Each year Library Systems Newsletter surveys the library automation industry to get an overview of the market and to facilitate comparison among vendors.
This extra-long double issue summarizes the responses of vendors who offer integrated, multi-user, multi-function systems-those running on mainframes, minis, and supermicros using a multi-user operating system, whether UNIX, NT server, OS/400, or the proprietary operating system of another hardware manufacturer. This report is being released a month earlier than in past years. We will summarize survey results for PC and Mac-based systems in the April Issue of LTR. Vendors who offer both types of systems are included in this issue if sales of their multi-user operating system product exceeded $1 million in the past year.
While some vendors based outside North America are included, we have emphasized those vendors that are active in the North American market or are selling systems in several countries, making them potential future entrants into the North American market. The most recent examples of firms based outside North America entering that market after establishing offices or distributorships in several countries are Ex Libris of Israel and Fretwell-Downing of the United Kingdom.
The survey is limited to products that integrate several modules into a single system. Almost all of the products discussed in this survey include what generally are considered to be core modules of an integrated system: acquisitions, serials control, cataloging, circulation, and patron access catalog. Most have additional modules: inventorying, information & referral (community information), interlibrary loan, journal citation files, materials booking, imaging, etc. Almost all offer graphical user interfaces (GUI5) for all modules and a Web-based user interface for the patron access catalog. Most also support Z39.50-based linkages to other systems. EDIFACT online ordering and claiming is also beginning to become available, although a majority of companies are still offering BISAC online ordering and EDI X.12 online claiming-both standards superseded by EDIFACT.
METHODOLOGY
This survey uses the same methodology employed in previous years. Vendors were contacted by mail and fax, with follow-up by telephone, fax, and e-mail, as necessary. Our queries focused on the major hardware platform(s); database management system (DBMS), operating system and programming language(s); sales to "new name" customers (organizations not previously customers) during the past calendar year; total number of installations; the number of sites that discontinued the system during the year; gross revenues for the calendar year; profitability; the percentage of customers using each module or major function; the number of users for which the systems are licensed; and the number of staff devoted to software maintenance and development, sales and marketing, and to other customer support. Major software enhancements are also included.
The emphasis is on including as much information as possible in the limited amount of space available, therefore, analysis is kept to a minimum. We do recommend keeping the following criteria in mind when evaluating a vendor: (1) which modules are not yet available, (2) how many staff are committed to software development and support, (3) what percentage of users have implemented each available module-a very small percentage suggests either an unattractive module or little customer interest and, therefore, a possible low priority for further development, (4) what is the company's market share, both in terms of installed customer base and "new name" sales, (5) what is the ratio of customer support staff to customers.
The 20 companies that responded to the survey are believed to represent 95% of sales in North America and over 62% of sales internationally. With the exception of SydneyPlus International-a $5 million a year company that sells systems to special libraries-the non-respondents are either small companies or companies that sell primarily in their own countries.
A number of companies are actively selling two or more significantly different products, among them DRA (Classic, Taos, and MultiLIS), EOS International ("T" and "Q" Series), Epixtech, the former Ameritech Library Services (Dynix and Horizon), Gaylord Information Systems (Galaxy and Polaris), Geac Computers, Inc. (Advance, Plus, and VUBIS), and VTLS (VTLS 9x and Virtua). Information about the products has been separated as much as possible, but several respondents did not break out revenues and development, sales, and support staff figures for their separate products.
Of the 20 vendors responding, all but two offer both turnkey systems and software-only; Gateway and Open Text sell only software systems.
SUMMARY
We estimate that approximately 1,550 "new name" sales were made in 1999, continuing the upward trend begun in 1998. The year 1997 had been a relatively lean year for the industry. After adding estimates for the vendors that did not respond, the total revenues of vendors offering integrated multi-user, multi-function automated library systems were estimated to be $490 million in 1999-up from approximately $480 million in 1998 and $435 million in 1997. Epixtech, formerly Ameritech Library Services, reported revenues of nearly $90 million; Innovative Interfaces, Inc., $60-$70 million; Geac Computers, $45 to $50 million; Open Text (formerly Information Dimensions), $35- $40 million; DRA, $30-$35 million; Sirsi, over $30 million (author's estimate]; Endeavor, $25-$30 million; and Ex Libris, $15-$20 million.
Adlib, CARL, Gaylord, TLC, and VTLS had revenues of $10 to $15 million each. Fretwell-Downing had revenues of $5 to $10 million, as did EQS International (author's estimate]. BestSeller had revenues of $2.5 to $5 million; Gateway, between $1 and $2.5 million; and Advanced Computer Concepts, COBIT, and Keystone each had revenues under $1 million each (estimated by the author].
There appear to be three distinct, but closely related reasons for the increase in "new name" sales in 1998 and 1999 over 1997:
Replacement of Aging Systems-The most widely installed multi-user systems are hierarchical systems, purchased five or more years ago. Hierarchical architecture controls the presentation at the host computer in the computer room, whereas client/server architecture controls the presentation at the desktop (the "client"). The rate of replacement rose significantly in 1998, and again in 1999. The 20 vendors responding to this survey replaced 230 systems in 1999, almost all of which were hierarchical. Despite the high number of replacements, 826 customers chose to upgrade their current systems, including their CPUs. Therefore, vendors are retaining 78% of their customers by offering upgrades. Adding Web-based patron access catalogs and graphical user interfaces (GUI5) for staff have been particularly effective in retaining customers.
The Continuing Maturing of Client/ Server Products-By 1997, a number of client/server products had become available, but they were functionally less rich than the older hierarchical systems. A year later, a number of mature client! server products were available, and those still in development were sufficiently complete for libraries to evaluate them. Therefore, sales of these new products increased in 1998, and again in 1999.
Completion of Infrastructure Development-The expectation that client/server technology with graphical user interfaces would require replacement of "dumb" terminals and low-end PCs, and upgrading of networks, led many libraries to focus their 1997 purchases on the building of the necessary infrastructure for the next generation of automated library systems. By 1998, much of that infrastructure development had been completed, thus freeing funds for the purchase of new automated library systems. Sales in 1998 and 1999 increased significantly over 1997.
The total number of multi-user system installations-those using UNIX, NT server, VMS, or another multi-user operating system-at the end of 1999 was approximately 16,000.
Table 1 ranks the vendors according to the number of "new name" system sales (sales to other than existing customers) during 1999 as reported by the vendors. Vendors were asked to report the number of central sites, rather than the number of contracts signed or the number of libraries served. Table 2 shows the total installed and accepted systems, of the vendors reporting at least 30 installations to date. Table 3 ranks vendors by the number of systems supporting at least 200 concurrent users; Table 4 ranks the vendors by the number of software maintenance/development staff; Table 5 by the number of staff devoted to sales and marketing; and Table 6 by the number of customer support staff.
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COMPANY REPORTS
The following vendor reports are arranged alphabetically and are based on information furnished by the respondents.
ADLIB INFORMATION SYSTEMS offers a hierarchical system on Intel hardware platforms for the NT operating system. A Windows 95/98 version is also available. The DBMS is proprietary and the programming languages are C, C++, and Visual BASIC.
