May 18
Amazing but true, it is 20 years since R/KYV was first sketched out by Bill Cannings and Phil Lee in a small office overlooking a roundabout in Gants Hill.
To celebrate, we are sending birthday cakes out to current R/KYV users. If you haven’t got one, and would like one, just drop us a line and let us know
May 8
For almost every product, somewhere on the Web you will find a wealth of information at your fingertips. If you have support issues, usually someone will be able to help you out. Maybe you are evaluating one product against another and need some assistance. You might just want a moan (let’s face it, you rarely see people praising software vendors in a public forum!)
Well, just try this Google search, and see how much help and support there is available: Nothing…
We thought the time had come to address that problem, and so R/KYV User was born.
Who is the “we”? Well, we’re all ex-Valid, and have a wealth of experience in R/KYV, records and document management. In fact, on average, the team has 14 years of R/KYV experience each. Which for a product that is 20 years old isn’t too bad! You’ll see references to us around the site (we’re known as Obsilon), and we’re committed to helping R/KYV users get the best out of their installations.
When it was acquired by Hummingbird, R/KYV was undoubtedly the best document and records management system available on the market for local and central government, and it has been adopted across a wide range of councils and central government departments. Even today, it stands the test of time, and so our aim is to help R/KYV users protect their investment through a mixture of practical help, support and new product offerings to bring out the best of R/KYV.
This site has a forum that we really encourage people to use. We want people to be able to share their R/KYV knowledge and experience with each other, and so we are looking to foster a spirit of community across the R/KYV user base. Obviously, we will be regular participants in the discussions, and will add as much value as we are able.
All the best
Nigel Cannings
Open Text has announced its desire to acquire Vignette, a company with a surprisingly large overlap of technologies.
Vignette operates out of Austin, Texas, and has been consistently unprofitable, reporting a $1.8 million loss, on revenue of $33.9 million in the first quarter of this year. Open Text is proposing to acquire the company for approximately $310 million.
Undoubtedly, this will lead to a large number of layoffs in the “non-core” functions, such as HR, finance and legal, in a drive to reduce costs in the business, and looking at the G&A figure of $4.5 million, there’s certainly the opportunity for some restructuring. (see financials here)
Ultimately, though, there has to be a question mark as to how the companies will fit together. Open Text is still digesting Hummingbird, and they were geographically proximate. Vignette is a large independent company with a strong culture. Not an easy lump to swallow.
It may well be that for the time being, Open Text is happy to strip out as much cost as it can, and use the Vignette brand to boost its top line revenue. Given that the majority of Vignette’s income is services based (about 80%), and Open Text’s skews more towards the licence revenue so love by the markets, you have to question how good a buy this really is.
For customers, though, there’s probably very little good or bad news out of this acquisition for the foreseeable future.