OpenText is one of the biggest software companies in the world, with annual revenue of $5.8 billion, and over 120,000 enterprise customers in over 180 countries. It also has over 1m connected trading partners, and a burgeoning channel ecosystem that is now MSP-focused.
At the company’s annual OpenText World conference for customers and partners in Las Vegas this week, IT Europa is here to find out the direction of the company, and how its latest moves open up opportunities for partners in cyber security, AI, and cloud services.
Nasdaq-listed OpenText announced the OpenText Partner Network has now expanded access to sell the firm’s entire portfolio of solutions for information management, including content services, experience management, security, IT operations management, and developer tools, along with “accelerants”, such as cloud, AI, automation, and analytics services.
"This is a major milestone for our partner network, following our acquisition of Micro Focus [completed in January 2023]," said Sandy Ono, EVP and chief marketing officer, OpenText. "It opens a wealth of new opportunities to all our global distributors and value added resellers globally, giving them the flexibility and scope to connect with customers on all of our products, innovations and solutions to solve the most complex problems."
"Our aim is to scale our business with the global distributors we already have in our network, while exploring new areas of growth together," added Joel Kremke, SVP, partners and alliances, OpenText. "Working closely with distributors, we will fully equip and enable their network of resellers to expand into new categories that they can deliver to customers."
The expanded portfolio access will help distributors attract “new, high-quality” resellers and system integrators, who have the “right skills and work in the right markets” to take full advantage, by developing “new, groundbreaking” solutions for their customers, said the firm.
"At Climb, reseller partners often ask us if we know of a vendor who provides a specific solution, so they can offer more value to their customer. Now that we have broader access to OpenText's comprehensive portfolio, we can answer "yes" more often," said John Einhaus, director, vendor management at distributor Climb.
"This extended agreement is good news for existing OpenText Partners as it means partners will be able to come to TD SYNNEX for all their OpenText requirements, from support on new business to license and subscription renewals. As a Platinum Partner, we are fully prepared to on-board and support those partners," added Rachel Paterson, senior director, infrastructure software, UK, TD SYNNEX.
As this ramp up in channel activity was announced, OpenText was coming out of the blocks with its updated Cloud Editions (CE) 24.4, presenting a suite of “transformative advancements” in business cloud, AI, and cyber security services.
As multi-cloud strategies become standard practice, said the supplier, enterprises are now leveraging them to enhance flexibility, reduce vendor lock-in, and improve resilience. OpenText Cloud Editions 24.4 seeks to provide the ideal foundation, aiming to support secure and efficient data movement across platforms, while maintaining compliance and mitigating risk in complex multi-cloud setups.
“OpenText Cloud Editions 24.4 is purpose-built to empower today’s knowledge-driven workforce by blending AI with secure, seamless data connectivity,” said Muhi Majzoub, EVP and chief product officer at OpenText. “As AI becomes a key collaborator within organisations, this release gives CIOs and business leaders the capabilities they need to scale operations sustainably, drive competitive advantage, and achieve future-ready outcomes.
“With integrated AI solutions across our portfolio, we are equipping forward-thinking organisations with the tools to streamline workflows, optimise data use, and unlock new value across their multi-cloud environments,” added Majzoub.
In his show keynote, OpenText CEO Mark Barrenechea (pictured) was nothing short of optimistic. “The future is awesome, we are entering a new era of human potential,” he said.
Looking at the role of data, he charted it in “waves”, from content management to information management, and then from digital business to “information reimagined”, with the help of AI, of course.
With improved knowledge in science and health, helped by advanced technology, Barrenechea said: “In the future, your children may well have an average life span of 100, and they may have average IQs of 160, there will be millions of little Einsteins running around.” According to a Newsweek report in August this year, the average IQ of an American is 97, with Japan’s average at 106, at the top of the global tree.
That said, Barrenechea was keen to outline OpenText’s adoption of AI to make machines more intelligent in the decision-making process, not humans. Aviator is the company’s AI platform, and the firm has developed Agents to take advantage of it. These Agents can make “autonomous decisions for specific use cases”, without human intervention.
For Barrenechea, the next step down the line is Agentic AI, which has previously been predicted by analyst house Gartner. Agentic AI uses “sophisticated reasoning” to autonomously solve complex problems on Agents’ behalf. “This will be uneasy for some, but it will happen,” maintained Barrenechea.
OpenText has now developed 15 different Aviator platforms for various industry functions, and 70 different Agents built into its various software offerings. The Agent number will reach over 100 by next April, as future updates of Cloud Editions arrive.
And, of course, these AI services are promoted as an opportunity for the firm’s growing channel.
More to follow from OpenText World 2024...