The company reported 200 sales for 1999, including 100 new name sales. Over 70% were to special libraries, 20% to schools, and 10% to academic libraries. Sales were half NT and half Windows 95/98. Two customers discontinued use of their systems in 1999. The total customer base reached 407, 400 of which were in Europe. The composition of the total customer base mirrored the mix of new sales. Total revenues for 1999 were in the $10-$15 million range, and a profit was realized.
There was no data available on the percentage of customers using each of the modules. Over 20% of the sites were supporting five or fewer concurrent users, 40% had 6-9 users, 20% had 10-15, 10% had 16-29, 5% had 30-59, and 5% had 60-99 users.
The company had seven software development and support staff at the end of 1999, five marketing and sales staff, and 12 customer support staff.
The company is headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands and has branch offices in the U.K. and Australia.
[Contact: Adlib Information Systems, Reactorweg 291, 3542 AD Utrecht, Netherlands; telephone -31-30-2411885; fax -31-30-241-2568; www.adlibsoft.com].
ADVANCED COMPUTER CONCEPTS, INC. A-SEARCH is available on several hardware platforms, including Sun. UNIX, LINUX, and NT are offered as the operating systems. MUMPS/CACHE is used as the DBMS and programming language.
The company sells primarily to academic and special libraries. It made no new sales in 1999. It did not report on the number of customers that discontinued use of their systems in 1999, nor did it indicate the current number of customers it is supporting. It reported five sites in 1998, including four in North America and one in Asia/Oceania. At that time, two of the installed systems supported more than 400 users and three supported 100-199 users.
In addition to the core modules, inventorying, information & referral, materials booking, interlibrary loan, and imaging are available. GUI is available for staff modules; both GUI and Web-based user interfaces are available for the patron access catalog. An OCLC interface is offered. Z39.50 client/server linkages are supported. EDIFACT online ordering and claiming are not available. All customers are licensed to use all modules.
Total sales for 1999 were under $1 million and a profit was realized. It had three staff committed to software development, none to marketing and sales, and three to customer support.
The major software enhancement in 1999 was online subscription management.
[Advanced Computer Concepts, Inc., 46 Hillvale, St. Louis, MO 63105; (314) 862-1898; fax (314) 721-1898; www.hillvale.com]
BEST-SELLER INC. offers its PortFolio. The hardware platforms are Hewlett-Packard, IBM, SUN, and Intel. The product, which is client/server, is available on several versions of UNIX and on NT. The DBMS is a SQL-compliant proprietary product. The programming languages are C++ and Java.
The company made 40 sales in 1999, including 16 new name sales. The breakdown of the new name sales was 50% public libraries, 40% special libraries, and 10% academic libraries. Seventy percent were UNIX sales and 30% were NT sales. At the end of 1999 there were 300 sites supported: 250 in North America and 50 in Europe. Half of the customers were public libraries, 35% special, and 15% academic. No customers discontinued use of the system in 1999.
All of the customers were using local cataloging, authority control, patron access catalog, and report generator, and 98% were using circulation. Eighty percent were using acquisitions and serials control; 60% had GUI-based and Web-based patron access catalogs; and half had Z39.50 server and client. Some 25% had an image server interface, and 15% each had an OCLC or BiblioFile interface. Only 15% had the interlibrary loan module, 10% each had materials booking, imaging, information & referral, Internet access management, BISAC online ordering, and remote database searching. Five sites had 100-199 user licenses, five had 60-99, 45 had 3-59, 45 had 16-29, 50 had 10-15, 50 had 6- 9, and 100 had five or fewer.
The company had sales of $2.5 to $5 million and realized an after-tax profit. There were 20 staff devoted to software maintenance and development at the end of 1999, 10 to marketing and sales, and 20 to customer support. The major software enhancements were the introduction of a 100% Java Web-based cataloging module and a Web-based patron services module. There are offices in Montreal and Paris. (Contact: Best-Seller Inc., 3300 Cote-Vertu Blvd., Suite 203, Sainte-Laurent, Quebec H4R 2B8, Canada, (514) 337-3000; fax (514) 337-9290; www.BestSeller.com].
CARL CORPORATION offers The CARL Information Management and Delivery System. The hardware is Compaq Nonstop; the operating system is Tandem's Non-Stop Kernel; and the DBMS is Tandem's Enscribe. Applications are written in C, C++, and Pascal for GUI products and TAL (Tandem Application Language) for character-based applications. An associated gateway server uses the Sun Solaris operating system for Sun computers.
CARL reported four sales in 1999, none of them new name. The company's total installed base at the end of 1999 was 34-32 in North America and two in Asia/Oceania. Four sites discontinued use of their systems in 1999. Consortia are the company's specialty (44% of installations are consortia). Public libraries (57%) are more common than academic (29%). School libraries constitute the remaining 14%.
In addition to the core modules, the following are available: ILL, inventorying, materials booking (in testing), information & referral, imaging, and journal citation files, and Z39.50 client/server. GUI technical services and patron access catalog, and Web-based patron access catalog options, and OCLC and BiblioFile interfaces. EDIFACT will be supported when a customer requests a migration from EDI x.12. All of the sites were using local cataloging, circulation, patron access catalog, and journal citation files at the end of 1999. Some 85% each were using acquisitions and serials control. Information & referral was in use by 41% of sites, and Z39.50 by 48%. While 80% were using the GUI patron access catalog, only 21% were using GUI technical services. Over 83% were using the Web-based patron access catalog interface. The sites are almost all large: 15 supported 400+ concurrent users at the end of 1999, 11 supported 200-399, six supported 100-199, and the rest supported 30-59 concurrent users.
CARL's revenues were between $10 and $15 million in 1999; no after-tax profit was reported. The company had 37 staff devoted to software maintenance and development, six to sales and marketing, and 30 to customer support.
The major software developments in 1999 were the release of CARLweb 3.0 enabling users to renew items, cancel holds, etc; branch scoping; and availability limiting. WebCheck was also introduced. (It authenticates patrons outside the library who want access to the commercial databases through the system.) Everybody's Catalog was also enhanced. New GUIs were delivered for acquisitions, serials control, and circulation.
The company has offices in Denver and Singapore.
[CARL Corporation, 3801 E. Florida Avenue, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80210; (303) 758-3030; fax (303) 758-0606; www.carl.org].
COBIT (Council for Bibliographic and Information Technologies) offers its TLM software for Data General and Hewlett-Packard hardware. Both hierarchical and client/server architectures are offered. The operating systems are AOS/VSII and HP/UX, the DBMS5 are INFOSII on DG and TBAM on HP. The programming language for the DG platform is PL/1 and C for HP.
All of its 7 sites are in North American public libraries. There were no new sales.
Not all of the core modules are available. Lacking are acquisitions and serials control. Information & referral and materials booking are available, as are GUI and Web-based patron access catalogs. Z39.50 and EDIFACT are not supported. All of the sites were using cataloging, circulation, inventorying, patron access catalog, and materials booking as of the end of 1999. Half were using I&R. All were using GUI-PAC, and 85% were using Web-PAC.
The systems tend to be midsize, with all supporting from 60-199 concurrent users.
The company realized revenues of under $1 million in 1999. Although it is a not-for-profit organization, it did finish in the black. There were two staff committed to software development and maintenance, one to marketing, and two to customer support at the end of 1999. The major software development was the introduction of a UNIX option on Hewlett-Packard platforms.
