SirsiDynix has become established as the largest standalone library technology company, continually expanding over its 40-year business history. The company has developed important library technology products which have been implemented by libraries across many global regions. It has also expanded through the acquisition of competitors, many of which had seen their own cycles of mergers and acquisitions. SirsiDynix traces its business history through Sirsi Corporation, Dynix, Data Research Associates, and several other companies each with their own interesting narratives. At least fourteen antecedent companies are represented in its corporate lineage.
Early years: 1979-1999
Note: The early history of Sirsi Corporation was featured in the
February 2015 issue of Smart Libraries Newsletter
.
That section is presented here with revisions and updates.
Sirsi Corporation (Specialists in Reliable Software, Inc.) was founded in 1979 by Jim Young, Jacky Young, and Mike Murdock as a general computer software consulting and development firm based in Huntsville, Alabama. The individuals that founded the company were recent university graduates with an affinity for libraries. Jim Young earned his BS in mathematics and a Master of Science in computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology. Jacky Young received her BA in French and German from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and a Master of Arts in German from Georgia State University. During its initial two decades these three founders led the company with Jim Young as Chief Executive Officer, Jacky Young as President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mike Murdock as Chief Technology Officer. Jim Young was the principal architect of the company's core product, the Unicorn Collection Management System, now known as Symphony.
In 1980, Sirsi Corporation was contracted to assist in the development of an online circulation system for the Price Gilbert Memorial Library (now the Crosland Tower and Price Gilbert Library) at Georgia Institute of Technology. Jim Young had previously served as a systems analyst for the library and had earned both his degrees from the university. The system that Sirsi Corporation created was named Unicorn and subsequently became one of the most widely used library automation products in the world.
Unicorn was designed in collaboration with the Georgia Tech library. The initial version of the product was delivered in June 1981, with the operational system installed in early 1982. This original Unicorn installation ran on Texas Instrument 990 minicomputers under the Unix operating system, was written in the C programming language, and was based on the client/server architecture. These technical choices proved to be astute and enabled the software to stand the tests of time spanning over four decades. (see Unicorn: a unique on-line circulation system)
Sirsi Corporation continued to expand the functionality of Unicorn to and marketed it to other libraries. It began offering Unicorn as a turnkey library automation system by mid-1983 (see Library Systems Newsletter [September 1983]).
Modules of the system included circulation, cataloging, import of records via magnetic tape, authority control, and academic reserves. Unicorn was initially sold primarily in the southeastern United States, but soon expanded nationally and internationally. Around 1983 Unicorn was enhanced to use BRS/Search as its indexing technology.
In June 1990, Peter Gethin and Nick Dimant founded Sirsi UK Limited, with an arrangement with Sirsi Corporation to license and market its products in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Gethin had previously been associated with the BRS distributor in the UK as a manager and later as a co-owner. The success of Unicorn put it in the position of becoming one of the largest distributors of the BRS/Search at that time. Sirsi Limited provided direct support to its customers and customized Unicorn and related products to meet the specialized requirements of libraries in the regions it served.
During the phase of the company where it was owned and managed by the founders, Sirsi Corporation grew organically by steadily signing new customers. By 1991 there were 100 installations of Unicorn. The company also enhanced and expanded its product line. The original Unicorn system was created with text-based interfaces access through computer terminals or emulation software. In 1997 the company created WorkFlows, a new staff client application based on the Windows graphical interface and design concepts that assembled discrete tasks into patterns that could be easily understood and operated by library personnel. Sirsi introduced WebCat as the first Web-based online catalog in 1995. Sirsi Corporation developed a specialized version of Unicorn, launched in 1992 and branded as STILAS, for government agencies that supported the data format used by COSATI (Commerce, Energy, NASA, Defense Information Managers Group) for cataloging technical reports and an Accountability Module was developed to provide enhanced access control according to clearance levels.
The Annual survey of automated library system vendors provided a summary of Unicorn sales and installations by the end of 1999:
The company reported that it sold 168 systems during 1999, of which 166 were new name sales. Approximately 22% of the 1999 new name sales were to public, 35% to academic, 33% to special, and the rest to school libraries. UNIX was chosen by 54% of the new name customers and NT by 46%. The total number of installed systems at the end of 1999 was 870, including 681 in North America, 146 in Europe, 22 in Asia/Oceania, 19 in South America, and two in Africa/Middle East. The composition of the installed base at year-end differed from recent sales in that the customer base as a whole consists of 39% special, 38% academic, 16% public, and 7% school libraries.
