SUCCESS STORY
Department forInternational Development
Industry• Public SectorSolutions• OpenText™ Content Suite Platform• OpenText™ Remote Cache• OpenText™ Enterprise ConnectResults
Improved user adoption
and compliance
Reduced document retrieval
from minutes to seconds forincreased efficiency
Eliminated data loss causedwith content stored on laptops
Improved performance for remotelocations, making it comparablewith main office locations

DFID increases global staff
productivity with greater collaborationand knowledge sharing
Department for International Development (DFID) improved user adoption
and compliance with OpenText™ Content Suite and OpenText™ Remote Cache“OpenText Content Suite is nowa key part of our enterprise
information management
strategy. The OpenText solution
is mature, a market leader andprovides us with the performanceand stability we require.”
Richard Franklin

Head of Knowledge and Information
Management and Departmental Records Officer
Department for International Development

DFID increases global staff productivity with greater collaboration and knowledge sharing

Established in 1997, the Department for International Development(DFID) is a UK government department that leads the UK’s work toend extreme poverty. Working across Africa, Asia and the Middle
East, DFID tackles global challenges to build a safer, healthier, more
prosperous world for people in developing countries and in the UK.
In 2005, DFID implemented an Electronic Document and Records
Management (EDRM) solution; however by 2013, the solution was
no longer meeting the needs of the organization. Many users began
working outside of the corporate EDRM solution, as a result of being
frustrated by performance and usability issues, relying on local
hard drives that created potential security risks, impeded effective
collaboration, and impacted knowledge sharing.
“Our business needs had evolved and were beyond the existingsolution,” said Anne Fraser, principal knowledge coordinator andhead of Profession for Knowledge and Information Management atDFID. “We looked at what others in government were doing toaddress their challenges and having evaluated the market, weselected OpenText Content Suite.”
Since implementing the new solution, around nine million documents
have been captured and categorized according to the policies ofDFID. Among the key challenges DFID was looking to address wasproviding the same system performance for remote users andthose at global locations with low bandwidth. OpenText Remote
Cache Server was successful and users are reporting significant
performance improvements with the new solution.

Fraser continued, “Moving away from an on-premise solution, to a
managed cloud solution from OpenText, has reduced our internal
support overheads and given us a truly scalable solution.”
Richard Franklin, head of Knowledge and Information Managementand Departmental Records Officer at DFID added, “To engage
users and ensure high rates of user adoption, the solution had tohave an intuitive, easy to use interface. Content Suite certainly
provides this and is now a key part of our enterprise informationmanagement strategy. The OpenText solution is mature, a market
leader and provides us with the performance and stability werequire. The integration with Microsoft Office, including Microsoft
Outlook , and the desktop is seamless,with many users not even requiring any training for the solution.”®

®

®

The improved performance has been just one of many benefits that
DFID has realized. The OpenText solution helps the organization
meet its transparency agenda, allowing easy external publication
using web services. And, by opting for a cloud based solution withno customization needed to the core system, support and futureupgrades are easier.
From the outset of the project, DFID engaged its users to ensure theirvoices were heard. Working with partner organizations Leidos andAiimi, the DFID project team created an effective consortium with all
the necessary knowledge and skills to take complex requirements
and deliver a successful project.

“Moving away from an
on-premises solution
to a managed cloudsolution from OpenText,
has reduced our internal
support overheads andreduced the overall costof ownership.”Anne Fraser

Principal Knowledge Coordinatorand Head of Profession for Knowledge
and Information ManagementDepartment for International Development

DFID increases global staff productivity with greater collaboration and knowledge sharing“We engaged everyone from day one and had the backing of senior
management, who approved the business case to implement
Content Suite. We adopted an agile project methodology, working
closely with Leidos, who provided infrastructure expertiseand Aiimi, an OpenText partner, who helped us migrate andimplement the new solution. Together with OpenText, thisconsortium approach was central to our success,” said Franklin.
“A comprehensive change management program contributed too,and when we reached the user acceptance testing (UAT) stage, wewere oversubscribed with users wishing to take part.”
The improved performance has been just one of many benefits thatDFID has realized. The solution also allows easy external publication andknowledge share, using web services. With safe and secure storage,
users can access and share content, allowing them to more effectively
collaborate and work offline or at home by downloading content to theirlaptops. Once they are connected to the network again, any updates
are automatically synchronized. Additionally, users have the option ofworking in their familiar environments such as Outlook or Windows
Explorer and using OpenText™ Enterprise Connect, which integrates
directly with Microsoft Office desktop tools.
®

“With the old ways of working, it could take a long time to retrieve a
document, now it is just seconds. Across 3,900 staff, that’s a hugeefficiency gain. Users now have control within the context of ourcorporate policies, no longer lose information and are saving a lotof time,” explained Franklin.
Content Suite’s extensive records management functionality also
addresses key areas of compliance, including servicing Freedomof Information requests, current Data Protection legislation and boththe Public Records Act and the upcoming General Data ProtectionRegulation (GDPR).
In order to create a single, cohesive information ecosystem, DFID
is looking at using OpenText to ensure overarching information
management using additional capabilities and integrations with
Microsoft Office 365 and the OpenText Extended ECM Platform.
®

“OpenText has brought back confidence for our users that theirinformation is safe and secure,” concluded Franklin.

About OpenText
OpenText, The Information Company,
enables organizations to gain insight
through market leading information
management solutions, on-premises orin the cloud. For more information about
OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX)
visit opentext.com.
Customer stories
opentext.com/contact
Twitter | LinkedIn
Copyright © 2021 Open Text. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks owned by Open Text.
For more information, visit: https://www.opentext.com/about/copyright-information
04.21 | 09233