We have never worked this fast, and we will never work this slow again.
In my keynote at OpenText World Europe 2021, I talked about the nexus of forces facing businesses today—modern work and work from anywhere; modern experience and direct to consumer; supply chain restructuring and regionalization; and cybersecurity and the need for cyber resilience—and how OpenText is prioritizing these with our new initiative, Grow with OpenText, which leverages our Cloud Editions to form the Ultimate Cloud™ for our customers.
We are on an incredible shared journey. Over the past 15 months, COVID-19 has changed our world, catalyzing this nexus of forces. Accelerating change and disruption. And leading to a Great Rethink on every level.
It is also a time for optimism. The innovation we have seen during the pandemic has been staggering. Consider how we went from being unaware of COVID-19, to the ideation of vaccines, to development, approval, and now, distribution and immunization, in only a year. This is a testament to the power of innovation, of technology, of the resilience of the human spirit. Meanwhile, economists predict a strong return for the economy in the second half of 2021, giving hope to individuals, businesses and governments who have contended with financial difficulties since the pandemic began.
Even as we acknowledge that there is still much work to do—not only for global health and the economy, but also for equity, diversity and inclusion, the climate, and other big challenges facing us—I believe we can face the future with optimism and trust in our capability to accomplish great things. This is my framework to think about the new normal in the coming quarters and years ahead.
In my keynote, I shared my top nine observations, to help us understand where we are now and how to move into the future.
Information Management: A Modern Strategic Platform
Managing information is at the heart of the innovative future ahead. And that calls for a modern, strategic Information Management platform. Especially when we consider the pandemic’s widespread disruptions, which have made us even more digitally-driven and created permanent shifts in how we work, play and live.
Traditionally, companies have focused on process applications and a process advantage. But a process advantage alone is no longer enough—it is only the baseline. Organizations need more. You need to marry traditional processes to modern information applications.
Process Advantage + Information Advantage. Together they deliver upper quartile outcomes and produce the Intelligent, Secure and Connected Business.
The Intelligent, Secure and Connected Business is well-positioned to take advantage of current and future disruptions, while achieving greater scale, efficiency and insight.
And cloud enables and accelerates this journey.
The Ultimate Cloud™
It is a cloud-first world, and a cloud-everywhere world. Through five specialized clouds, each focused on addressing a key business need, OpenText Cloud Editions delivers the path to the Intelligent, Secure and Connected Business.
Together, OpenText Cloud Editions form the Ultimate Cloud. No matter your point of departure or your unique business goals, the Ultimate Cloud is designed to help grow and transform your organization for the future of business.
With rapid innovation cycles (every 90 days!), Cloud Editions makes it easy to consume new capabilities. Updates are automatically rolled out, so you are always up to date and using the latest technologies and features. We are innovating rapidly, offering more facets, features, customer requests and quality in each release. We are cloud native. Containerized. Running in all major clouds. And above all, secure.
In my keynote, I announced our latest release, Cloud Editions 21.2, our most integrated, flexible, and secure software release to date.
Manage the content that powers modern work with Content Cloud—the most complete and integrated content cloud on the market. The modern workforce is unconstrained by time or space. It is time for new tools and new ways of thinking about Information Management. Employees must have simple access to accurate, timely information to do their jobs… wherever they are, whenever they want it, from whatever device they are using. All while ensuring security and compliance.
Global commerce depends on securely connecting supply chains, systems and people to allow for the frictionless exchange of information. Business Network Cloud seamlessly connects organizations to their global ecosystems, so they can build more adaptive, sustainable, ethical and compliant trading networks. With more and more innovations all the time, Business Network Cloud is the digital backbone that underpins secure collaboration, real-time business intelligence, business-to-business and application-to-application integrations, and supply chain transformation.
Customer expectations are rising—it is time to translate expectations into experiences. Experience Cloud unites customer experience capabilities under one platform to create engaging customer experiences and personalization at scale. Organizations can engage with customers at every touchpoint of their purchasing journey, listen and understand what they really want and need, and wow them with the exceptional experiences they seek. Share the same content across all channels. Power social commerce. This is true Communication-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS).
The rapid acceleration of digitization in the past year has caught many businesses unprepared, exacerbating cyber vulnerabilities. To thwart today’s advanced threats, organizations need up-to-date defenses. Security & Protection Cloud keeps threats at bay with cyber resilience, providing peace of mind with best-in-class cybersecurity, data protection, digital forensic and endpoint security solutions for businesses of all sizes.
Fast-track business transformation with modern developer tools in Developer Cloud. In the API economy, the next generation of Information Management applications are delivered as API services. Information Management-as-a-Service (IMaaS), makes it faster and easier to build, extend and customize applications. All multi-tenant, all SaaS, all in the cloud. Over 30 services today, with more on the way. Empower developers to add new capabilities and focus their resources on the projects that truly matter.
The Ultimate Cloud. One technology platform. Four deployment options. It’s up to you.
OpenText simultaneously supports hybrid architectures including:
- Off-cloud: Information Management solutions running in your data center.
- Private Cloud: Fully-managed Information Management applications delivered on the OpenText global private cloud platform or your preferred cloud environment.
- Public Cloud: Multi-tenant SaaS Information Management solutions.
- API Services: The industry’s most capable and advanced tools for developers of Information Management applications for the API economy.
OpenText can reduce your costs. We can consolidate your platforms. We can give you a platform where you can innovate more rapidly, you can decommission customizations, and you can enable modern work, modern experiences, business networks and supply chains, all while staying secure and protected.
Now is the time to upgrade.
It’s Time to Rethink Business
It is time to accelerate business requirements. Let’s innovate faster. Let’s upgrade and create a platform of innovation in the cloud… private, public or through API services.
OpenText is ready to take on this challenge. We’re here to partner with you. We’re here to transform your business. We’re here to manage your Information Management platform, so you can manage your business.
I look forward to growing with you.
For more details about Grow with OpenText and our Cloud Editions, I invite you to read my latest white paper: “OpenText Cloud Editions: The Ultimate Cloud.”
