What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM

OpenText™ Extended ECM (formerly OpenText Extended ECM Platform and OpenText Content Suite Platform) integrates business content with leading ERP, CRM, HCM applications, seamlessly connecting people with information and accelerating end-to-end business. Check out the latest OpenText Cloud Editions (CE) announcement to learn more about the most recent release.

July 2024: What’s New in OpenText Extended ECM CE 24.3 

The latest release of OpenText Extended ECM CE 24.3 introduces a suite of new features aimed at enhancing the user experience, improving productivity, and ensuring seamless integration with other tools and platforms. Here’s a look at what’s new: 

Advanced Media Add-On

New in CE 24.3, Advanced Media Add-On provides a first-class experience for users interacting with video content as part of business processes. This add-on allows users to: 

• Streamline video conversion and streaming. 
• Deliver high-quality video streaming at scale. 
• Enhance collaboration with annotation tools. 
• Simplify sharing with quick and easy clip creation. 

For more on Advanced Media Add-On, read the blog.  

Content Aviator – Improved document & workspace summaries

The latest update to Content Aviator enhances document and workspace summaries. By upgrading from Google PaLM 2 to Gemini, users receive more accurate and useful answers. The summaries now include a short paragraph followed by a bulleted list of key points, making it easier to sift through large volumes of content. 

New sales business scenario

Manage the entire sales process from campaign to lead to opportunity to sales order with the new sales business scenario in conjunction with Salesforce. This feature includes records management, Smart Document Types, and more as part of the business process library.

Microsoft Teams – Folder tab in each channel

Extended ECM now keeps users focused on relevant content within specific Teams channels. Each channel connected to a business workspace will have a folder tab pointing to the mapped folder in the business workspace, ensuring easy access to the right content.

Outlook Web Add-In – Bulk email filing

Increase productivity and improve the user experience by eliminating the need to file multiple emails individually. The new bulk email selection and filing feature in the Outlook Web Add-In streamlines the process, allowing users to file multiple emails into Extended ECM more efficiently.

“My ToDo” widget

The new “My ToDo” widget provides users with a singular view of all their assignments, enabling them to quickly take action and push business processes forward. Default sections include: 

• My Workflows 
• My Reminders 
• My Stateflows 

Users can also provision custom tabs to track specific workflows of interest. Admins can switch the end user task widget between the legacy “My Assignments” and the new “My ToDo”.

“My Shares” widget – New folders added

For users who regularly share content outside their organization, the “My Shares” widget now provides a holistic view of shares and their status. New sections include:

• Approval Required: Displays shares requiring manager approval.
• Shares Expiring Soon: Shows shares nearing expiration, with admin control over the notification period.

Smart Document Types – “Upload with Approval” bot

Ensure the quality of content added to a workspace by requiring approval before uploading certain document types. Users can choose a document type, which then gets sent via workflow to an approver for review before being added to the workspace. Default workflows are provided, or users can build custom approval processes.

Electronic Signatures – Multiple “Meaning of Signing”

When signing a workflow, users can now select from a list for “Meaning of Signing,” allowing for better definition and understanding of the approval process. Business process designers can assign different meanings to each signing step, centralizing configuration for all signatory steps.

Viewing & Transformation – View Only mode for deep links

Enhance security and governance with the new View Only mode for deep links, available at the content or folder level. Users that open deep links in view-only mode will not have the ability to add annotations, print, or save.

Switch between vertically & horizontally aligned metadata fields

The new “Label Alignment” setting under Configure Smart View allows admins to choose between vertically or horizontally aligned metadata fields. This provides better accessibility and responsiveness, adapting to various screen layouts and user preferences.

Records Management – Classification rules for perspectives

Reduce administrative work by configuring a single Perspective for all objects of a given classification. Use a rule to display a Perspective for multiple containers based on a standard classification, streamlining management and updates across Extended ECM.

Records Management – Make confidential

Restrict access to sensitive content with the new “Make Confidential” feature, temporarily removing permissions for all users except the owner and the user performing the action. Admins can control and restrict usage of this feature.