[COBIT, 665 East Dublin-Granville Road, Suite 290, Columbus, OH 43229; (614) 841- 1222; fax (614) 841-7470; www.cobit.org].
DRA (Data Research Associates) has four products: DRA Classic, MultiLIS, Inlex, and Taos. (Inlex, which uses HP MPE, is no longer sold, but it is supported.)
DRA Classic uses the Open VMS operating system and MultiLIS uses the OpenVMS and UNIX operating systems. Taos-a new client/server product-uses Windows NT and Unix. DRA Classic uses a proprietary database manager, but Taos uses Object Store. All of the products use C, C++ or Visual C++ as the programming language. The Taos clients are NT-based, except that any CGI-compliant Web browser can be used with the patron access catalog.
Sales of Taos began in the latter part of 1998. There were a total of 160 sales of its three active products in 1999, including 135 new name sales. All but two of the new name sales were for Taos. The majority (probably 72) of the new name sales were to school libraries participating in the InfOhio Project. These were originally expected to be MultiLIS sales, but the schools opted to implement Taos instead. One-fourth of the new name sales were to academic libraries and one-fifth to public libraries. The sales brought the total installed customer base to 1,380 at the end of 1999, including 1,284 in North America, 59 in Asia/Oceania, 36 in Europe, and one in South America. Twenty sites discontinued the use of their systems in 1999. The installed base at year-end included 40% academic, 30% public, 26% school, and 4% special libraries.
All of the core modules are available in all products except Taos, which will not have serials control until the first quarter of 2000 and acquisitions until the third quarter of 2000. Other available modules are inventorying, ILL, materials booking, journal citation files, and information & referral. GUI is available for all modules, and there is a Web-based patron access catalog interface. OCLC, RLIN, and BiblioFile interfaces are available. Z39.50 client/ server and EDIFACT online ordering and claiming are available. Almost all DRA Classic and MultiLIS sites were using the core modules at the end of 1999. Almost all were using inventorying and ILL; but acquisitions was in use by only 85% and serials control by 75%. Information & referral was being used by 25%, journal citation files by 20%, and materials booking by 15%. GUI patron access catalog was in use by approximately 17%, and the Web-based patron access catalog interface by 85%. Some 5% used GUI technical services. Approximately 10% had an OCLC interface and 80% had a BiblioFile interface. Five percent had an RLIN interface. Over 75% were using Z39.50 linkages and 15% were using EDIFACT online ordering and claiming.
The company did not breakout individual products in its statistics about system size, but there were 30 systems supporting over 400 users and 370 supporting 200-399 users at the end of 1999-making DRA the undisputed leader in large systems. There also were nearly 280 systems supporting fewer than nine users each-most of them MultiLIS.
The vendor had sales of $30-$35 million in 1999, down slightly from the previous year; but its profit was $2.3 million. There were 105 staff committed to software maintenance and development at the end of 1999, 40 to sales and marketing, and 80 to customer support.
There were software releases for DRA Classic and MultiLIS in 1999, but the major development effort was on Taos. The first live sites were using circulation, cataloging, and patron access catalog modules. A new patron authentication server for all of the product lines was introduced in Beta. A new report writer was also released in Beta.
DRA maintains offices in St. Louis, Monterey (CA), Montreal, Melbourne, Paris, and Singapore.
[Data Research Associates, Inc., 1276 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63132-1806; (800) 325-0888 or (314) 432-1100; fax (314) 993-8927; www.dra.com].
EOS INTERNATIONAL offers several product lines, most of them for use on PCs. This report is limited to the company's T Series and Q Series-the former a hierarchical system which is evolving toward client/server and the latter a new client/server product.
The T Series is available for Sun, Compaq Alpha, IBM RS/6000 and other UNIX platforms. E-R Database is used as the DBMS. The primary programming languages are C+ and C++.
There were no sales of the T Series in 1999, down from 120 in 1998. Thirty- three customers discontinued use of the system, reducing the customer base to 369 at the end of 1999, 35 in Europe, 322 in Asia/Oceania, 7 in North America, 4 in South America, and 1 in Africa/Middle East. Over 75% were academic libraries and nearly 25% special libraries.
All of the core modules are available. There are no other modules. There are OCLC, RLIN, WLN, and BiblioFile interfaces and a GUI-based patron access catalog. Z39.50 is available. The most widely implemented modules at the end of 1999 were cataloging, circulation, and the patron access catalog, all by nearly 100% of the sites. Acquisitions was implemented by 61% and serials control by 73% of the sites. Fewer than 15% used Z39.50. The systems tend to be configured for small libraries: six support 30-59 concurrent users, 19 have 16-29, 19 have 10-15, and three have 6-9.
There were two staff committed to "T" series product development, two to sales, and three to customer support.
The 2 Series was introduced in 1997. It is available for Sun and NT hardware platforms. The operating systems are Sun UNIX and NT. Client applications are available for Windows 95 and NT. The DBMS is Oracle and the programming language is Power Builder.
The company sold 53 of the Q Series in 1999, including 24 new name accounts. Ninety percent of the new name sales were to special libraries, and 10% were to academic libraries. Of the 106 installed systems at the end of 1999, 85 were in North America, 10 in Europe, eight in Asia/Oceania, two in Africa/Middle East; and one in South America.
All of the core modules are available, as are inventorying, journal citation files, information & referral, imaging, and materials booking. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web- based patron access catalog is available. Z39.50 is supported. All of the sites were using local cataloging, circulation, and the patron access catalog at the end of 1999; 48% were using acquisitions and 57% were using serials control. Seventy-two percent were using the GUI patron access catalog, and 46% were using the Web-based patron access catalog interface. All had a MARC-import interface.
The installed systems tend to be small, with only one supporting 60-69 concurrent users, one supporting 30-59, 13 with 16-29, two with 10-15, and two with five or fewer.
The company declined to release financial information. It probably had revenues of under $10 million. It did report an after-tax profit. It had seven staff committed to software maintenance and development for the "Q" series, nine to marketing and sales, and five to customer support. Major enhancements in 1999 included an acquisitions module and improved authority control. A report writer, support for the creation of non-MARC databases, and a link to full-text documents were also released.
The company maintains its headquarters in Carlsbad, and branch offices in London, Paris, and Singapore. It also has a number of distributors.
(EOS International, 5838 Edison Place, Carlsbad, CA 92008, (800) 876-5485; fax (760) 431-8448; www.eosintl.com.
ENDEAVOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS offers the Voyager Library Series product. It makes a substantial number of software-only sales. The major hardware platforms are Sun and IBM RS/6000. Intel platforms are also available. The operating systems are Sun Solaris, AIX (IBM's UNIX), and NT for the server and Windows 3.1/95/NT and Windows for Workgroups for the clients. The DBMS is Oracle. The programming languages for the server are C and C++. The client presentation and application code are in Microsoft Visual BASIC and C++.
The company reported 183 sales in 1999, all new name sales. The figure cannot be compared to those of other vendors because Endeavor counted the number of databases, rather than the number of central sites. Libraries sharing a system, but mounting separate databases were, therefore, counted as multiple sales. Over 75% of the sales were to academic libraries and 21% to special libraries. The rest were public libraries. Just under 10% of the new name sales were systems mounted on NT platforms. The total installed base at the end of 1999 was 598 systems, 503 in North America, 67 in Asia/Oceania, and 28 in Europe.
