CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
12 July 2004
Company News
Open Text and Siemens Business Services Announce European Alliance
Open Text CorporationT announced an alliance with Siemens Business Services, a fully owned subsidiary of Siemens AG. The partnership is intended to provide customers with a comprehensive one-stop solution for consulting and system design, systems integration, deployment and ongoing support; and both parties have indicated the potential to extend the agreement into a global alliance in the future.
The agreement is anticipated to have a positive impact on the Open Text and IXOS SOFTWARE AG business combination which was announced last February ( http://www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=1457 ). IXOS has been a longtime partner of Siemens Business Services.
Siemens will combine its broad range of IT services, including consulting, systems integration and IT systems management, with Open Text's Livelink Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software, which provides integrated collaboration, content management, document management and other capabilities. The companies already provide combined solutions to major European customers, such as Audi, Osram, BAFL, Bürkert and Siemens itself. Siemens currently has some 110,000 Livelink users.
Through the partnership, the companies will be able to leverage complementary expertise. Open Text expects to benefit from Siemens' broad, global reach, its expertise in segments like government and manufacturing, its know-how in delivering large-scale ERP and CRM solutions, and its team of business and management consultants. Siemens anticipates benefiting from Open Text's position as an industry leader in ECM. Open Text is the largest provider of ECM software in Europe and offers the industry's broadest suite of integrated ECM capabilities.
"Open Text is the ECM partner with the most competitive product suite which fits perfectly in the strategic portfolio of Siemens Business Services," said Jürgen Müller, Competence Manager Knowledge Management, Siemens Business Services.
"Siemens Business Services is in the unique position of being both a partner and a customer," said Christian Bohrmann, Channel Development Manager, EMEA, Open Text. "The people at Siemens have tremendous experience with Livelink and success in deploying it within the company on a large scale. That experience will be invaluable to customers who want to apply ECM technology broadly for the greatest ROI. We can work with Siemens to create effective customer solutions that improve the management of online information, speed processes, enhance employee collaboration and improve compliance."
As part of the partnership, Open Text becomes a Siemens premier partner, providing its full range of Livelink-based solutions. Siemens Business Services becomes a Premier Business Alliance Partner of Open Text, with the ability to deliver management consulting, system implementation, software customization and project-based reselling for Open Text solutions. The agreement also allows all affiliates of Siemens Business Services worldwide to participate in the contract.
Siemens Business Services offers services all along the IT service chain from a single source-from consulting to systems integration, right through to the management of IT infrastructures. With regard to outsourcing and IT maintenance, Siemens Business Services is among the top ten providers worldwide. Sales in fiscal year 2003 (ending 30 September 2003) came to around EUR 5.2 billion, 76 percent of which was achieved outside the Siemens organization. The company currently has approx. 34,300 employees worldwide. Further information at: http://www.siemens.com/sbs
Today, Open TextT supports more than 17 million seats across 13,000 deployments in 67 countries and 12 languages worldwide. For more information, go to: http://www.opentext.com
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