OpenText Announces Ambitions ESG Targets and Programs for The Next Several Decades

On the 13th of September, OpenText announced the launch of the OpenText Zero-In Initiative, the company’s guiding framework to achieving global impact goals related to its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments and programs. Affirming the OpenText promise of harnessing the power of technology for the greater good, the OpenText Zero-In Initiative is focused on specific, measurable goals that will leverage data to enable the organization to help move the dial on critical global challenges.

“At OpenText, we believe the future of growth is both sustainable and inclusive,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText CEO and CTO. “The OpenText Zero-In Initiative defines our long-term aspirations and outlines our tangible plans and programs to achieving our bold aspirations. OpenText is in a unique position to enable our customers to be climate innovators through digital transformation, as well as by leading by example. And we intend to do just that.”

Hitachi Vantara Opens Application Reliability Center in Dallas

On the 12th of September, Hitachi Vantara announced the opening of the Hitachi Application Reliability Center (HARC) in Dallas. Hitachi Vantara’s first physical cloud and engineering center of excellence in North America is designed to help clients modernize their IT operations with an agile, engineering-led approach. The global HARC program is expected to add more than 600 jobs worldwide, including 120 to Dallas by 2025.

"A key promise of the cloud is the agility to seamlessly deploy new software, experiences and revenue streams. With HARC, we’re helping our clients move to the cloud strategically by designing for reliability and optimizing for costs. By looking at cloud through the lenses of product engineering, reliability, automation, DevOps, FinOps, and security, we’re able to pull the right lever for each organization to not only move to, but thrive on the cloud," Premkumar Balasubramanian, Senior Vice President and CTO of Digital Solutions Business at Hitachi Vantara.

Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral Helps to Achieve Record Staff Retention Levels

On the 12th of September, Avaya shared a case of Avaya Cloud Office client - Brisbane-based McCarthy Durie Lawyers (MDL). MDL has reported significant year-on-year staff and customer retention levels following its rollout of Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral. With access to Avaya (NYSE: AVYA) technology, the organisation has also safeguarded itself against potential compliance and security issues and laid the groundwork for richer access to local legal services in regional Queensland.

“Our team is known for being contactable and able to quickly resolve our clients’ issues, which is critical when it comes to time-sensitive legal settlements,” he said. “However, in 2020 the patchwork of communication systems we had in place was proving unreliable, and we lost around one day per month to the phone system being down. Our team would revert to unsophisticated workarounds, but ultimately a lot of calls died or didn’t go anywhere, meaning we lost clients.”

The need to remedy service availability, along with enabling hybrid work arrangements in a way that balanced staff productivity and wellbeing, was MDL’s catalyst for change. MDL rolled out the cloud-based Avaya Cloud Office platform, giving staff access to ‘office in a pocket’ capabilities, so they can call, message, meet and video conference within one environment and across physical locations. McCarthy said staff productivity has now improved significantly, reversing negative customer sentiment.

OpenText to Acquire Micro Focus International plc

On the 25th of August, OpenText announced that it has reached agreement on the terms of a recommended all-cash offer to be made by Open Text Corporation (the Company), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, OpenText UK Holding Limited (Bidco), to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO) and (NYSE (ADS): MFGP) at a price of 532 pence per share (the Acquisition), implying an enterprise value of approximately $6.0 billion on a fully diluted basis.

“We are pleased to announce our firm intention to acquire Micro Focus, and I look forward to welcoming Micro Focus customers, partners and employees to OpenText,” said OpenText CEO & CTO Mark J. Barrenechea. “Upon completion of the acquisition, OpenText will be one of the world’s largest software and cloud businesses with a tremendous marquee customer base, global scale and comprehensive go-to-market. Customers of OpenText and Micro Focus will benefit from a partner that can even more effectively help them accelerate their digital transformation efforts by unlocking the full value of their information assets and core systems.”

Avaya Cloud Office Helped to Ease Global Port Congestion by Enabling Evergreen to Transform its Operating Model

On the 23rd of August, Evergreen Shipping Agency has reported unprecedented employee engagement since its move to remote work, enabled by Avaya technology. The company’s roll-out of the Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral communications and collaboration platform has led to record levels of customer service availability as the shipping industry navigates supply chain disruption and port congestion. Evergreen Shipping Agency is a local container carrier that operates ships and twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) worldwide. When remote work was mandated in 2021, Evergreen sought to transform the way its emloyees engage with work through a reimagined collaboration system - a move Sam Read, Junior Vice President for Evergreen Shipping Agency, said was spurred by a former platform’s limited capabilities.

“Our previous collaboration system was unstable and would often cut out during calls between customers and employees,” said Read. “We needed to ensure customers were getting a superior experience as 90 per cent of our staff transitioned to remote work. The smooth release of cargo depends on effective communication with our documentation and importation departments – as well as high levels of security and compliance on our part.”