Was happy to see it Mike. And yes our prayers do appear to have been answered. On a conservative estimate they stated that this deal equates to around $2 mil (U.S.) per year in revenues. The more the merrier I say. This is a volume business; once the initial expenses are done with you just want to sell more seats, surely it doesn't cost you much more to sell more 'units'.
Now you might go back and do some mental calculations involving Hewlett Packard, and the smaller companies projected to sign up through the iSTAR deal, as well as future releases that are surely imminent.
Can a major U.S. ISP be far behind? It would seem to me that working out a way to become an intranet consultant for medium sized companies would be the only chance some of these ISP's have of saving their bacon.
Now think of Bell Canada...Ford...Siemens...
Now think about all the other phone companies that are out there...
Here is a longer version of the press release. Hope you don't mind the duplication but there may be some extra detail.
Cheers...
GOTHENBURG, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 1997--
Netcom Systems and Kinnevik Subsidiary to resell and distribute
Open Text's intranet products, subscription services and Internet
indexing services
Open Text Corp. (NASDAQ: OTEXF) today announced that Netsys
Technology Group, the systems integration subsidiary of Netcom
Systems(a) -- Scandinavia's largest Internet Service Provider and
second largest telecommunications provider -- has signed a
multi-faceted contract for bringing the power of Livelink Intranet,
the world's most advanced intranet applications suite, to business,
government and institutional customers across Scandinavia.
Based upon Netsys Technology Group's estimates of its future
sales, the agreement could be worth an estimated $US 8-20 million in
revenues to Open Text over five years. Netsys Technology becomes
the exclusive partner for Livelink Intranet in Scandinavia; both
for corporate intranet installations and for providing Livelink
Intranet services to small and mid-sized businesses through Netsys'
Value-add Intranet Service Provider (VISP) offering.
"The combination of the telecommunications services offered by
the Netcom group and Netsys Technology and the power and scalability
of Livelink Intranet's applications is a true marriage of strengths,
to the benefit of customers who are looking to leverage the power of
their corporate intranets," said Christen Ager-Hanssen, president
and CEO of Netsys Technology. "And for those firms who want the
benefits of intranets, but who don't want to build and operate their
own, the contract with Open Text gives us a ready-made productivity
suite to offer them, while we host and manage the infrastructure."
Besides the corporate install and ISP distribution aspects,
Netsys Technology has worked with Open Text to provide a web-based
index of all the documents and sites that Scandinavia has to offer
-- called PolarSearch (www.polarsearch.com) -- similar to the
world-renowned Open Text Index.
"We are delighted to have Netsys Technology as our strategic
partner to provide our powerful Intranet products and services to
corporate and government organizations throughout Scandinavia," said
Keith Soley, COO of Open Text Corp. "With the continuing
de-regulation of industries and expansion of multi-national trade
initiatives, Scandinavian businesses need to harness the power of
intranets to be competitive on the world stage and the Netsys
Technology - Open Text alliance will provide them with the ability
to immediately have that capability."
Soley added that Netsys Technology is an ideal partner for
distributing the market-leading Livelink Intranet suite of intranet
applications, bringing to the agreement strong links to major
Scandinavian firms such as Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), SAAB, Ericsson,
Volvo and others. With the Netcom Group being the largest ISP in
Scandinavia, the opportunity for small to medium-sized companies to
leverage the financial benefits of intranet-based mission-critical
business applications becomes very compelling.
"Furthermore, Netsys Technology will leverage its Internet
experience and `put the Web to work' through Open Text's unique
application suite for Intranets, thus supporting critical business
processes," said Ager-Hanssen
The Livelink Intranet Suite 7 software is scheduled to be
available from Netsys Technology, as either a direct purchase or
subscription service, beginning in February. Pricing is to be
determined.
Livelink Intranet Suite 7 provides powerful document management,
searching, workflow and collaborative computing capabilities, all
accessible to users through a Web browser and password.
Netsys Technology is the systems integrator within the Netcom
and Kinnevik group of companies. Based on the available
infrastructure, Netsys Technology adds value by integrating hardware
platforms, regardless of whether they are call-centers, routers or
PBXs, and adding value through leading-edge knowledge. |