WebReports – Generate Microsoft XML documents

Easily convert documents to .docx format for security requirements. Users can generate MS Word XML .docx files from various sources, including LiveReports, search queries, Content Server files, and external applications. This feature can be scheduled or triggered by specific events.

WebReports – “Run as”

Enhance flexibility and security control by allowing business admins to run reports on backend operations without modifying permissions. The new “Run as” option under Properties lets users select from a dropdown or run as a WebReports System User, with audit trails showing the “Run As” user.

Additional enhancements

• Tenant Administrator user type: A new user type for cloud customers that allows access only to administration pages and specific volumes, ensuring segregation of duties without content access. 

• SAP SuccessFactors integration: Business admins can link to candidate workspaces or start document generation from external applications, extending functionality into SuccessFactors Recruiting or Workzone. 

April 2024: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 24.2

The Extended ECM CE 24.2 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work.

Streamline communication with precise linking

Extended ECM now empowers users with the ability to create a URL that will open a document and navigate to a designated section of that document.  The capability facilitates collaboration with the ability to precisely point to a specific bookmark, page number, or search term. As an additional security measure, “deep link” URLs can be sent with a “view only” designation.

Clearly communicate about new document versions

Users adding a new version of a document are now able to easily communicate information about that version. Once the new version is uploaded, a dialogue box pops up to prompt the user to describe why a new version was needed or what changed. Users can also quickly see all added descriptions in a single view of the versions table.

Improve efficiency with new features for working with Extended ECM teams

A couple of new features improve the way team leads work with their teams:

View team members at a glance – Quickly display team participants, grouped by their roles, by with a single click that opens a searchable side panel.

Easily import existing teams into new Business Workspaces – When creating new Business Workspaces, streamline the process and cut back on manual work with the ability to automatically import a team from a previous business workspace of the same workspace type.

Enhance productivity and compliance with Smart Document Types
In addition to using the File Upload widget, users can now easily drag and drop or click to add a document for Smart Document Types. Using Smart Document Types empowers users to streamline work by automating content storage, metadata usage, and follow-up processes.

Tighter integration and usability between Microsoft Office 365 and Extended ECM

• Users will be auto notified, via push notifications to Microsoft Teams, of important items relevant to their role.
• Users can strengthen the archiving process with the option to delete a Team upon retirement to ensure there are no other copies except the archived copy.
• An enhanced Outlook web add-in for Extended ECM will support email filling to any permissible folder
• Users have the option to create Teams channels as private or shared for sync mapping

Additional innovations to help you master modern work

• Business administrators at organizations that have implemented OpenText™ Content Aviator can now enable Aviator by workspace type, reducing manual efforts when enabling a large number of workspaces.
• Extended ECM mobile app users now have the added convenience of being able to create Business Workspaces from within the app.
• A new feature for end users who want to work with metadata for reporting enables them to export search results directly from Smart View into CSV or JSON formats, maintaining their selected columns. Permissions and security clearance levels are also maintained within the export results.

January 2024: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 24.1

The Extended ECM CE 24.1 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work. 

Content Aviator surfaces your most important information in Extended ECM

With the introduction of OpenText™ Content Aviator, users can leverage the power of generative AI and large language models (LLM) for conversational searches that help them find what they need – faster.

Content Aviator provides generative AI content management and acts as an intelligent assistant that users can ask conversational questions, receiving answers that distill large volumes of Extended ECM content into comprehensible summaries, based on a user’s permissions. Once a question is answered, users can choose to ask follow-up questions or start new searches from scratch. Users can even ask Content Aviator to summarize a Business Workspace with the click of a button.

For more information about Content Aviator, read our recent blog post, “Transform user productivity with an AI-powered intelligent assistant.”

Streamline processes with easy-to-use document-centric automation

Administrators can easily configure what happens with uploaded documents using bots to configure Smart Document Types—without the need for complex coding. Smart Document Types help store content correctly, ensure the appropriate metadata is included and can trigger follow-up processes.