All of the core modules are available. Interlibrary loan, journal citation files support, materials booking, and imaging are also available. Inventorying and information & referral are not available. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based patron access catalog is also available. OCLC and RLIN interfaces are available, and Z39.50 client/server is supported. All sites were using all core modules at the end of 1999, but only 50% were using interlibrary loan, 30% were using journal citation files, 30% were using materials booking, and 30% imaging. All were using Z39.50 and half were using EDIFACT online ordering and claiming.
The sizes of installed systems included 23 supporting over 400 concurrent users, 28 supporting 200-399, 37 supporting 100-199, 43 supporting 60-99, 95 supporting 30-59, 122 supporting 16- 29, 112 supporting 10-15, 130 supporting 6-9, and eight supporting fewer than 8 concurrent users.
The company had sales of $25-$30 million in 1999 and realized an after-tax profit. There were 33 staff committed to software maintenance and development at the end of 1999, 37 to sales and marketing, and 44 to customer support.
There were two software releases in 1999. Major enhancements included access control and license monitoring enhancements for commercial databases, improved acquisitions searching by keyword, expanded pre-packaged reports, proxy patrons, full translatable Web PAC for multilingual public access, and seamless integration between acquisitions and cataloging. The company maintains offices in Des Plaines, IL and Brentwood, U.K.
[Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., 2200 East Devon Avenue, Suite 382, Des Plaines, IL 60018; (800) 762-6300; fax (847) 296-5636; www.endinfosys.com.]
EPIXTECH, formerly Ameritech Library Services, offers two products, Dynix and Horizon. The company continues to support NOTIS, a mainframe-based system, including a software release in 1999. While 18 customers discontinued use of their NOTIS systems in 1999, there were still 94 in use at the end of the year.
Dynix has evolved from a hierarchical system to client/server architecture. The vast majority of customers in 1999 opted for the turnkey system. The operating systems available for the host are UNIX and NT; for the desktops they are Windows 95, NT, and text-based terminals. (Approximately 20% of customers chose the NT platform in 1999.) The programming languages used are C++, PIC, BASIC, Java, Visual BASIC and Perl; and the DBMS is Universe. The available hardware platforms are Sun, HP, IBM, Sun, Compaq Alpha, and several NT server platforms.
The company targets all types of libraries. It made 419 sales in 1999, including 21 new name sales, 80% to public and 20% to academic libraries. Twenty customers discontinued using Dynix in 1999, bringing its total installed base to 2,934 worldwide, including 2,310 in North America and 483 in Asia/Oceania. The customer base included 33% public, 10% academic, 3% special, and 54% school libraries at the end of 1999.
All of the core modules are in general release. In addition, the company offers inventorying, ILL, materials booking, journal citation files, I&R, and imaging. GUI is available for staff modules; both GUI and Web-based user interfaces are available for the patron access catalog. There are OCLC, RLIN, and WLN interfaces available. EDIFACT online ordering and claiming are available. While almost all sites were using cataloging, circulation, and patron access catalog at the end of 1999; only 60% were using acquisitions, 55% were using inventorying, 35% were using serials control, 25% were using I&R, and 10% were using materials booking. Interlibrary loan and imaging were in use by only one percent each. Some 40% had a Z39.50 server, and 60% had Z39.50 client. Many of the libraries were still using character-based interface for the patron access catalog, but 50% were using the GUI and 50% the Web-based user interface at the end of the year. Over 25% were using GUI-based technical services clients.
At the end of 1999 there were 32 sites which had systems supporting over 400 users and another 59 which support 200-399 users. At the other extreme, there were 1,290 sites which had systems supporting five or fewer users-mostly school libraries.
There were two software releases during the year. Serials binding, integration of the Checkpoint firewall product, full EDIFACT transaction set, and remote patron authentication were among the enhancements. Many of the enhancements were developed for both the Dynix and Horizon products, and can be used with NOTIS or other vendors systems. Collectively, they are designated "ConnectLib."
The company did not provide financial information or break down staffing levels by product. The information is, therefore, given at the end of the company description.
Horizon is offered on Hewlett- Packard, IBM RS/6000, Compaq Alpha, and a variety of NT server platforms. It is available both as a UNIX or NT product. It is a true client/server product, i.e., the clients must use Windows 95 or NT- there is no character-based user interface. The DBMS is Sybase, SQL Server, or Microsoft SQL Server. The programming languages are C++ and Perl.
There were 173 sales in 1999, including 129 new name sales, and one site discontinued use of the product. Until recently, the product was targeted at academic and special libraries, but in 1999 over 20% of the new name customers were public libraries and 15% were school libraries. Academic libraries purchased 40% of the systems, and special purchased 25%. The total installed base was 609 at the end of the year, including 39% in academic libraries, 46% in special libraries, 13% in public libraries, and 2% in school libraries. The size of sites is not known as the licensing is not based on the number of user licenses, but on the database size. There may be as many as 100 sites supporting over 200 concurrent users.
The core modules are all in general release. Inventorying, journal citation files, materials booking, interlibrary loan, and imaging are also available, but not information & referral. GUI is available for all modules, and there is a Web-based user interface available for the patron access catalog. There are interfaces to OCLC, RLIN, and WLN.
Z39.50 is supported, as is EDIFACT online ordering and claiming. Almost all sites were using cataloging, circulation, and patron access catalog at the end of 1999, but only half were using acquisitions. Over 75% were using serials control. Journal citation files was in use at 75% of the sites, and imaging by 25%. Some 38% of the sites were using the Web-based patron access catalog.
The was one major Horizon software release in 1999. Among the new features were integration of a Checkpoint firewall, TeleCirc II for patron notification, incorporation of EasyAsk (formerly English Wizard), remote patron authenti-cation, and improved self check-out support.
Epixtech continued to be the largest vendor in the industry, although it declined to provide financial data. Based on the size of the customer base, number of sales, and number of staff, the revenues are estimated at $90 million. The total number of staff in software development and maintenance for all products was 110 at the end of 1999. There also were 86 in marketing and sales and 295 in customer support.
The company maintains offices in Provo, UT, Evanston, IL, and St Paul in the US, Waterloo, ON in Canada, and in France, England, Australia, Taiwan, and New Zealand. There are resellers in nine other countries.
[Epixtech, 400 Dynix Drive, Provo, UT 84604-5650; (801) 223-5200 or (800) 223- 5413; fax (801) 223-5202; www.epixtech.com.]
EX LIBRIS offers its multi-user ALEPH product for the major hardware platforms of Compaq Digital, IBM, HP, and Sun. The majority of sales are software only. The operating systems are UNIX and LINUX. The DBMS is Oracle and code is written in C, C++, and Microfocus COBOL.
While the company continues to enhance its Aleph 300 product, the focus of new sales is on Aleph 500. The company completed 116 sales in 1999, including 98 new name sales. Some 74% of the new name sales were to academic libraries, 11% to special and 15% to public libraries. The total number of sites at the end of 1999 was 479, including 350 in Europe, 69 in Africa/Middle East, 10 in North America, and 49 in South America.