CEA Capital Partners investment and ownership: 1999 - 2007
By 1999, Sirsi Corporation had become one of the most successful library automation companies in the industry. Unicorn had been sold to almost 1,000 libraries, the company employed around 250 personnel, and had risen to the top-tier among the competitors in the library automation industry. At this time, Sirsi Corporation saw annual revenue of around $25 million. To further expand the company and to eventually provide an exit for the founders to gain the return on their investment, Sirsi Corporation began a relationship with CEA Capital Partners in October 1999. CEA Capital Partners is a corporate entity related to Seaport Capitol, both with the same business address in New York, NY. Positioned as a recapitalization, Seaport acquired the majority ownership of the company, with the founders retaining around a third of the equity.
Seaport's majority investment gave it the ability to set the strategy of the company. The company's founders, though now minority stakeholders, helped guide the direction of the company on the basis of their deep experience of the industry, their customers, and the products. With Seaport's backing, Patrick C. Sommers was appointed Chief Executive Officer in May 2001 and the founders stepped away from direct oversight of the daily operations of the company. Jim Young remained on the Board of Directors and served as its chair during this period. John Reginald (Reg) Murphy, former President of the National Geographic Society, served on the board as an external director. Don McCall joined the company as Chief Operating Officer in January 2003.
Sirsi Corporation acquires Data Research Associates
Sirsi Corporation saw its first phase of business expansion through the acquisition of Data Research Associates) in May 2001 for around $55 million. DRA, founded by Mike Mellinger, had grown to be of similar size to Sirsi Corporation and had become a publicly-traded company through its 1992 initial public offering. Prior to its acquisition by Sirsi Corporation, DRA had also grown through strategic acquisitions. It purchased the INLEX/3000 ILS in October 1993 and MultiLIS in October 1994. The acquisition of DRA essentially doubled the size of the company in terms of library customers and revenues. Sirsi retained the DRA's former headquarters in St. Louis as one of its corporate offices as well as many of its personnel in order to continue the support of the DRA ILS.
Beginning around 1996 DRA had been involved in the development of a new-generation automation product, called Taos. Development partner libraries for Taos included UCLA, and a number of libraries signed contracts for the product including state-wide projects for academic libraries in Minnesota and Alaska, Cobb County Public Library, and National University. Harvard University signed a letter of intent in July 1998. By 2000, Taos was live in several sites, but did not perform well and failed to meet expectations. Harvard terminated its involvement with Taos in October 2000.
Shortly after DRA's acquisition by Sirsi Corporation, the development and sales of Taos was discontinued. Sirsi Corporation announced a product strategy where it would not pursue the completion of Taos and that future development would be focused on Unicorn. DRA Classic, MultiLIS, and INLEX would continue to be supported, with Unicorn positioned as their forward migration path.
Sirsi Corporation acquires Docutek
Sirsi Corporation began further expansion following its acquisition of DRA. In January 2005, Sirsi Corporation acquired Docutek Information Systems, adding its electronic reserves system to its product portfolio. Docutek was co-founded by Dr. Philip Kesten along with Slaven Zivkovic who later founded Springshare.
Sirsi Corporation acquires Dynix
Sirsi Corporation's largest strategic acquisition came with the purchase of Dynix in June 2005. Dynix was previously owned by a consortium of investors that included 21st Century Group, Greenleaf Ridge, and Stratford Capital. Following the acquisition, the company adopted SirsiDynix as its operating (DBA, or “does business as”) name. Sirsi CEO Patrick Sommers issued a statement regarding the acquisition.
See also: The new landscape of the automation business
Dynix had a long corporate history, making a number of organizational transformations and strategic acquisitions. Founded in August 1983 by Paul Sybrowsky, Keith Wilson, Jim Wilson, and Ralph Egan, the company developed the Dynix integrated library system that became established as the leading product for public libraries, with strong representation in academic and school libraries as well. Dynix was acquired by Ameritech in January 1992, which had also
purchased NOTIS Systems in October 1991. While under the ownership of Ameritech, the company developed a new ILS following the client/server architecture called Horizon and had considerable success in marketing it to public and academic libraries. Ameritech divested itself of its library division in July 2000. Upon separation from Ameritech, the company was initially called epixtech, but shifted to the more recognizable Dynix name in January 2003.