With the new flexible, scalable functionality, administrators use simple bots to quickly configure conditions based on categories, attributes, operators and values. Multiple parameter blocks can be applied for more complex scenarios.

Personalize your user experience with options to show, hide and reorder columns

Extended ECM empowers end users with the ability to personalize and improve their experience by choosing how to display columns for their individual work preferences.

By simply opening the Column Settings panel, users can choose to select or deselect checkboxes for each column. They can also drag and drop to reorder columns. This view is available throughout the product and for every user—and the customized settings are “remembered” for both browse views and search results views—so the same column order is shown each time a user logs in.

Maximize database storage with improved viewing cache management

Admins can perform new cache operations to optimize available database storage and improve re-processing and troubleshooting of content—choosing to either clear the viewing cache on demand or setting a timeline to automatically clear the cache of anything that has been viewed.

Easily navigate to Business Workspaces from SAP

Two new features empower users with the ability to easily work with Business Workspaces in SAP S/4HANA:

• By selecting a line item (such as purchase contract, sales contract, task list, etc.), users can click through to an associated Business Workspace.  
• Admins can now easily configure a Business Workspace in an SAP Fiori app with key user adaptation—without the need for complex coding.

Improve efficiencies between Microsoft Teams and Extended ECM

There are two new ways to boost productivity between Extended ECM and Microsoft Teams:

• Administrators can choose a configured Microsoft Teams Template whenusing the Extended ECM Microsoft Teams job scheduler to automatically create Teams for Business Workspaces. This provides more flexibility and the ability to create and use Teams templates that meet the demands of their organizations.
• Using the Teams app, end users have an option to choose a Microsoft Teams Template when simultaneously creating a Team and a Business Workspace.

Stay apprised on system health

A new System Health test framework allows Administrators to quickly test various aspects of Extended ECM, including: Document Management, OpenText Directory Service, Search, and System. The new testing capabilities will help provide Administrators with a more complete picture of system health over time.

November 2023: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 23.4 

The Extended ECM CE 23.4 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work.  

Simplify complex procurement operations with the Procurement Business Scenario 

Business Scenarios are turnkey, pre-deployed line-of-business solutions that can be “turned on” at no additional cost. 

Manage content related to your procurement processes in Business Workspaces, with the ability to work as a standalone solution (supported by workflows) or driven by processes in SAP S/4HANA. The Procurement Business Scenario makes it easier to: 

• Create a purchase requisition from any user’s landing page 
• Manage all procurement information from purchase requisition to purchase order 
• Keep track of procurement updates on an at-a-glance dashboard 
• View contract consumption on the workspace 

This Business Scenario is designed to work independently supported by workflows or with SAP S/4HANA for more complex processes, including approval workflows. (A new Extended ECM Business Scenarios User Guide is also available for customers (login required) for information about the general structure of Business Scenarios, which Scenarios are available and how to deploy them.) 

To keep projects moving, delegate a proxy to cover for a specific user 

Extended ECM users can assign a proxy who can act as though they are that user—for coverage during vacations and other situations that arise. Delegate a proxy indefinitely or for a specific start and end time window, allowing for advanced scheduling if an absence is planned. For additional clarity, the assigning user is alerted in the Notification Center every time the proxy user is working as them and a visual banner is displayed for the proxy user noting that they are “working as” the other person. Administrators also have the ability to set and change proxies on behalf of other users.   

Quickly address Intelligent Viewing needs  

Release CE 23.4 featured several new Intelligent Viewing features: 

• Support the secure viewing of content with Azure Information Protection (AIP) – “View Only” functionality allows AIP content to be viewed but not published, printed or annotated and restricts further processing with manual or automatic conversion features.  

• Support for work with Apache OpenOffice Formats – Viewing, annotation, redaction, publishing, and transformation are now supported when working with OpenOffice formats including ODT (text documents), ODS (spreadsheet), and ODP (presentation programs) file formats.  

