Gen-i likes look of Livelink

By ADAM GIFFORD

Systems integrator gen-i is considering creating an online project management service using Livelink document management and workflow software from Canadian company Open Text.

Gen-i ventures managing principal Brendan Bain said analysts rate Livelink as one of the best collaborative software products now on the market.

"We are talking with Open Text now about where we can take this. Coming up with models is not hard. What we need is to find a customer opportunity it suits," Mr Bain said.

While Livelink is used in this country as part of global roll-outs in companies like Intel, Siemens and Pfizer, gen-i has made the first New Zealand sale to the Ministry of Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri.

Ministry chief information officer Paul Langholm said while the ministry's first priority was to get a knowledge management system which could handle documents, records, library management and workflow, the collaboration tools were extremely attractive.

"We work on projects with external people and we work more now with other agencies and groupings of agencies, so it seemed a good move," Mr Langholm said.

Its intranet is being redeveloped using myLivelink, a portal interface into the system.

"I had a vision that someone could do a single search on a subject and be able to trawl everything in the records, the electronic system and the library. With Livelink we should be able to do that," Mr Langholm said.

He said Livelink can incorporate external resources, such as the Maori Land Court's electronic archives.

While Mr Langholm would not reveal the cost of the project, at Livelink's cost which starts at $A1000 a seat under 100 users, it is likely to be about $500,000.

Open Text Asia Pacific vice president John Armenakas said Livelink allows organisations to automate their processes, adding efficiency and getting greater productivity.

Despite being less than a decade old, the company has more than 5000 customers worldwide and is rated by International Data Corporation as having 47 per cent of the market for collaboration software.

Likelink supports 144 document formats for rendering.

gen-i

Open Text Corporation