Jack Blount was appointed CEO of Dynix in June 2002 and let the company through the development of a new product intended to eventually succeed its Dynix and Horizon products. This new product, called Horizon 8 or Corinthian, was developed in collaboration with Starsoft, a company based in St. Petersburg, Russia that specialized in software creation using Agile processes.
Following the initial acquisition of Dynix by Sirsi Corporation, the company stressed the ongoing support of all the established products (Unicorn, Horizon, Dynix Classic, DRA Classic, and INLEX/3000) and positioned Corinthian as its strategic next-generation automation platform.
Under the ownership of Seaport, Sirsi Corporation saw major expansion through the strategic acquisitions of DRA and Dynix, had multiple well-established library automation products, with Corinthian positioned as its new-generation automation platform and in its later phase of development. Organizationally, SirsiDynix at this time was geographically distributed with its executives and personnel based in at least three corporate offices and considerable overlap remained in many aspects of its operations.
Vista Equity Partners ownership of SirsiDynix: 2007 - 2015
San Francisco-based Vista Equity Partners acquired SirsiDynix from Seaport Capital in January 2007 in a deal with an estimated value of around $260 million. The acquisition included Sirsi UK Limited, which was until that time a separate corporate entity.
Vista implements single-product strategy
Vista at that time was well known for its “playbook” that outlines an aggressive approach to business integration and operations, centered on product consolidation and cost reduction. The acquisition of SirsiDynix was made on the premise that considerable savings could be achieved through focusing the efforts of the company on a single platform.
The execution of the new business strategy transpired in short order. On March 15, 2007, less than three months after the December 2006 close of the acquisition, SirsiDynix announced that it would cease the development of the new Corinthian platform, discontinue the existing Horizon ILS, and focus all future development on enhancing Unicorn. Initially renamed Rome, but later branded as Symphony, this product would be developed and expanded to fulfill the anticipated benefits of Corinthian, but on top of a mature, stable, and reliable codebase.
Shortly after the acquisition of SirsiDynix, Pat Sommers abruptly resigned. While incumbent senior management is often retained during an interim period, it is not unexpected that new investment owners would appoint their own CEO and CFO. Martin Taylor, Operating Principal of Vista Equity, led the company between the departure of Sommers on Feb 16, 2007 and the appointment of Gary Rautenstrauch as CEO in June 2007.
The aggressive product consolidation strategy proved to be immensely unpopular in the library community. Libraries using Horizon were faced with the need to abruptly change systems. While some opted to migrate to Symphony, many others chose to migrate to competing systems, including open source alternatives such as Koha and Evergreen.
Recommitment to Horizon
SirsiDynix retracted the withdrawal of Horizon by January 2008. In a press release announcing ongoing development of Horizon, Rautenstrauch stated: “ The Horizon 7.4.1 and HIP 3.09/4.13 releases are clear evidence that SirsiDynix remains committed to the Horizon platform. While SirsiDynix Symphony is our flagship platform for the future, SirsiDynix will continue to upgrade the Horizon platform for the next four to six years.” The company has since committed to indefinite support for Horizon.
BLUEcloud launched
The BLUEcloud product strategy was launched in March 2013 to create a new platform based on modern technology architecture to deploy new modules that would work with both Horizon and Symphony. The first phase of BLUEcloud development included the creation of Web Services layer for Symphony and Horizon that would expose a consistent set of APIs that would support the new BLUEcloud modules as well as enable interoperability for other applications.
See: 2016 BLUEcloud product update.
SirsiDynix has since developed a variety of BLUEcloud applications, some of which replace functionality in Symphony and Horizon and others that address new areas of library services or operations. The initial versions of BLUEcloud modules offer basic capabilities, but do not necessarily include all the detailed functionality present in the native ILS staff interfaces. Few libraries have been able to fully transition to the BLUEcloud modules.
SirsiDynix acquires EOS.Web
SirsiDynix acquired EOS International and its EOS.Web integrated library system for small libraries in November 2013 from its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Scot Cheatham. SirsiDynix reported that this acquisition was funded internally without support from Vista Equity Partners. At the time of the sale, EOS.Web was used by about 1,100 libraries, primarily smaller corporate and other special libraries, as well as small academic and K-12 school libraries.