A better, more personalized way to work with columns 

Release CE 23.4 provides more ways to personalize a user’s view that is maintained whenever the user logs in from the same laptop and browser: 

• Browse view – Users can now manually resize columns and scroll horizontally when more columns are available. The manual settings persist for the user’s future work for a personalized browse view experience.  
• Search view – A new gear icon allows users to switch between views that include tabular search, standard search, and a brand new pinned columns search. With pinned columns, users can set or “pin” a column in place with horizontal scrolling enabled for the remaining columns.   

New notifications to keep users informed 

Release CE 23.4 featured several new notifications for content sharing:   

• Share approval – Share coordinators or share administrators who want more control over the content that gets shared with Core Share or Microsoft Teams can now opt-in to receive notifications for shares that require their approval. When an employee tries to add a document to a shared folder, the Notification Center will provide an alert that approval is needed for a document that has been added to a shared folder.  
• Share Error and Share Expiry – Share coordinators and share administrators can opt-in to be alerted in the Notification Center (vs. via email) for shares with errors or shares that are set to expire in a pre-specified number of days. 

August 2023: What’s new in OpentText Extended ECM CE 23.3

The Extended ECM 23.3 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work. 

Streamline document availability with Reservation Management 

Extended ECM SmartView users who have gone to edit a document, only to discover that someone else has it reserved, will appreciate the new Reservation Management feature. 

Collaborators can now choose to “request a reservation” on documents that are currently in use, reducing the need to leave the platform to send an email or instant message to notify team members they are waiting. This will help minimize downtime and remove bottlenecks by (1) communicating that a user is waiting for a document and (2) letting that user know when the document is available for them to reserve. This allows users to focus on other projects while waiting for their notifications, and it will be particularly useful for highly collaborative teams that are working with many files—particularly those that aren’t supported by Microsoft Office online or other co-authoring tools. 

Automate transformation with a Workflow Module step 

A new Workflow Module step for transformation enhances content review and collaboration. Easily convert content to highly accessible PDF/TIFF formats as an Extended ECM workflow step that includes the option to apply annotations, redactions, banners and watermarks before publishing as a new document version or rendition. 

Provide clearer at-a-glance information for more productive collaboration 

To provide a better user experience for anyone who collaborates through email and Teams, enhanced copy URLs will provide more information at a glance—including icons, document names and a direct download link—so collaborators better understand where a link will lead them before they click on it.    

Easily add charts to WebReports using no-code templates 

Two new WebReport Smart Style templates featuring charts are now available. Without the need for coding, users can now either (1) display a clickable Visual Count Chart or (2) create a report featuring the chart along with a browsable list of the items below, which can be customized with actions such as copying items, viewing properties or copying links.  

Columns, categories and attributes can also be easily added without taking up developing time. In addition to the new reports, other Smart Style reports include Simplified Browse, Simplified Metadata and Simplified Table and Visual Count Chart. 

June 2023: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 23.2

The Extended ECM CE 23.2 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work. 

Amplify OpenText Extended ECM (or OpenText Documentum) with AI-powered insights 

OpenText IDOL, a market-leading knowledge discovery and analytics platform, can now be combined with Extended ECM or Documentum to uncover the rich knowledge and connections hidden in your content. Adding IDOL, which supports over 1,000 data formats, enables users to surface key insights stored deep within unstructured data (within repositories such as Extended ECM, Documentum, Microsoft^® Teams or SharePoint and other file shares).  For more information, read the blog post: “Work smarter with content insights.”  

Stay on brand and under budget 

New streamlined branding functionality reduces both the need and extra cost of custom development to align with your organization’s preferred branding. Business administrators can now add a brand logo, background color theme, breadcrumb font color and/or icon color theme directly from within Extended ECM Smart View. The intuitive WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor means changes are previewed before you hit save and can be made with just a few quick clicks. The new branding is implemented within seconds—and admins can revert to the original default settings just as quickly and easily. 

