There are two points that are significant. The first is that everybody is waking up to the fact that workflow and document management are powerful solutions to the problems in enterprise environments where workers, suppliers, customers, etc. are widely dispersed. There is going to be tremendous competition in the software industry to meet these demands. The software is in its infancy right now. More and more companies will enter this market and the competition will continue to get stronger. Today it is SAP and Peoplesoft. Tommorrow it will be Netscape and Oracle.
The second point is this environment will have a direct impact on Open Text. The possibilities are:
1. They get blown away by the big companies with their millions of dollars of R&D money, huge sales force, etc.
2. They continue to lead the market with revolutionary technology that stays ahead of the competition. This leads to strong growth which allows them to compete with the Microsofts and Oracles.
3. Microsoft, Oracle, Netscape, etc. buy Open Text in an effort to immediately catch up on the technology curve, using their resources to establish market leading software.
I predict number 3 will happen. Open Text has the best technology and the best vision right now. Look at all of these companies who are announcing beta products today. Livelink has been out for almost 2 years now. They just need the resources. Also, if management had the nerve to vote themselves a windfall last month, they will certainly jump at a chance to sell out. |