Note: a history of EOS International was featured in the December 2013 issue of Smart Libraries Newsletter. A revised version is presented below.
EOS International offered EOS.Web as its flagship product, with specialized versions for academic, legal, and medical libraries in addition to its core version designed especially for corporate libraries. The company, was based in Carlsbad, CA and was one of the pioneers of library automation for the corporate and special library sector.
Electronic Online Systems International, better known as EOS International, was founded in 1981 by brothers Scot and David Cheatham. Data Trek, as it was originally known, was formed to develop and market the software that David Cheatham developed to automate the corporate library of the Verbatim Corporation, a major manufacturer floppy diskettes, which were the state of the art of that time for computer files storage. The Card Datalog automation system, later renamed Manager Series, was first created for the CP/M operating system and ran on microcomputers that were at that time gaining in popularity for business applications. Following its success in the Verbatim Library, Data Trek marketed Card Datalog to other corporate libraries and eventually to types of libraries, including law, government, public, academic, and school.
Source: Data Trek, Inc. Profile: company and product history
EOS International has experienced several ownership transitions, mergers, and acquisitions. The company was originally owned by its co-founders Scot and David Chatham. Scot Chatham, with previous business experience in the insurance and financial services sector, joined the company on 1982 as its Chief Executive Officer, with David Cheatham serving as President. Between 1988 and 1996 EOS International had an evolving set of business relationships with Dawson Holdings PLC, a diversified UK organization founded in 1809, which at one time earned revenues in excess of $1 billion. In the mid-1990s, its portfolio included a variety of businesses, including Information Quest (electronic subscription service), Faxon Company, Turner Subscriptions, Quality Books, Liberia Ciencias Industria SL, Surridge Dawson (wholesaler and distributer of newspapers and magazines in the UK). Dawson Holdings was acquired by Smith News PLC in June 2011.
Dawson Holdings PLC made its initial investment in Data Trek of around $1 million in 1988, funding new international offices and software development, including the company's first Windows-based product, GoPAC. Dawson Holdings made additional investments over the next eight years, gaining an incremental ownership stake in the company. By 1996, Dawson Holdings held about 80 percent interest in Data Trek. In July 1993, EOS International acquired The Assistant, a PC-based library automation system used by around 200 libraries from INLEX, Inc., a company based in Monterey, CA that had fallen into financial difficulties. INLEX, originally known as Electric Memory Inc., was founded in 1983 to market library automation systems for public libraries that operated on the HP/3000 line of minicomputers. In October 1993 INLEX/3000 was sold to Data Research, which was subsequently acquired by Sirsi Corporation. The Assistant was originally developed by Library Automation Products, Inc. and was acquired by INLEX in 1991. Both The Assistant and INLEX/3000 now reside among the vestiges of library automation products in the corporate legacy of SirsiDynix.
In February 1994 Data Trek acquired the OASIS ILS from the Technology Division of Dawson Holdings, which was used by about 300 libraries, primarily in the UK and France. Following the sale, Data Trek provided support services and offered incentives to transition the libraries to its own products. By this time Dawson Holdings had increased its equity in Data Trek to about 50 percent. January 1996 saw a major transition for the company as it acquired IME Limited from its founders Kate Noerr, Peter Noerr and, and Helen Henderson. IME was a major provider of library automation products, offering the TINLIB library management system, which was known as The Information Navigator in the United States. Immediately prior to the acquisition, IME had announced a new system called Q Series, whose development was executed following the acquisition. The combined company was then renamed Electronic Online Systems International, or EOS International. By this time, Dawson Holdings had gained an 80 percent ownership stake in the company, with the founders retaining the remaining 20 percent.
Dawson Holdings divested EOS International from its portfolio in November 2000, transferring ownership to the company to its co-founder Scot Cheatham. Tony Saadat, formerly Executive Vice President of rival SydneyPLUS, also gained equity in the company at that time and served as Chief Operating Officer. During this period EOS International worked to reinvigorate the company, launching the flagship EOS.Web product suite to replace the aging Windows-based products. Saadat exited EOS International in April 2009 and has since founded the competing company Soutron Global. In November 2013 Scot Cheatham sold EOS International to SirsiDynix.
