When Shannon Bell stepped into the dual role of chief digital officer and chief information officer at OpenText in 2023, she inherited a sprawling network of more than 1,600 tools and platforms running across the software company. The result was mounting vendor costs and the challenge of integrating systems from across several acquired companies. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, OpenText has spent the past 35 years helping organizations around the world organize, secure, and make sense of their data. Its software is used by governments, banks, and major enterprises in 180 countries.

Instead of maintaining the status quo, Bell embraced the idea of “drinking your own champagne”–a popular tech mantra for companies that use  their own products internally. The concept came naturally to OpenText. Bell and her team saw an opportunity to run the business on the same tools it sells, demonstrating their value through first-hand use. In 2023, that approach became a company-wide initiative called OpenText Trusts OpenText, turning the organization into a real-world testing ground for its technology. 

OpenText isn’t alone in embracing this philosophy. Microsoft helped popularize the concept decades ago through its internal “dogfooding” culture, in which employees use pre-release versions of Windows and Office to uncover flaws and improve performance before launch. Salesforce follows a similar model, running its business on its own products, including its Data Cloud platform, to refine features and build credibility to customers. 

Before launching the initiative, the company ran testing cycles without involving employees. Some internal deployments had taken place, but the new program formalized the process. Since then, OpenText has tripled internal product adoption, boosting its projected cost savings over the next decade by $1.5 billion–up from an initial estimate of $1 billion. At the same time, it has improved its products for 300,000 global customers by fine-tuning them through internal use. As Bell puts it, “Being customer zero means we deploy new releases internally, roll them out for our employees, and give feedback to engineering before customers ever see the product.” 

One of the clearest wins came with enterprise service management, a centralized system for handling internal requests across departments. Previously, IT, HR, and finance each ran separate help desks using different systems. OpenText consolidated these into its own Service Management product, starting with IT and HR–and the results were immediate. Routine help desk requests, such as password resets, dropped by 30 per cent. After adding AI-driven self-service tools from OpenText’s Aviator suite, requests fell by 70 per cent. 

The drop in help desk tickets didn’t happen overnight. The real breakthrough  came later with Aviator’s AI tools—but only after testing and improving them internally. “We introduced AI after cleaning up our processes and ensured the information it relied on was accurate,” Bell says. “Because we used it ourselves first, we could spot what didn’t work, fix it quickly, and make it easier for employees to get help without opening a ticket.” As more employees use Aviator, she says the system continues to improve.

So far, 291 departments have been onboarded, with customer support next in line. A theme Bell frequently emphasizes is the importance of managing change carefully. Instead of introducing tools to thousands of employees at once, the company takes a cohort-based approach, selecting small groups of early adopters to pilot new technology, gather input, and refine the product before wider deployment. Pilot users are selected based on the technology and business needs, often including those comfortable with trying new tools. “You start small, build trust, and then layer in more sophisticated use cases,” Bell says. “That has been key to driving adoption.”

One major benefit of this approach is catching issues before they impact large numbers of customers. For example, early pilots of an identity and access management tool showed issues with multi-factor authentication on employees’ Apple Watches. Instead of rushing the rollout, the team doubled the timeline to fix the problem and improve the user experience. “Sometimes slowing down is the right choice,” Bell says. “If employees lose confidence in a tool, you spend even more time later trying to rebuild that trust.” 

OpenText has also invested heavily in communication and internal storytelling. Success stories from early adopters–complete with results and user feedback–are shared in town halls, the employee newsletter, and the company intranet. Early users also receive personalized versions of the tools, such as AI prompts tailored to their jobs in finance, legal, or operations. This approach ensures the technology actually works in practice, having been tested in real-world settings before reaching customers.

Not every product is deployed internally by default. When the team was eager to implement one of the company’s cybersecurity tools, Bell chose to wait because a newer version was only a year away from launch. Rolling out the older version would have caused major disruption and required another change shortly afterward, so she decided to hold off until the updated product was ready. 

Beyond the ambitious savings target, Bell says the broader benefits of the program are just as striking. Last year, major incidents—serious disruptions affecting critical IT systems—dropped by 16 per cent, freeing teams to focus on proactive initiatives instead of firefighting. Fewer incidents also mean faster recovery and more time for strategic planning. Customers have also noticed when OpenText uses its own products. “We share our internal use cases very transparently–everything from process improvements to data centre consolidation–at annual user conferences, in customer meetings, and through our sales materials,” says Bell. “The feedback has been incredibly positive. Customers appreciate seeing us apply the same technology they use, and it builds a lot of trust when they see the measurable results we’ve achieved ourselves.”

The concept of “drinking your own champagne” has potential beyond the tech sector, Bell says. She points to financial services, where employees using internal lending and banking products can create valuable insights for product development. Other industries, from healthcare to manufacturing, can also benefit from structured internal adoption programs, as long as systems are in place to capture insights and reward employees for improving products, she notes.

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No matter the sector, Bell says successful rollouts start with a clear business case and initiatives that are both high-impact and feasible. She emphasizes investing in culture and communication so employees understand changes and feel encouraged to share their experiences, building trust and momentum. Bell recommends implementing new tools in phases, gathering early feedback through surveys and conversations with early adopters to guide adjustments, while sharing results openly and celebrating successes to keep staff engaged. Above all, she underscores treating employees as partners, with their input seen as essential to improving products.

By using OpenText’s own products internally, Bell has turned the company into a testing ground for innovation, efficiency, and trust. “You have a built-in user group inside your company,” she says. “Taking advantage of it is a huge opportunity.”