Quickly address transformation needs 

Release CE 23.2 featured several new Intelligent Viewing features: 

• Improved efficiency of content transformation – Automatically convert content within a Business Workspace. This container-level conversion can be configured so content that is added is automatically converted from the current format to the universally used PDF/TIFF formats and published to a targeted directory. Additional options include applying banners or watermarks and/or deleting source documents once a conversion task is completed. New functionality is also now available at the folder level: Automatic conversion can be triggered when a new version of a document is added to a configured folder—particularly useful for document revisions or updated drafts of engineering drawings. 
• Create rendition objects – Create Extended ECM renditions as an output option via automatic conversion, manual transformation and publishing from within the Viewer. The content converted as a rendition maintains a relationship link to the source document version they are created from.  
• Work more effectively with compound documents – The Compound Document object type is now supported for initiating an at-a-glance multi-file view, automatic conversions and secure banners and watermarks.  

Do more with your SAP Integration 

The CE 23.2 release featured key enhancements for authentication and productivity within SAP integrations: 

• Support for SAP IAS/IPS for authentication purposes – For customers that use multiple SAP solutions, Extended ECM supports SuccessFactors tenants that have SAP Identity Authentication Service (IAS) or Identity Provisioning Service (IPS) enabled for authentication and provisioning.  
• Review file completeness at a glance – In addition to monitoring single workspaces, managers and HR administrators are now able to save time by quickly seeing if documentation is missing or outdated over several workspaces—such as across teams or even an entire organization. A new widget enables users to jump into a view of an aggregated document completeness report with the ability to choose whether to display 30, 50 or 100 items per page. For a more precise view, use filters by document type, country of work, document status and workspace status. The report updates immediately, based on the options you select. 

Improve information governance with retention schedules 

Users can better manage the lifecycle of their records. The Record Series Identifier (RSI) retention schedule, which defines the stages of a record and the conditions that move the record to the next stage in its lifecycle, is now available in Smart View.  Capabilities include adding stages, editing stages, deleting stages, and approving and viewing approval history. 

Additional features for operational efficiency 

• Enterprise Connect users can now press a handy “Copy Link” button in the “My Working Document List” to copy the link to the Smart View of a document in the Office Editor cache with ease. 
• The Intelligent Filing Analysis Tool, used for the creation of analysis and runtime profiles for Intelligent Filing functionality, can now be accessed in the OpenText Cloud—with no more need to download it locally. 
• Controlled viewing and printing and electronic signatures are now fully cloud-ready for quick configuration by Business Administrators. 

Accelerate the enterprise content journey with agile and scalable tiered plans 

Whether your goals are to boost team productivity, build cross-functional excellence or bridge across boundaries, the new Extended ECM X-Plans have a cloud or license plans to suit your needs. The plans were built to fast-track deployment and accelerate time-to-value at every phase of your modernization journey—all with the scalability to grow as your business grows. 

November 2022: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 22.4

The Extended ECM CE 22.4 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work.

Simplify complex real-estate operations with the Real Estate Management Business Scenario

Originally released in CE 21.4, Business Scenarios are turnkey, pre-deployed line-of-business solutions that can be “turned on” at no additional cost. The Real Estate Management Business Scenario allows users to:

• Securely manage all the essential property information such as tenancy agreements, mortgage documents, fire safety plans, surveys, etc. in a centralized repository with proper permissions and user rights
• Quickly create a contract with appropriate terms using existing information on a specific property (rental object)
• Stay up to date with property leases and contracts by reviewing their renewal/termination dates up to 3 months in advance using the Management Dashboard.

This Business Scenario is designed to work independently or with SAP S/4HANA for more complex processes. 

Gain superior business intelligence with interactive charts

Static data visualizations like charts don’t always provide detailed information about the underlying specifics of the data. Users need a full view of the data’s makeup to truly understand the insights. By introducing interactive charts (in Smart View) in CE 22.4 users can get data visualizations that allow them to drill down and interact with data. These data visualizations allow users to:  

• Perform actions such as triggering sub-reports, initiating workflows, and downloading reports without leaving the dashboard.
• Quickly identify which contracts have been signed, terminated, or reviewed by clicking on a graph (see the pie chart figure below) and then build sub-reports on the type of contract signed.

