On the back of confirmation that Open Text’s bid to acquire Hummingbird has got the green light, TechTonics has entered into an agreement to represent Open Text in New Zealand. The deal puts TechTonics, which represents Hummingbird, into a strong position in the document and enterprise content management market.
The acquisition of Hummingbird by its Canadian rival is an all-cash transaction worth around $US489 million. Hummingbird’s board has recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the transaction.
TechTonics is probably the largest and longest-established information management integrator in New Zealand with more than 30 sites, according to the company’s managing director, Ross Bidmead.
“While growth in new clients has been steady, our real strength has been in the steady support and on-going development of solutions for existing customers,” he says. “Open Text’s commitment to on-going support for Hummingbird is therefore very important to us. TechTonics will also be the core of Open Text’s sales and service in New Zealand, which is a tremendous opportunity for us.”
The Open Text purchase of Hummingbird is indicative of consolidation in the market, following IBM’s recent purchase of Filenet.
Bidmead says the relationship with Open Text will not be exclusive but that the vendor is not putting work into developing any other partner. “We’ve recently recruited an Open Text specialist, a Kiwi returning from Scotland.”
SAP customers will be targeted by TechTonic, Bidmead says, because it’s an area in which OpenText is strong.
Where the product differs markedly from Hummingbird is in its ability to support Open Office, Java and Unix, which Hummingbird doesn’t.
“We don’t envisage any need to migrate Hummingbird customers,” Bidmead says.
The document management market in New Zealand is worth perhaps $20 million annually but in the broader context of enterprise content management more like $100 million.