Looks like istar made a good decision in not trying to go it alone. For those who do not know, Istar is Canada's largest ISP having made a whole bunch of acquisitions over the past year. They are hiring lots of new staff and are touting their new direction in intranet consulting, so there may be plenty of significance to this deal for the folks at Open Text in terms of using iSTAR as a distribution channel.
Here is a longer version of that announcement:
iSTAR adds Open Text's powerful LiveLink Intranet Suite to its business solutions family
OTTAWA, Ont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1997--
Canada's Largest ISP Partners With Open Text
For Business Productivity Solution
iSTAR internet inc., Canada's leading supplier of Internet
services and business solutions today announced it will include Open
Text Corporation's Livelink Intranet Suite 7 in its iNTRANET product
line. Part of iSTAR's business-focused solutions, iNTRANET has the
potential to save corporations millions of dollars in managed
business flow using intranets and extranets.
"Livelink is rapidly becoming a trusted standard in document and
process management," says Rainer Paduch, President and CEO of iSTAR
internet inc. "By providing the site, infrastructure and ongoing
management services for intranet-based virtual private networks, and
combining these with the information management applications of
Livelink Intranet, iSTAR and Open Text can deliver the benefits of
intranets, with their low maintenance costs and easy-to-use interface
to Canadian businesses, and the tools to manage their documents and
processes at the same time."
Businesses subscribing to Livelink from iSTAR will have access
through a standard Web browser, requiring no client software be added
to user stations. Thousands of client seats are expected to be
leased, particularly to firms with $20 million to $200 million in
annual revenues, that want the benefits of intranets without the
initial costs involved in setting up and maintaining a system through
their own Management Information Systems (MIS) staff.
"Open Text is particularly pleased with iSTAR as our partner, as
its vision extends beyond typical ISP email and web access services
to include the first set of true intranet applications that will
enable companies throughout Canada to leverage the power of
intranets," said Tom Jenkins, President and CEO of Waterloo-based
Open Text. "With its emphasis on the commercial market, and boasting
the industry's most comprehensive and well-engineered set of security
features, iSTAR is an ideal partner for distributing our
market-leading suite of intranet applications."
"We see this type of service as complementary to our main
distribution channel, which is based on installing Livelink directly
on servers within corporations, and as a channel enabling Livelink to
reach many more companies through an ISP-based service," he added.
The Livelink Intranet Suite 7 software is available from iSTAR
now. iSTAR currently has multiple clients using its iNTRANET
service.
Livelink Intranet Suite 7 provides powerful document management,
searching, workflow and collaborative computing capabilities, all
accessible to users through a Web browser and password.
iSTAR internet inc., is Canada's leading Internet solutions
company, with more than 240 employees nationwide. Headquartered in
Ottawa, Ontario, the company has regional offices in Halifax,
Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. ISTAR
offers customers a broad range of turnkey electronic commerce
solutions on its high-speed connection to the Internet over a
national backbone network. iSTAR shares are traded on the Toronto
Stock Exchange (TSE:WWW).
Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEXF) is an intranet applications
company whose mission is to put the Web to work. (etc.) |
