From a quiet Canberra office to 1.8 million users worldwide – the remarkable journey of Australia's greatest records management export
If you've spent any time working in government or regulated industries in Australia, chances are you've crossed paths with a piece of software that's had more name changes than a secret agent. Despite this, it has remained fundamentally committed to one mission: keeping your records safe, compliant, and findable.
We're raising a glass to OpenText Content Manager – the platform many of us still affectionately call "TRIM" – as it celebrates an extraordinary 40 years of service. It's a story that begins in Canberra in 1985, weaves through multiple corporate acquisitions, and arrives today as a modern platform serving over 700 organisations and 1.8 million users around the globe.
At WyldLynx, we've been privileged to walk alongside Content Manager and the organisations that have been dependent on it for over 15 years. So, grab a cuppa, settle in, and join us for a trip down memory lane
In a modest Canberra office, Brand Hoff founded TOWER Software with Rory Kleeman heading up research and development. Together they created TRIM: Total Records and Information Management.
In those early days, TRIM was all about tracking physical records – paper files, archive boxes, and their locations. The interface was text-based DOS, and "cutting edge" meant barcode scanning for file movements. But even then, the foundations were being laid for something bigger.
The late 1990s brought a seismic shift. With TRIM Captura (Version 4), TOWER Software made the bold leap into electronic document and records management. For the first time, users could save digital files directly into the system. The move to ODBC-compliant SQL databases meant goodbye to proprietary file structures, and early Microsoft Word integration let users "save to TRIM" from their desktops. The National Archives of Australia adopted Captura in 2000, and the product's reputation as the gold standard for government recordkeeping was cemented.
TRIM Context (Version 5) introduced the three-tier architecture that allowed the platform to scale for enterprise deployments. But perhaps more significantly, it achieved DoD 5015.2 certification: the US Department of Defense standard for records management. This wasn't just a technical achievement; it opened doors globally and positioned TRIM as the benchmark for compliance.
By 2006, TRIM Context 6 had added Unicode support for international deployments, a dedicated Event Server for background processing, and Web Drawer – an early web portal for searching and viewing records. TOWER Software had also played a pivotal role in developing AS 4390, the Australian records management standard that would go on to influence the international ISO 15489 standard.
The numbers told the story: roughly 80% of the Commonwealth Government, a third of the Australian Department of Defence, and – remarkably – the US Department of Defense as the company's largest customer. A quiet Canberra success story had become a genuine international export.
In 2008, Hewlett-Packard acquired TOWER Software for approximately US$105 million, and TRIM began its journey through the corporate technology giants. Under HP's stewardship, the product became HP TRIM, and version 7 arrived in 2010 with what many consider the "killer feature" of its era: SharePoint integration.
The "Manage in Place" capability was revolutionary – organisations could now govern SharePoint documents as records without physically moving them into TRIM. Add 64-bit server support and automated PDF rendering for long-term preservation, and HP TRIM 7 represented a genuine modernisation of the platform.
By 2013, HP Records Manager 8.0 had consolidated code from HP TRIM, Meridio, and Autonomy Records Manager into a single platform. The complete rewrite of the web interface in HTML5 finally moved users beyond the limitations of the "classic" web client, and advanced disposal processing made large-scale records destruction far more manageable.
Following HP's corporate restructure, the software briefly became HPE Content Manager 9 in 2016 – with a fresh ribbon interface, Explorer-style navigation, and a user dashboard – before Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold its software division to Micro Focus in late 2016.
The Micro Focus years brought Content Manager firmly into the Microsoft 365 era. Versions 9.3 and 9.4 introduced ElasticSearch as an alternative indexing engine, simplifying deployments and reducing costs. OneDrive integration allowed offline editing of records, and simplified "check-in styles" made life easier for end-users.
Content Manager 10, released in 2021, was arguably the most significant update in years. The dedicated Microsoft Teams app brought records governance directly into the collaboration platform where people were increasingly doing their work. The web client had neared feature parity with the desktop client, and new mobile apps for iOS and Android meant records management was no longer tied to a desk.
In January 2023, OpenText acquired Micro Focus, and Content Manager found its current home. Now officially OpenText Content Manager, the platform has adopted OpenText's quarterly Cloud Editions release cycle, bringing more frequent updates and enhancements.
Recent releases have focused on practical improvements that make daily work easier: Intelligent Viewing powered by OpenText's Brava technology has transformed how users interact with documents, offering superior redaction and annotation capabilities. Automated redaction using scripts helps organisations protect sensitive information like phone numbers and personally identifiable information. Search results now highlight matching text in yellow within the document viewer. And governance support has extended to Microsoft Teams Private Channels – increasingly important as organisations embrace modern collaboration.
Through four decades, five corporate owners, and countless technological shifts, the heart of Content Manager has remained unchanged: governance. The absolute certainty that when you file a record, you can find it again. The confidence that it's authentic and hasn't been tampered with. The assurance that it will be disposed of properly when the time comes.
That commitment to compliance – from the early DoD 5015.2 certification through to today's ISO 15489 and ISO 16175 adherence – is why Content Manager remains deeply embedded in Australia's public sector and trusted by highly regulated industries worldwide.
Today: 700+ organisations. 1.8 million users. 40 years of trust.
At WyldLynx, we've seen organisations transform how they work with their information using Content Manager. We've helped agencies migrate from version to version, integrate with SharePoint and Microsoft 365, and unlock capabilities they didn't know they had. After 15 years as a Content Manager partner, we're as enthusiastic about this platform as ever.
So here's to the next 40 years. Here's to the teams at TOWER Software who built something that genuinely changed how governments manage information. And here's to you – the records managers, the IT teams, the compliance officers, and the end-users who've made Content Manager part of your daily work.
The names on the logo may change, but the mission endures. And we'll be right here, helping you get the most from every version along the way.