Office Business Applications (OBA) is really starting to take off. OBA is yet another example of how Office 2007 and more specifically 2007 Microsoft Office System differs from other solutions, beit Office Suites or Collaboration platforms with editors.
… Open Text has taken the wraps off a new Microsoft Office-based application that helps companies access and manage customer information directly from familiar desktop tools.
Built as one of the first commercially available Office Business Applications, or OBA, the new software effectively blends parts of Open Text’s Livelink enterprise content management and collaboration platform with Office to allow users to manage documents stored in ERP systems, Microsoft’s SharePoint Server 2007 and other content stores from familiar Office desktop tools like Word. Open Text, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, is branding the integrated software as Customer Information Management (CIM).
One early adopter is stainless steel manufacturer ThyssenKrupp, which is using the software to streamline its email ordering process. Its CIM system works with Office’s Outlook to list shipping, contracts and purchase order documents from various sources including SAP, and present them in an Outlook Inbox. …
Source: CBROnline.com
OpenText issued a Press Release eralier this week :
… Open Text Announces Office Business Application for Customer Information Management
Lets Users Access and Manage Documents from ERP Systems Using Microsoft Office Solution Leverages Open Text’s Strategic Relationships, Proven Integration Experience with Solutions from Microsoft and SAP
– 2007-07-11 – Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007, Denver – Open Text™ Corp. (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC), the largest independent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software and solutions, today announced an Office Business Application (OBA) for accessing and managing customer information. One of the first OBAs built upon the 2007 Microsoft Office system to be commercially available, Open Text’s Livelink ECM — Customer Information Management (CIM) gives users of Microsoft Office applications a complete view of all the information associated with customers, whether that information lives in SAP® application-based systems, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, or other content repositories.
Open Text’s solution is being used by ThyssenKrupp Nirosta, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of stainless steel, to streamline email-based order processing and handling of general customer inquiries. Livelink ECM – Customer Information Management extends the functionality of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 by listing all documents including shipping details, contracts, or purchase orders for raw materials found after checking keywords in incoming emails. The documents and data may come from several different sources, including SAP applications and production planning systems, and when displayed in Office Outlook, enables users to more promptly and efficiently respond to customers.
“Open Text products and solutions help us manage all business-critical documents in the context of our customer-related processes,” said Klemens Bransmöller, CIO of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. “Livelink ECM – Customer Information Management extends the integration of SAP solution-managed processes into the Microsoft Office environment by adding document-centric information. The combination of technologies from SAP, Microsoft and Open Text in use at ThyssenKrupp provides our employees with simplified, automated, event-driven (internal and external) access to all process-centric (structured) and document-centric (unstructured) customer information through the standardized and familiar Microsoft Office interface. We expect that this optimized interaction between solutions from SAP, Microsoft and Open Text will further reduce our customer-centric transaction and process costs.”. …
Source : OpenText.com
