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Process Mapping > Categories > Metastorm news > OpenText Completes Acquisition of Metastorm Inc.
 
 


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Jerome

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 

OpenText Completes Acquisition of BPM Leader Metastorm Inc.

http://classic.cnbc.com/id/41662445

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With Metastorm, OpenText can now address any type of business process, whether the focus is content-centricity or process centricity.OpenText's strategy is to add to existing solutions with new, uniquely powerful case management solutions used in areas such as customer on-boarding or claims processing, where the effective delivery of knowledge and content are a critical part of the overall business process.
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Jerome

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
Well, just listened to the newcast pod. It's all marketing buzzwords (eg 'Synergy' mentioned 27 times) and very little actual content.

Shame ... I was hoping to find out what the dynamics of the two companies was going to be. For example, it it a separate company, and still on its own, or swallowed up? I mean for example, will the product be called Metastorm BPM going forward?

They have stated that they are committed to selling these new products (BPM & BPA) to their existing customers. I'm not sure how many of you could of worked that out for yourselves, however.....
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Rick

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
Speaking as both  an existing Metastorm customer and an existing OpenText customer this is the worst news I have had in a long time.

Metastorm BPM (v7) is among the most reliable, useful and intuitive software I use. Opentext R/KYV is among the least reliable and difficult to manage.

Whenever Opentext obtained R/KYV by purchasing Hummingbird they did little apart from rebrand it and push existing customers to purchase the rest of their ECM suite.

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Jerome

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
OK, but why is that such bad news? If OpenText do nothing to Metastorm BPM, it should carry on as before. As far as I am aware, there will be no changing of the guards in the Metastorm BPM technical team.

Interestingly, history (of the product) is just repeated. Metastorm bought Sysgenics, and e-work. Despite a few efforts to 'take over' the development, and even just the testing, they gave up. They tried to get us to use their own form designer, InForms. They gave that up, and then gave Informs up.

When BEI joined with Metastorm, the same kind of jostle occured. They were a Novell shop, as indeed was Metastorm before buying us. They tried to do all things Novel, and we had a Groupwise client for a while. In the end, they gave up with Novel and Novell products, and e-work ruled once more.

Metatsorm bought a few more companies over the years. None have reached the prominence of the Metastorm BPM product, although ProVision comes close, being such a natural fit. It still seems that BPM rules, and the other products support it. Others may not see it that way, but check out what is happening on Metastorm's forums. 90% of the activity is about Metastorm BPM. And there is no way anyone can make me believe this is because ProVision is so easy to use and so stable that nobody has a problem - I've used it!

So Metatsorm BPM still rules the roost. Despite the much larger client base of OpenText, I have absolutely no hesitation in predicting that it will do the same there.

At least five of the original eight developers of the Metastorm BPM product are still working for Metastorm. The team has grown considerably (and to good effect, it seems, despite the painful bugs we still get). One of the original developers, and designer (and builder) of the first web client way back 1998/9 is now Chief Architect at Metastorm. All this tells me that there is some longevity there.

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Jerome

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Having said that, the nice email from OpenText this morning gives me conflicting messages. The header (see image) tells me that Metastorm is now OpenText. The body of the email tells me 'business as usual'.

Which to believe, eh? I am not asking about what will actually happen, mind you, just what there intentions are.

Attached Images
png MetastornToOpenText.png (45.67 KB, 15 views)


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Carolyn

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
I'm hearing rumours that Autonomy have been looking to take over OpenText for the last 6 months too, I wonder whether the Metastorm buyout will affect that too. Hmmm. Content management, document management, workflow and enterprise search. Sounds like Sharepoint to me.

If anything, Autonomy are even worse at product testing and customer service than Metastorm, and that's saying something. My maximum bug with Metastorm only goes back 7 weeks, but another developer has one with Autonomy for 4 months now and nothing works at all. Wish these companies would focus on getting their products to work rather than taking each other over.
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