All of the core modules are available. Also available are inventorying, interlibrary loan, materials booking, information & referral, and imaging. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based patron access catalog is available. There are not only OCLC and RLIN interfaces, but also interfaces to various other bibliographic utilities. Z39.50 client/server is supported, as is EDIFACT online ordering and claiming. All libraries were using cataloging, circulation, GUI technical services, and Web-based patron access catalog at the end of 1999. Acquisitions and serials control were in use by 72%. ILL was in use at 26% of sites, inventorying at 20%, imaging at 20%, and I&R a 15%. Fewer than 30% had implemented Z39.50 client/ server. Ten percent had EDIFACT online ordering and claiming.
There were eight sites with 400+ users in 1999, 11 with 200-399, and 32 with 100-199. Some 95 sites supported 1- 9 users. The rest were in the middle.
Sales were between $15 and $20 million, with an after-tax profit. There were 43 staff committed to software maintenance/development, 25 to sales and marketing, and 90 to customer support.
The major software developments were enhancements in the acquisitions and serials control modules, and reserve book room sub-module.
In addition to its headquarters in Tel Aviv, the company maintains sales offices in the United States (Chicago, Boston, Oakland, and Salt Lake City), Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Luxembourg, and Germany. There are distributors in several other countries.
[EX Libris (USA) Inc., 1919 N. Sheffield, Chicago, IL 60614; (773) 404-5527; fax (773) 404-5601; exlibris-usa.com].
FRETWELL-DOWNING INFORMATICS LTD. offers OLIB on a wide range of hardware platforms with either UNIX or NT operating systems. The architecture is client/server. The DBMS is Oracle and the programming languages are C++, XCGI, C, and PL/SQL.
The company made 55 sales in 1999, including 31 new name sales. Forty-eight percent of the sales were to academic libraries and 52% to special libraries. Eighty-four percent of the new name sales were for NT-based systems. Eight sites discontinued use of their systems in 1999, thus the adjusted worldwide total installations became 155, including 134 in Europe, 12 in South America, seven in North America, six in Asia/Oceania, and four in Africa/Middle East. The installed base included 54% academic, 38% special, 6% public, and 2% school libraries at the end of 1999.
No information was provided about available modules and the use of modules by customers, but the company did estimate that the number of sites supporting 200-299 concurrent users was three, and the number supporting 100-199 was also three. Four sites supported 60- 99 concurrent users, 20 supported 30-59, 34 supported 16-29, 38 supported 10-15, 36 supported 6-9, and 17 supported five or fewer.
The company reported that its sales were in the $5-$10 million range, and that it achieved an after-tax profit. There were 23 staff devoted to software development and maintenance, eight to marketing and sales, and 14 to customer support. The major software enhancements in 1999 were revamped serials and copy cataloging/database maintenance modules; implementation of OLIB7 using MS terminal server; and the launch of the ZAmbol Z39.50 indexing product enabling structured datasets to be ~earched from the patron access catalog.
The company's headquarters is in Sheffield, England, but it has a U.S. office and distributors in Australia, Colombia, Hungary, Lebanon, The Netherlands, and Slovakia.
[Contact: Fretwell-Downing, 10308 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS 66212; (913) 649-7213; www.fdusa.com or www.fdgroup.com/fdi].
GATEWAY SOFTWARE CORPORATION offers its Library Management System software for the IBM AS/400 series of minicomputers. The operating system is OS/400, the DBMS is DB2 Universal Database/400, and the programming languages are RPG 4 and RPG ILE.
In 1999, the company sold a total of 23 systems, including four new name sales. All were to school libraries. The total number of installations at year-end was 156-all in North America. In 1999, four sites discontinued use of the systems.
The product does not have a serials control module, but it does have acquisitions, local cataloging, circulation, and patron access catalog. Inventorying, ILL, and materials booking also are available. There is a GUI for each module, and a Web-based user interface is available for the patron access catalog. There is a BiblioFile interface. Cataloging, circulation, inventorying, and patron access catalog were in use at all sites, but acquisitions was used by only 4%, interlibrary loan by 60%, and materials booking by just 16%. Forty-two percent were using GUI PAC, and 33% were using the Web-based patron access catalog interface.
While four sites supported fewer than 10 users and 26 supported more than 200 users at the end of 1999, the vast majority of the systems supported 10-199 users.
The company had sales of $1 to $2.5 million in 1999. The company did not comment on profitability. There were three staff committed to software maintenance and development at the end of 1999, three to sales and marketing, and four to customer support.
Major software developments were the addition of series searching to the patron access catalog, patron information look-up in the Web-based patron access catalog, optional printing of bibliographies to the Web-based patron access catalog, and addition of online reservations to the Web-based patron access catalog.
The company is headquartered in Montana, and has several distributors in North America.
[Gateway Software Corporation, 10 S. Montana Avenue, Fromberg, MT 59029; (406) 668-7661; fax (406) 668-7665; www.gscweb.com].
GAYLORD INFORMATION SYSTEMS offers two products: GALAXY and POLARIS.
GALAXY is offered on Compaq Alpha and VAX platforms and uses the Open VMS operating system. The DBMS is proprietary and the programming languages are C++ and Visual BASIC. The system is hierarchical, but is evolving toward client/server.
There were 49 sales in 1999, including four new name sales. Some 75% of the new name sales were to public libraries and 25% to school libraries. Sixteen customers discontinued use of their systems in 1999. The total number of installations at the end of 1999 was 291-all in North America, including 75% public, 15% academic, 4% special and 6% school libraries.
All core modules are available. Other available modules are inventorying, interlibrary loan, journal citation files, and information & referral. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based user interface for the patron access catalog. OCLC, RLIN, and WLN interfaces are supported, as is an interface to SuperCAT, Gaylord's own CD-ROM-based cataloging support system. Z39.50 client/server is supported. Online ordering and claiming are not supported. While all Bites were using local cataloging, circulation, and the patron access catalog at the end of 1999, only 20% each used GUI patron access catalog, Web-based patron access catalog, and GUI-based technical services clients. Approximately 16% used acquisitions and 12% used serials control. The level of use for all other modules was approximately 10% each.
The vast majority of installed systems supported from 15-99 users at the end of 1999. There were 85 sites supporting fewer than 15 users, however, one supported over 100 and one over 200.
There were 23 staff committed to software development and maintenance at the end of 1999, 14 to marketing and sales, and 17 to customer support. The company issued two Galaxy maintenance release in 1999.
The company did not break down financial information between its two products.
POLARIS, a client/server-based product, was introduced in 1997. It runs under the Windows NT operating system on Digital Alpha and Intel platforms. The DBMS is Microsoft SQL. The programming languages are C++ and Visual C++.
There were six sales in 1999, including three new name sales. Eighty percent of the sales were to public libraries and 20% to academic libraries. The total number of system installed and accepted at the end of 1999 was 18, 90% in public libraries, 8% in school, and 2% in academic libraries.
All of the core modules are available and were in use at all sites. Also available and in use were inventorying, and GUI for all modules. Not available were information & referral, journal citation files, information & referral, interlibrary loan, imaging, and materials booking. Online ordering and claiming were also not available. A Web-based user interface to the patron access catalog is available and was in use at all sites. Interfaces were available to OCLC, RLIN, BiblioFile, and SuperCat. Z39.50 client/server was installed on all systems.