ICV Partners ownership of SirsiDynix 2015 - 2022
ICV Partners acquired majority ownership of SirsiDynix from Vista Equity Partners in January 2015. This private equity firm, originally known as Inner City Ventures, focuses its investments on mid-sized businesses supporting minorities and inner city residents. Vista continued to have equity in SirsiDynix following the sale, though its stake diminished over time. Argosy became a minority investor in SirsiDynix along with Spotlight Equity Partners and Virgo Capital.
The ownership tenure under ICV Partners was characterized by stability and constrained investment in development, though some innovative products were conceived.
No additional business acquisitions were made to expand the company. Many of the other private equity investment engagements in the library technology industry included follow-on acquisitions that expanded the customer base and product offerings:
- Seaport Capital: Sirsi Corporation + DRA + Docutek + Dynix
- Vista Equity Partners: SirsiDynix + EOS International
- JMI / HGGC: Innovative + Polaris
- Francisco Partners: Ex Libris + Voyager
- One Equity Partners: Bibliotheca + ITG + Intellident + Trion + Aturis + 3M + Cordura
- KKR: OverDrive + Kanopy + RBigital
The leadership team headed by Bill Davidson as Chief Executive Officer installed by Vista Equity Partners in 2011 has remained in place. Eric Keith advanced to Chief Marketing Officer in 2016. Berit Nelson, a key product executive since the acquisition of DRA by Sirsi Corporation, continues as Chief Product Officer. Mike Nehren has served as Chief Financial Officer since 2011 spanning both Vista Equity and ICV—a unusual scenario since most cases new owners install their own CFO.
The company has slimmed down during this period, from a total workforce of 416 in place in 2015 down to 372 in 2021 (according to statistics reported for the Library Systems Report.)
from 2,573 installations in 2016 to 2374 in 2021. Horizon declined from 950 down to 777 installations during that period; EOS.Web saw installations fall from 1095 in 2015 to 850 in 2021.
Although the number of its flagship ILS installations diminished, SirsiDynix was sucessful in selling add-on products in its BLUEcloud suite. The number of installations of its
Enterprise
discovery interface increased from 717 to 837 during this period. Another 236 libraries have implemented Portfolio, a version of Enterprise that also manages and provides access to digital resources.
Product strategy under ICV's ownership has focused on leveraging the existing ILS products, Symphony, Horizon, and EOS.Web, rather than developing a completely new replacement product. Symphony carries forward the architecture originally developed in 1982, which was remarkably advanced for its day, but not consistent with the way enterprise applications would be developed today. Horizon's technical architecture dates to the early 1990s. EOS.Web was introduced in 2001, based on technologies developed in its earlier product lines.
SirsiDynix has followed the product development strategy, initiated under Vista Equity Partners, based on developing new applications deployed using the BLUEcloud platform, to provide modernized workflows and new functionality that layers on top of Symphony and Horizon. This approach avoids investing extensive development resources on the core legacy systems while producing new products and services that benefit library customers using either ILS. Relying on the existing ILS products for data management and functional services, libraries gain new and modernized interfaces for staff and patron modules without the need to go through a complex migration process. This strategy, however, results in a hybrid technology environment blending outdated backend applications with more modern frontend interfaces. It does not provide a path toward a completely new automation environment unless the core functionality now provided by Symphony and Horizon is redeployed through BLUEcloud. SirsiDynix has not articulated ILS replacement as part of the development roadmap for BLUEcloud.
During the ICV ownership period SirsiDynix has made substantial progress on the development of BLUEcloud modules that replace or enhance capabilities in its ILS products as well as new modules that address new areas of functionality. While BLUEcloud modules now deliver a basic set of functionalities, they still lack the full functionality available through the native interfaces of Symphony or Horizon.
New products introduced during the ICV Ventures ownership period include:
- BLUEcloud Cataloging delivered first general release in 2015
- BLUEcloud Visibility launched in 2015 as a linked data discoverability product offered in partnership with Zepheira
- BLUEcloud Analytics progressed into general release in 2015 as the successor to Director's Station
- BLUEcloud Acquisitions was a new acquisitions module developed in partnership with the South Australia Public Library Network released in 2016.
- Mobile Circ sept 2019 (renamed Mobile Staff in Mar 2021)
- New Mobile App in partnership with SOLUS
- In 2020 SirsiDynix initiated the pilot program for CloudSource OA as a new discovery solution emphasizing open access scholarly content. The product was made available in general release in December 2021.
