In 2020, corporate citizenship has never been more important, or more meaningful.
At OpenText, we believe that information has the power to create a more equitable, just and democratic world, and we are pleased to release our first Corporate Citizenship Report.
OpenText has always upheld the highest standards of ethics, integrity and corporate citizenship, and this report gives us an opportunity to discuss our contributions to building a better world. As the current pandemic and global crisis makes clear, there is a significant role for companies to play in addressing the technology, social, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities we collectively face.
The Great Reset
The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a great reset that will create a new equilibrium. COVID-19 is resetting Technology, Health, Individuals, Economics, Environment, Society and Industries. Further, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted how much work we have to do as a society.
At the same time, over the past few months, we have also seen humanity coming together—to share life-saving information, to attempt to produce vaccines in record time, and to begin to acknowledge and confront systemic racism.
Technology is the connective fabric of humanity, and the scientific advancements of the past several decades allow us to better deal with these crises than at any point in our history. However, technology, like any other tool, needs to be coupled with ethics, integrity and strong commitments around privacy and security, in order to accomplish these goals.
Opportunity and Responsibility
As a software company, OpenText is at the forefront of change. Market-disrupting technologies are transforming how we live and the way the world works. Business data and applications are migrating to the cloud. Through the Internet of Things (IoT), endpoints and robotics are becoming increasingly intelligent and connected, adding a huge amount of available information to businesses and creating opportunity for massive improvements to supply chains and customer experiences. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are making data capture, discovery and analytics more efficient while promising a new era of autonomous things.
OpenText is in the business of helping customers harness the power of these and other technologies, and this gives us tremendous opportunity to create long-term value for our customers, employees and society as a whole. Along with that opportunity comes responsibility—and both are important to us.
One of our key responsibilities is data privacy and security. As the world goes digital, greater amounts of data increase data security and privacy risks.
We make a commitment to our customers that when they entrust their data to us, our number one priority is to defend and protect it.
We take very seriously our responsibilities to:
- Act ethically and with integrity in every situation, and to support an ethical supply chain
- Embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace, and to empower our employees
- Work with local organizations to support the communities in which we operate
- Mitigate our environmental impact and help our customers do the same
In our Corporate Citizenship Report—which is available publicly here—we discuss our policies and practices in these areas. They include signing on to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and supporting its principles. In the Appendix of the report, you will find our annual Communication on Progress, which demonstrates our commitment to continually improve the integration of the UNGC and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations.
COVID-19
This year, companies around the world have had to navigate the uncertainty of COVID-19. Many of our customers have been on the front lines of the pandemic, and we have helped ensure supply chains and retailers are delivering essential goods, pharmaceutical companies are conducting research, hospitals are managing resources, doctors and patients are connected, airlines are safe, banks are providing funds, cyber criminals are stopped and transportation systems are moving goods, along with many other critical functions.
We also launched a number of programs to help our employees and communities with the additional challenges brought on by the pandemic. This includes the OpenText Relief Fund, to support any employees with COVID-19, and our 100 Acts of Kindness campaign.
Overall, our 100 Acts of Kindness campaign raised over half a million dollars and supported many local charities around the world.
Diversity
With over 14,000 employees in 35 countries around the world, OpenText believes that diversity and innovation go hand in hand, and that multiple backgrounds and points of view contribute to a stronger whole. We are committed to maintaining a working environment that is inclusive of everyone, regardless of culture, national origin, race, color, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, family status, age, veteran status, disability, or religion.
We also know there is more that we can do. The Black Lives Matter protests have been a rallying cry to look more closely at our performance, learn from the experiences of our Black and under-represented employee communities, and commit to fighting systemic racism in our world.
Technology for Good
Few things have the power to transform our world as rapidly and radically as digital technology. Today, technology is being used to fight crime. It is bringing digital agriculture to the world, combatting fraud, improving livelihoods, and helping to eliminate poverty. It is fast-tracking medical advancements and finding innovative ways to reduce waste. At OpenText, this inspires us to think about how we can use our unique products and capabilities for the greater good. Already today, various customer deployments of our Information Management solutions are advancing this concept.
For example, a leading international humanitarian organization is using OpenText products to connect more than 10,000 employees across 90 countries and enable its rapid response team to share information on the ground in the first 24 hours of a crisis. Critical information is fed back into the organization in real time to help them efficiently develop collaborative solutions and refocus on better serving their key beneficiaries.
Be More
As we move through the pandemic, we all must amplify our roles as corporate citizens. In work and in life, our mindset determines our path to service, success and satisfaction, and I envision a future that is more abundant, more purposeful and more sustainable.
Ultimately, we want to create a better future for all – and OpenText will be contributing to this goal through technology, inclusion and innovation.
I look forward to reporting back to you on our progress.