Three of the systems supported over 400 users, four supported 200-300 users; three, 100-199 users; and the rest, as few as 30 users.
There were two product releases during the year, with a number of features added to all modules, including cross-reference display in the patron access catalog, audio feedback for all blocks, automatic printing of hold slips, purchase order templates, and ability to make multiple copies of a serial copy record.
There were 34 staff committed to software maintenance and development for POLARIS, 26 to sales and marketing, and 29 to customer support.
The company reported sales of $10 to $15 million for 1999, and an after-tax profit. In addition to its headquarters offices near Syracuse, Gaylord maintains offices in Brandon (FL), Williamsport (PA), Palm Harbor (FL), Eufala (AL), and Beaconsfield, QC.
[Gaylord Information Systems, 7272 Morgan Road, Liverpool, NY 13221-4901; (315) 457-5070 or (800) 272-3414; fax (315) 457-5883; www.gaylord.com.]
GEAC COMPUTERS INC. offers two products worldwide: ADVANCE Integrated Library Systems (which replaced the GLIS System), and PLUS Integrated Library System (formerly CLSI LIBS 100Plus). It also offers its European customers the VUBIS Integrated Library System. Geac continues to maintain and support, but does not actively sell or develop, the GLIS and LIBS 100 systems. Geac purchased Stowe Computing of Australia in late 1998. While it appears to have purchased the company for its customer base, it did sell one Stowe Book Plus system in 1999. A report on the product is, therefore, included herein.
ADVANCE, a client/server product, uses UNIX and is capable of running on a variety of hardware platforms, Sun, Motorola Power PC, and IBM. The DBMS is UniVerse. Pick is the programming language.
The company reported 54 ADVANCE system sales in 1999, six of which were new name sales. Eighty-three percent of new name sales were to academic libraries, and 17% to special libraries. Thirty-eight customers discontinued use of their systems in 1999. The total installed base at the end of 1999 was 208, including 104 in Europe, 82 in North America, and 33 in Asia/Oceania. The distribution by type of library of the entire customer base is significantly different from recent sales, with 20% in public libraries, 75% in academic, and 5% in special libraries.
All of the core modules are available, as are materials booking, journal citation files, information & referral, imaging, and interlibrary loan. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web- based user interface is available for the patron access catalog. OCLC, RLIN, and BiblioFile interfaces are also available. Z39.50 client/server and BISAC online ordering are supported. All customers were using local cataloging, circulation, and the patron access catalog at the end of 1999, and 90% were using acquisitions and serials control. Ten percent were using inventorying, 20% had interlibrary loan, 5% had journal citation files, 5% had information & referral, and 10% had materials booking. Forty percent had GUI for the patron access catalog. Another 25% had the Web-based patron access catalog. Forty percent were using Z39.50 client/server software.
Most of the systems were supporting 10-99 users at the end of 1999, but there were two systems that supported over 400 users, 20 with 200-399, and 80 with 100- 199 users.
Major enhancements for Advance included clients software for circulation and holdings maintenance.
Financial and staff ing information were not broken out by product.
BOOK Plus, the product developed by Stowe Computing, is a hierarchical system running under to 05 400 operating system on IBM AS/400 machines. It is sold only as a turnkey system. The company made one sale in 1999, a new name sale to a public library. The total number of installed systems at the end of 1999 was 84, including 53 in Asia/Oceania and 31 in Europe. Over 70% of the customers are public libraries, 25% are special libraries; the rest are academic libraries.
All of the core modules are available, as are inventorying, report generator, GUI and Web-based patron access catalog, and Z39.50 support. All customers have all available modules.
The systems tend to be mid-size, with 51 supporting 16-59 concurrent users. However three systems were supporting 100-199 concurrent users.
Twelve staff were committed to software development and maintenance, three to marketing and sales, and seven to customer support.
PLUS, which is a hierarchical product evolving toward client/server, is offered on Sun, IBM, and Motorola PowerPC hardware platforms using the UNIX operating system, the Informix DBMS, and it is written in ANSI-standard C and C++.
There were 40 system sales in 1999, including 10 new name sales. Eighty percent of the new name sales were to public libraries, 10% to academic, and 10% to school libraries. Thirty customers discontinued use of this system in 1999. The total installed base was 121 worldwide, including 47 in North America, 49 in Europe, and 15 in Asia/Oceania. Over 95% of the installations were in public libraries.
The core modules are all available, as are inventorying, interlibrary loan, journal citation files, and I&R. Imaging and materials booking are not available, but GUI and Web-based patron access catalog are. There are interfaces for OCLC and BiblioFile. Z39.50 client/ server is supported, as is BISAC online ordering. All sites were using cataloging, circulation, patron access catalog, and report generator, 75% were using acquisitions and 60% were using serials control. ILL was being used by 20%, information & referral by 10%, and journal citation files by 5%. Forty percent were using the GUI patron access catalog and 25% were using the Web-based patron access catalog. The Z39.50 client was implemented on 40% of systems, and BISAC online ordering on 10%.
The vast majority of installations supported 30-199 users at the end of 1999. Four systems supported 400 concur-rent users. Twenty-five supported 200-299, 40 supported 100-199, 26 supported 60-99, 16 supported 30-59, and 10 supported 16-29.
The major enhancements in 1999 were the client software for circulation and holdings maintenance.
VUBIS is available only in Europe. The hardware platforms are Sun, IBM, Compaq Digital Alpha, and System V. The operating systems include UNIX, NT, and VMS. The DBMS and programming language are both Cache'.
The company reported 57 sales in 1999, including 40 new name sales. There were 24 new name sales to public libraries, 14 to special libraries, and one each to academic and school libraries. Three-fourths of the sales were for NT- based systems. One customer discontinued use of the system in 1999, thus bring the total number of installed and accepted sites to 260, all in Europe. The total installed base includes 57% public libraries, 20% academic, 20% special, and 3% school libraries.
All core modules are available. Also available are inventorying, information & referral, interlibrary loan, and journal citation files. Both GUI and Web-based patron access catalog are available, as are GUI interfaces for staff modules. The major bibliographic support interface is PICA-a European bibliographic utility. Z39.50 client/ server is supported, but not EDIFACT. Imaging is not available. All of the sites were using cataloging, authority control, and report generator. Ninety percent were using circulation and the patron access catalog, but only 70% were using acquisitions and 40% were using serials control. Approximately 60% were using the GUI-based modules, and 50% were using the Web-based patron access catalog; 20% were using Z39.50.
VUBIS systems tend to be small, with 170 of the sites supporting 29 or fewer users. Only one site had over 400 users, another had 200-399, and 10 others 100-199. The rest were in the mid-range, 30-99 users.
There were two staff devoted to VUBIS software development and maintenance at the end of 1999, 13 to marketing and sales, and 11 to customer support.
Except for VUBIS staffing data, financial and staffing figures were not provided for the individual products except. Total revenues were $45-$50 million, with an after-tax profit. There were 48 staff devoted to software development/maintenance, 38 to marketing and sales, and 78 to customer support for the products other than VUBIS.
In addition to its headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Geac has offices in the U.S., Australia, France, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.K.
