ArvinMeritor Selects Open Text's Livelink For New Product Development And APQP Standard

Business Wire, Feb 4, 2003

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2003

Eliminates Barriers Across Multiple Continents,

Improving Project Efficiency

Open Text(TM) Corporation (Nasdaq:OTEX) (TSX:OTC), provider of Livelink(R), the leading collaboration and knowledge management software for the global enterprise, today announced ArvinMeritor is using Livelink to streamline its new corporate-wide product development process-a process driven by the automotive industry's Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) standard.

A global provider of integrated automotive systems, modules and components for the motor vehicle industry, ArvinMeritor selected Livelink to manage knowledge more efficiently and facilitate project collaboration between thousands of people at more than 100 locations in their company around the world.

"Prior to implementing Livelink, ArvinMeritor used a combination of disparate methods to manage project information. Because the methods weren't Web-based, there were silos of information across the company and significant duplication of resources," said Charlie Hopson, Vice President, Light Vehicle Systems Apertures Engineering, ArvinMeritor. "Livelink's Web-based architecture reduces implementation time, maintenance issues and provides a central server that enables metrics to be obtained across all projects and businesses."

With more than 400 active projects, ArvinMeritor uses Livelink to deliver dashboard views of critical project data and metrics, providing better visibility of projects across the organization. Real-time, Web-based access to project data reduces the need for delivering regular updates to upper-level executives, while enhancing their decision-making capabilities.

Livelink supports ArvinMeritor's compliance with quality process standards, including ISO and APQP, a standard industry process for new product development that helps ensure certain quality and consistency in the design, development and manufacture of products to be used in producing motor vehicles. With Livelink as the foundation for its solution, ArvinMeritor has been able to ensure:

-- effective communications with all team members involved in the implementation scheme

-- timely completion of required goals

-- minimized risks related to quality throughout their product development, launch and warranty processes

-- enhanced customer confidence

-- retention of corporate knowledge and best practices

-- reduced product times-to-market

"In the automotive industry, where new product development times can range in the years, quality processes are essential to a company's success and competitiveness," said Mike Farrell, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Open Text. "For ArvinMeritor, Livelink consistently delivers the functionality that is key to minimizing risk and shortening time-to-market while improving quality and lowering overall costs."

About ArvinMeritor

ArvinMeritor, Inc. is a premier $7-billion global supplier of a broad range of integrated systems, modules and components to the motor vehicle industry. The company serves light vehicle, commercial truck, trailer and specialty original equipment manufacturers and related aftermarkets. In addition, ArvinMeritor is a leader in coil coating applications. The company is headquartered in Troy, Mich., and employs 32,000 people at more than 150 manufacturing facilities in 27 countries. ArvinMeritor common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ARM. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.arvinmeritor.com.

About Livelink

Livelink is the leader in collaboration and knowledge management for the global enterprise. Its richly-featured enterprise services include virtual team collaboration, business process automation, enterprise group scheduling and information retrieval services, all tightly integrated into a solution that is easily customized and extended. Livelink is essential to the effective management and development of communities of interest that span organizations and industries. For everything from the creation of complex e-community relationships to the automation of simple e-business processes, Livelink delivers true dynamic collaboration between individuals, organizations and large trading communities. Livelink servers are fully Web-based and open-architected to ensure rapid deployment and easy access to its full functionality through a standard Web browser. For more information, visit www.opentext.com/livelink/

About Open Text

Since 1991, Open Text Corporation has delivered innovative software that brings people together to share knowledge, achieve excellence, deliver innovation, and enhance processes. Its legacy of innovation began with the successful deployment of the world's first search engine technology for the Internet. Today, as the leading global supplier of collaboration and knowledge management software for the enterprise, Open Text supports six million seats across 4,500 corporations in 31 countries and 12 languages throughout the world. As a publicly traded company, Open Text manages and maximizes its resources and relationships to ensure the success of great minds working together. For more information, visit www.opentext.com