Barrenechea, commenting on OpenText’s ongoing transition from an on-prem company to a cloud one, joked that being reborn in the cloud is better than being born in the cloud.
OpenText CEO and CTO Mark Barrenechea (L) and Chief Product Officer Muhi Majzoub (R) onstage in the OpenText opening keynote
LAS VEGAS – On Tuesday, at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Canadian information software management giant OpenText kicked off the first live incarnation of their OpenText World customer event in three years. The company were joined by 1200 people in the room, including 300 partners, and a further 10,000 online. The intent was clear – to catch up on the three years since everyone had been apart, and to make clear the framework of the company’s strategic vision.
“We are calling this ‘The Great Reunion,” Mark Barrenechea, OpenText’s CEO and CTO, announced in his opening keynote. “We are catching up on the last three years, and indicating our bold future going forward.”
During the last three years, Barrenechea told his audience that OpenText had scaled to become a $3.5 billion company.
“Cloud is now $1.5 billion of that, and is our largest single source of revenue,” he said. “We are also investing a half billion a year in R&D.”
Barrenechea also noted that OpenText continues to improve their engineering methodology.
“In the last three years, we have gone from a year to every 90 days for a full release,” he said. “We think our ability to position against companies like SPS, Kofax and Box is very good because of this speed.”
“We have market leadership in each of our clouds,” Barrenechea added. “This includes off-cloud, which we use rather than on prem, our new API cloud, our private cloud and our public cloud. Titanium will bring our public cloud up to parity with all of the other clouds.”
Barrenechea also noted that the company now has over 100,000 customers, is tripling down with Microsoft and their SMB teams, and has expanded their partnership with Google.
The strategic direction of all this is what OpenText is calling Business 2030. Barrenechea outlined what they consider its core principles, including an information store at its centre.
“Every industry will be digitally transformed, and Generations Y and Z will dominate the workforce and its expectations,” he said. “Even 90 day releases will be antiquated by 2030, and people will expect an instant experience.” New rules will include an emphasis on climate Innovation and the Green Ledger, as well as social justice. Open Text also believes that by 2030, all software companies and all information companies by 2030
“This is why we announced our intent to acquire MicroFocus,” Barrenechea said. “ We think that bringing together their ability to build and operate managed infrastructures will make use stronger.”
Barrenechea emphasized that the key will be to prepare for 2030 so that you don’t get surprised.
“To avoid that surprise, you will need to build and own your own digital capabilities, centralize the complexity [edge, internet, and cloud] while moving to the cloud, and creating and centralizing an intelligent information core.”
Barrenechea also announced updates to their Project Titanium, which he said remains on target for two quarters away, with the 23.2 release.
“Titanium includes all our Business Clouds and our Developer Cloud, to provide modern cloud architecture with off of our business clouds at functional parity,” he said. This will facilitate full integrated information management in the cloud.
“We came from Cloud Editions, and are going to Titanium, which is our track to prepare for Business 2030,” Barrenchea commented. “We want you to upgrade to our cloud editions for the 90 day releases, so that you never need to upgrade again.”
Barrenechea emphasized that Titanium will be a key asset against born in the cloud competitors like SPS, Box and Datto.
“Titanium is the next step for us against companies born in the cloud,” he said. “We think being reborn in the cloud is better than being born in the cloud.”
Barrenechea said that this evolution is being driven by four forces.
“One is the rate of automation, from software, robotics and machines,” he stated. “That’s why we are coming out with our API platform and bringing machine standards into information management.”
Second is the increase in computing power.
“It continues to double every 10 months,” Barrenechea noted. “That’s why we are focused on partners with big API capabilities.”
Third is the growing power of the network.
“We can now take a trillion API calls to our Developer API cloud,” he said.
The fourth factor, and the newest, is the growth of data sets and information data sets.
“This is newer, but obviously emerging,” Barrenechea said.
He also indicated that Magellan, OpenText’s AI and analytics platform, is now integrated into Cloud Editions, to support the next generation of AI tools.
“This is really important,” he stressed. “Our API strategy lets us talk with open API, image analyzers and a lot more. Expect more of these great integrations and that’s why the platform is open.”
Finally, Barrenechea indicated OpenText’s commitment to a different type of customer success model.
“We think the LAER [Land, Adopt, Expand and Renew] model is old and dead,” he said. “It’s sales focused and is not what customers today want. So we are throwing it away. It’s replacement will be Land Together [with the customer], Operate, Value and Expand – LOVE.”
“It has been backward for a long time,” said Paul Duggan, Executive VP of Worldwide Renewals at OpenText. “Customers choose a technology vendor based on outcomes, and that should define customer success. “This new model puts customer outcomes at the centre of everything we do.”