[Geac Computers Inc., 9 Technology Drive, Westborough, MA 01581-5150; (800) 825- 2574 or (508) 871-6800; fax: (508) 871- 6850 or (800) 759-0126; www.geac.com; and Geac Computers Ltd., Suite 300, 11 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario, L3R 1B3 Canada; (416) 475-0525; fax (416) 475-3847.]
INNOVATIVE INTERFACES, INC. offers Innopac, which is evolving into Innopac Millennium, a product that uses Java to support "thin clients" or diskless PC5. The hardware is Compaq Digital, IBM, HP, or Sun; the operating system is UNIX, and the programming language is C. The DBMS has been proprietary, but Oracle is being added as an option.
The company made 126 sales in 1999, including 104 new name sales. The breakdown by library type was 61% to academic, 27% to public, and 12% to special libraries. Two customers discontinued use of their systems. The total number of installed systems at the end of the year was 991, including 696 in North America, 44 in Europe, 73 in Asia/ Oceania, and 22 in Africa/Middle East. The installed base includes 25% public, 58% academic, 15% special, and 2% school libraries.
All of the core modules are available, plus inventorying, interlibrary loan, materials booking, journal citation files, information & referral, and imaging. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based patron access catalog is also available. Interfaces to OCLC, RLIN, WLN, and BiblioFile are offered. Z39.50 client/server is supported. EDIFACT online ordering and claiming are not available, but BISAC online ordering and EDI x.12 online claiming are. Almost all sites were using the core modules at the end of 1999, including acquisitions and serials control-modules which are used by only a minority of libraries using other systems. Eighty percent had an OCLC interface and 10% had an RLIN interface. Forty percent were using Z39.50 server and 25% the client. Over 20% were using GUI for staff modules, 50% were using GUI patron access catalog, and 60% were using the Web-based patron access catalog. Over 20% each had implemented ILL and imaging; 15% had materials booking; and 5% had I&R.
The majority of the systems are mid-size. At least one site had over 400 concurrent users, 11 had 200-399, and eight had 100-199. There were 43 sites with fewer than 30 concurrent users. The numbers may be understated because the Web-based patron access catalog is sold as a site license, therefore, a customer can increase the number of concurrent users without purchasing more licenses. There were probably at least 170 sites supporting over 100 concurrent users.
The company had revenues of $60-$70 million in 1999, and realized a profit. There were 75 staff committed to software maintenance and development, 35 to sales and marketing, and 125 to customer support.
The major software development in 1999 was the release of Millennium Serials, a Java and Web-based serials control module, and the beta testing of Millennium Acquisitions. Oracle was introduced as an optional DBMS. Millennium Kids Online was also introduced.
In addition to its U.S. headquarters, the company maintains offices in Brisbane, Australia; Bristol, England; Ontario; Taipei; Stockholm, Madrid, Lisbon, and Bangkok.
[Innovative Interfaces, Inc., 5850 Shellmound Street, Emeryville, CA 94608; (800) 444-2344 or (510) 655-6200; fax (510) 450-6350; www.iii.com].
KEYSTONE SYSTEMS, INC. The primary hardware platforms for KLAS are Sun, IBM and Compaq DEC Alpha using the UNIX, AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT operating systems. The DBMS and programming language are Progress, a fourth generation relational database manager.
The company sold 12 systems in 1999-10 of them new name sales. Six of the new name sales were to special libraries and four to public libraries. Eighty percent of the customers chose UNIX and 20% chose NT. One customer discontinued the use of its system in 1999. The total number of installations at the end of the year was 30, all in North America. Two-thirds of the sites were in special libraries, with the rest evenly split between public and academic libraries.
All of the core modules are available, as are inventorying and materials booking. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based patron access catalog is also available. OCLC, RLIN, WLN, and BiblioFile interfaces are offered. Z39.50 server is not supported, but not Z39.50 client. Not offered are ILL, journal citation files, information & referral, and imaging. EDIFACT online ordering and claiming are not supported. All of the sites were using the cataloging, circulation, inventorying, and report generator modules, but only 17% were using acquisitions. Serials control was in use by 72% of the sites. Materials booking was used at 3%. Over 80% were using the GUI and Web-based patron access catalog interfaces. One-third had Z39.50 server. The systems tend to be small, with only four supporting as many as 30-59 concurrent users; and 10 supporting 1-5 concurrent users.
The Company reported revenues of under $1 million for 1998, but did not update the information for 1999; it did claim an after-tax profit. A staff of five was committed to software maintenance and development at the end of 1999; two to marketing and sales, and four to customer support.
The major software development was the addition of document delivery.
[Keystone Systems, Inc., 8016 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27612; (919) 782-1143 or (800) 222-9711; fax (919) 782- 6835; www.klas.com].
OPEN TEXT, formerly Information Dimensions, offers a software-only product, known as BASIS TECHLIB, almost exclusively to special libraries. The product, which utilizes client/server architecture, runs on IBM, HP, Sun, and Compaq Alpha hardware platforms. The operating systems are UNIX, NT, and OpenVMs. BASISp1us is the DBMS software, and the applications are written in C, C++, Active-X, Visual BASIC, and Javascript.
The company sold 21 systems in 1999-including 10 new name sales, all to special libraries. Two-thirds of the customers chose NT and one-third chose UNIX as the operating system. During the year, 21 sites ceased use of the systems. The total number of installations at the end of 1998 was 269 worldwide, including 99 in North America; 156 in Europe, 12 in Asia/Oceania; one in Africa/Middle East, and one in South America.
All of the core modules are available. Also available are interlibrary loan, journal citation files, and imaging. Not available are inventorying, information & referral, and materials booking. Both GUI and Web-based patron access catalog interfaces are available; and Web-based interfaces to other modules, but not staff GUIs. OCLC, RLIN, BiblioFile, and Marcive interfaces are offered. There also is Z39.50 client/ server support but not EDIFACT. Almost all sites were using cataloging, circulation, and patron access catalog at the end of 1998, but only 50% were using acquisitions and 75% were using serials control. Interlibrary loan was used by 25%, journal citation files by 30%, and imaging by 15%. The GUI patron access catalog was used by 3%, and the Web-based patron access catalog interface was used by 90%. Only 1% were using the Z39.50 server.
Sites do not have to report the number of concurrent users, but the company estimated that 24 supported over 400, 22 supported 200-399, 43 supported 100-199, 140 supported 10-99, and 40 supported fewer than five concurrent users.
The company reported sales of $35- $40 million in 1998. It did not report data for 1999, but it's parent organization had revenues of $90-$100 million for 1999. There were seven staff committed to software maintenance and enhancement at the end of 1999, five to sales and marketing, and 12 to customer support.
The major software enhancement in 1999 was release of Livelink Cataloged Library. It integrates Techlib with the Livelink collaborative knowledge management solution so that Web content management is added to the catalog.
The company maintains offices in Dublin (OH), Livonia (MI), Redmond (WA), Bannockburn (IL), Waterloo, Toronto, London, Paris, and Frankfurt.
[Open Text, Inc., 5080 Tuttle Crossing Blvd., Dublin, OH 43016-3569; (614) 761- 7228; fax (614) 761-7290; www.opentext.com].
SIRSI CORPORATION offers its Unicorn Collection Management System for IBM, HP, Sun, DEC, and Intel platforms. There is a slightly different version of the product marketed to federal libraries as STILAS. The operating system is UNIX or NT server; the DBMS is Informix or Oracle, and the programming languages are C and C++.
