In what turned out to be an ironic speculative investment into the so-called "dot com" high-tech market and following the non-event that Y2K turned out to be for Open Text and it's customers, a new division was formed that provided online, leased access to a fully managed deployment of the flagship software the corporation sold, known as the Application Service Provider model. Twenty five Open Text employees were chosen by negotiation between the senior managers of b2bScene and the executive of Open Text and those 25 all found at least one former colleague or trusted friend to form the startup to be funded and owned by Open Text.

While the timing for the startup made sense from a corporate standpoint, the funding was initially set to allow for an operationally profitable solution within three years. The irony came the first day of the venture capital presentations which coincided with the beginning of the dot com bust. The venture capital that had been flowing freely only a week before dried up to less than a trickle and to make matters worse, Open Text reneged on their long-term funding promise and indicated that the division had to be operationally profitable within 1 year AND the committed funds per quarter were reduced by 2/3^rds. It was a challenging year but a successful one just the same.

Though the division's promise of a split from the corporation never materialized, it remains a profit centre for OpenText (though the name is now part of history). It is a further testament to the success that as many as 50% of the original hosting team remain working in that division today.