details on what it will be, except for providing a supersized meal of a “full set of feature options, from… fast-to-deploy web publishing application, to… enterprise-class e-business platform for large-scale deployments.”

Vignette's social media, DAM and personalized content seem to be some of the most palatable notes in this content management connoisseur combo. Open Text also expressed intent to potentially leverage some of Vignette’s components in its ECM Suite.

More details on the product strategy and the product roadmap are not likely to be announced earlier than October, when Open Text’s annual conference -- Content World 2009 – will take place.

Restructuring is expected. We should know more about the range of that initiative around the end of August.

Open Text has announced today the release of “next generation” Web Solutions. The fancy name is, in essence, a new release of the company’s Web CMS child — RedDot. It’s a name change and a total rebranding makeover. With all the underlying RedDot WCM technology still in the backbone, it is now called Web Solutions.

The focus of this new release is on intranets, extranets, Enterprise 2.0 solutions and Web 2.0 tools that come armed with greater security and control over social media initiatives.

We had an opportunity to chat with Stefanie Lightman, VP of Marketing at Open Text, to get the scoop on the new offering.