Stay away from distractions with mindful Notification Center Updates

Receiving multiple notifications throughout the day regarding changes in a Business Workspace can be overwhelming. The CE 22.4 release comes with a weekly or daily email digest to alert users of the changes in a Business Workspace. This allows users to stay up to date without the distraction of multiple emails. In addition, the newly designed email template brings the familiar Smart View look and feel to a user’s inbox while allowing them to customize the email with their logos and color scheme.

June 2022: What’s new in OpenText Extended ECM CE 22.2

The Extended ECM CE 22.2 release includes new capabilities designed to help organizations master modern work.

Eliminate data silos and improve collaboration with enhanced sync to Microsoft Teams

Originally introduced in CE 22.1, this release comes with bi-directional editing and versioning of files between Extended ECM Business Workspace and a Microsoft Team, thereby maintaining file integrity and eliminating potential version conflicts. This enhancement allows users to work seamlessly between their system of collaboration, such as Microsoft Teams, and a system of record such as Extended ECM, maintaining a single source of truth. Learn more about the integration.

Stay up to date with the Notification Center updates

Initially introduced in CE 21.3, Notification Center continues to evolve as the collaboration hub in Extended ECM. This release has added e-mail as a delivery channel for all Notification Center updates. This means that users can enable e-mail delivery of messages sent to them through Notification Center, promptly receiving changes to their watched Business Workspaces, Content Syndication operations and more.

Make content administration seamless with the new Content Manager role

To improve content administration the new Content Manager role allows designated user accounts to bypass permissions and enter a mode enabling access to most of the content in the Extended ECM system; thereby allowing them to self-service content administration and completion of tasks such as un-reserving documents or altering permissions without relying on system administrators or, if deployed as a managed cloud service, OpenText Support.

Increased software scalability and availability with Kubernetes Deployment

Extended ECM is now supported on Red Hat OpenShift, providing flexibility for customers to run their Extended ECM solutions in the cloud or on-premises environments, especially for those in heavily regulated industries such as Banking and Financial services.

Improved user experience for the SAP Enterprise Asset Management Business Scenario

CE 22.2 enhances existing features within the SAP Enterprise Asset Management Business Scenario, such as Completeness Check, Metadata Widget with related Business Workspaces, and Team Widget. With the Completeness Check, users can see which documents of a particular document type are missing, such as manuals, technical drawings, work instructions, analysis results, etc. The Metadata Widget provides users with an aggregated view of related Business Workspaces. Finally, the Team Widget enables users to see who is responsible for specific assets or workspaces. Learn more about Extended ECM Business Scenarios. 

Seamless integration of dynamic workflows

Dynamic workflows from OpenText™ AppWorks™ provide a way to forward responsibilities and include additional reviewers after starting a workflow within OpenText™ Extended ECM for Government. This integration gives users the flexibility to adapt the steps and tasks for complex case management-based work, thereby connecting information, knowledge, and people to resolve cases seamlessly. 

Simplified software delivery for easy administration

With CE 22.2, we have consolidated the software delivery and installation of the complete portfolio of Extended ECM products. This simplifies deployment and administration whether your system is on-premises or in the cloud. Consolidated delivery improves efficiency and reduces the risk of error during deployment as administrators no longer need to identify, check compatibility, check availability, and install modules individually. In addition, with a clearer view of all the capabilities offered across the portfolio, it’s easier for organizations to adopt the Extended ECM model to address new business requirements and use cases.

Magellan Risk Guard integration

With its seamless integration to Extended ECM, Magellan Risk Guard together with the new OpenText™ Magellan BI & Reporting integration enables business users to create custom interactive reports without needing assistance from experts in AI, Data Science or analytics. With access to the new reporting capability directly in the Magellan Risk Guard UI, users can report on the types of risky data that are the highest priority for their department or job role.

Looking to upgrade to the latest version? Discover 10 reasons why your organization should act now, and find out how you can accelerate your upgrade by working with our OpenText Professional Services team.

Previous updates

Looking for more information from the previous updates? Check out the following articles:

• CE 21.4
• CE 21.3
• CE 21.2
• CE 21.1
• CE 20.4
• CE 20.2