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.
All core modules are available, as are inventorying, journal citation files, information & referral, materials booking, and imaging. Interlibrary loan is not yet available, but much of the functionality is included in circulation. GUI is available for all modules, and a Web-based patron access catalog is also available. There are interfaces for OCLC, RLIN, WLN, BiblioFile, and LaserCat. Z39.50 support is offered, as are EDIFACT online ordering and claiming. Al]. sites had cataloging, circulation, inventorying, information & referral, and imaging at the end of 1999. Acquisitions was installed at 70% of sites, serials control at 75%. Materials booking and journal citation files at 20-25% each. Only 5% were using GUI-based PAC, but 95% were using the Web-based patron access catalog interface. Over 90% had GUI technical services.
The company said that it could not provide data about the number of user licenses because the Web-base patron access catalog is offered as a site license, therefore, customers can increase the number of concurrent users without purchasing additional licenses. However, it had provided estimates in 1998. At that time there were 87 sites supporting over 100 users, including approximately 45 supporting more than 200 users. There were 636 sites supporting fewer than 30 concurrent users.
The company did not report its 1999 revenues, but did claim an after-tax profit. We estimate revenues at $25-$30 million. A staff of 41 was committed to software development and maintenance; 45 to sales and marketing; and 107 to customer support at the end of 1999.
Major software developments focused on the further development of "WorkFlows," a staff interface designed to tailor a graphical client to specific staff tasks; major enhancements to the serials control module; and the integration of the Oracle relational DBMS.
The company maintains offices in Huntsville, Salt Lake City, Ottawa, Madrid, Mexico City, Melbourne, Riyadh, London, and Beijing.
[Sirsi Corporation, 101 Washington Street SE, Huntsville, AL 35801; (256) 704-7000; fax (256) 704-7007; www.sirsi.com].
TLC (The Library Corporation) offers its Library.Solution for Intel Pentium quad or dual processors. The architecture is client/server, the operating system is NT, the DBMS is Oracle, and the code is written in object-oriented c++.
The company sold 122 systems in 1999, including 67 new name accounts. Fifty-four percent of the sales were to public libraries, 20% to academic, 17% to special, and 12% to school libraries. The total number of installed systems at the end of 1999 was 230, including 228 in North America and one each in South America and Africa/Middle East.
All core modules are available, as well as materials booking and information & referral. GUI is available for all modules except the patron access catalog, for which only a Web-based user interface is available. Z39.50 is supported. BISAC online ordering is supported, but not EDIFACT. Journal citation files, imaging, and interlibrary loan are not available. All of the clients were using cataloging, circulation, inventorying, and patron access catalog. Thirteen percent were using acquisitions, and 13% serials control. Eighty percent were using information & referral, and 1% was using materials booking. All had Z39.50 client, but only 7% had Z39.50 server. All had a BiblioFile interface, 28% had an OCLC interface, and 35% had an RLIN interface.
Systems tend to be small, with 128 supporting 1-9 users, 51 supporting 10- 15; 58, 16-29; 20, 30-59; six 60-99, one, 100-199; and one 400+ concurrent users.
The company reported revenues of $10-$15 million for 1999, with an after- tax profit. There were 29 staff committed to software development and maintenance, 17 to marketing and sales, and 28 to customer support.
The major software development of 1999 was the release of Library.Solution version 2.0.
In addition to its headquarters, the company maintains offices in Atlanta, Kansas City, and Singapore.
[TLC, Research Park, Inwood, WV 25428; (800-624-0559); fax (304) 229-0295; TLCdelivers .com].
VTLS, INC. offers two products, VTLS99 and Virtua, the latter a client/server product introduced in 1997. The intent is to offer existing VTLS9x customers the opportunity to migrate to Virtua when they wish. New customers can purchase either product, but the latter is still in development.
VTLS99 is available for Hewlett-Packard 3000 Series, RISC architecture computers under the MPE/IX operating system; HP 9000 Series RISC architecture, under the HP-UX operating system; IBM RS/6000 RISC architecture computers under the AIX operating system; the Compaq DEC Alpha RISC architecture computers under the Digital UNIX operating system; and the Sun Sparc series under the SunOS operating system. The software is written in C, C++, and COBOL; the DBMS is Oracle. The staff clients require a Windows 95 or NT platform.
The company reported 34 sales in 1999, including nine new name sales. The new name sales were to public libraries. The total installed customer base at the end of 1999 was 425, including 172 in North America, 130 in Europe, 56 in Asia/Oceania, 41 in South America, and 26 in Africa/Middle East. Fifty-nine percent of the systems were in academic libraries, 24% in special, 16% in public, and 1% in school libraries. No information was provided about sites that discontinued use of the system in 1999.
All of the core modules were available at the end of 1999, as were ILL, inventorying, materials booking, journal citation files, I&R, and imaging. GUI was available for all modules, as was a Web-based patron access catalog interface. Interfaces were available to OCLC, RLIN, WLN, and BiblioFile. Z39.50 was supported. BISAC online ordering and EDI X.l2 online claiming were available, but not EDIFACT. All sites were using cataloging and the patron access catalog. Ninety-six percent were using circulation and inventorying, 87% had serials control, 43% had acquisitions, 12% had information & referral, 9% had materials booking, and 5% had imaging. The GUI patron access catalog was in use at all sites; the Web-based patron access catalog at 78% of sites. Approximately 42% had GUI technical services.
Current data about the number of user licenses was not provided for VTLS9x, but data was provided for the two products together. See the summary following the description of Virtua.
Virtua is available for Sun as well as HP, IBM, and Compaq Alpha platforms using UNIX. The DBMS is Oracle, the programming languages are C and C++.
There were 49 sales in 1999, including 12 new name sales-all to academic libraries. The total number of installations was 15, including six in North America, six in Asia/Oceania, two in Europe, and one in South America. Over half of the sites were in academic libraries; the rest were mainly in multi-type consortia.
All core modules were available, as well as inventorying and materials booking. All sites were using local cataloging, authority control, patron access catalog with both GUI and Web- based user interfaces, circulation, report generator, Internet access management, and Z39.50. Seventy-five percent each had acquisitions and serials control. All had an OCLC interface and 60% had an RLIN interface.
Thirty-four of the systems supported more than 400 users, 55 supported 200-299, 55 supported 100-199, 54 supported 60-99, 80 supported 30-59, 63 supported 16-29, 38 supported 10-15, and 46 supported 6-9 concurrent users. Sales were in the $10-$15 million range, and an after-tax profit was realized.
A staff of 33 was committed to software maintenance and development for both products, 49 in marketing and sales (including 31 employed by agents), and 29 in customer Support.
The major software development effort in 1999 was directed to the completion of Virtua, the next-generation VTLS system. Claiming was added to serials control, EDI for invoices was added to acquisitions, broadcast searching was added to the Web gateway, and Unicode support was added to cataloging.
In addition to its offices in Blacksburg (VA), VTLS maintains offices in Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, and Krakow. Licensed agents are in 12 countries.
[VTLS, Inc., 1701 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060; (800) 468-8857 or (540) 557-1200; fax (540) 557-1210; www.vtls.com].
