An Introduction To Axiell Group

Editor's Notes

• #2: Adam Schatz, global head of the ALM BA within Axiell. Joined 8 months ago, still relatively new to the company. Opportunity to provide you with an overview of Axiell and ALM BA and so share with you why I am so so passionate about what we do!
• #3: The Axiell mission and our market Our IT platforms… help our customers uphold key pillars of society
• #4: How is Axiell structured and what is ALM’s place within the Group. Span across key culture sectors; making us quite unique. BA PL, BA Edu, BA Media… Within ALM, we provide… Although ALM is run in a way as a separate entity, collaborate with PL and Education, refer to Ben
• #5: The Axiell Group has a global presence, which is one of our strengths. Our more than 300 colleagues in 24 countries support customers in 55 countries. “Close to Customer” a lead theme. Being global, we can combine being close to customer with picking up on best practices around the world. This meeting is a key fixture in our calendars. Our customer base is one of our strongest assets… speaking of customers...
• #6: Our Public libraries business area serves 1000 PLs today, primarily in the Nordic countries and the UK. We are about to launch a new product, called Quria, which will also allow us enter new markets, starting with France.
• #7: Our Education Business Area serves 3000 school libraries.
• #8: …and within ALM, we serve more than 3000 customers in most corners of the world.
• #9: As you saw in the opening session this morning, Axiell’s strategy to combine organic growth acquisitions and partnerships. Adding expertise, products and geographies under the Axiell umbrella… serving our customers better. So, it is with great pleasure that since two weeks back, we now have a new milestone to add to this timeline: Acquisition of Mobydoc. Eric. Sally Carter from the National Museum of Wales! At future events…
• #10: What is Mobydoc and what will be Mobydoc’s role within Axiell? Mobydoc is a pioneer… We will maintain the great foundation built up... Bringing Mobydoc under the Axiell umbrella will allow us jointly to learn from each others approaches to products and services and enhance our expertise and capacity, in France and elsewhere.
• #13: So what have we done since the last update. We had a rename and replaced Cover with Axiell Collections. This strategy is not that different to my presentation at last year’s user conference but we have achieved a lot since then: We have broadened the remit of Axiell Collections and strengthened the team working on this. We now have a worldwide team focused on the connections between the data and Axiell Collections. We could have done this faster with less effort but it is important that we not only deliver Collections but have a useful middleware or APIs Layer for connecting up existing or new tools and products. We have done technical assessments for the different products and updated the roadmaps, including a plan for some consistency and flexibility at the database level We have created a senior Product Board, influenced by the market and our user base We have appointed Andrea Boyes as the Axiell Collections - Product Manager We have implemented Axiell Collections for a select group of Adlib users We have released new versions of all 4 products We are communicating more to our users, more consistently and better – thanks to Chrissie (& Maria) We are winning lots of new business with Axiell Collections and our platform strategy is being well received. We are cross skilled and cross skilling. Eg IWM project managed by Alex, development done by Joanna and Ryan with core development by Christ in NL We are not staying still with Mobydoc now joining the company. This should not be seen as a threat but as an advantage – new ideas, different approaches, new opportunities
• #14: [TRANSITIONS] Now I’m going to spend a bit of time on this slide as it is an important overview of what we are building for our customers. My aim is to highlight to you, our customers, what there is to gain from being an Axiell customer. As an Adlib, Selago, KE, or DS customer there were definite benefits and strengths in the products developed and supported by those companies. But when you put those strengths together, we as Axiell can now produce something better than the individual companies could ever do alone. We still have a way to go in some areas but the future is certainly bright. So on to Axiell Collections …. 1st Slide transitions – Axiell Collections web interface We have been developing a new web interface for our users. This allows: Flexible access to your collections data via a common web browser (without any plug-ins) It is an extension to your current system (Adlib, EMu, Calm or Mimsy) and is entirely optional The interface understands your existing system – no migration of data is necessary Easy to use, easy to manage Intuitive and flexible design 2nd Slide transitions – However, Axiell Collections is but one part of a larger platform we are building Axiell Collections is a web interface that is a key component of a larger platform. We are building this platform to provide more flexibility to Axiell Collections as well as other application or tools that we roll out in the future. 3rd Slide transitions – Axiell Collections platform This overview shows where our Axiell Collections web interface fits in, it is an important component but it is but one component of our wider offering and strategy. Key points to this infrastructure: Starting at the bottom we have the data layer. We then have a security layer. The security of data is very important and the tools to manage the security might involve integration with existing security and access tools. The API – currently we have a mixture of APIs as a result of the legacy of the 4 products. Our aims and current plans are to continue to enhance this API layer as a matter of priority. The more flexible and consistent the API layer is, the more opportunities there are to share developments and enhancements across our whole customer base. This leads into the top layer or the icing on the cake: On the left we have the 4 windows client interfaces that we are still supporting and developing We then have Axiell Collections which is a web based interface as previously discussed. This will be the same web application but will have different views to suit Adlib, Calm, EMu and Mimsy Next to the web interface component is the 3rd Party Connections and Public API. Some of our existing products have already had considerable effort and development put into Public APIs and connection tools for integration with 3rd party interfaces or applications. We want to not only have a Public API available to all our products but we want to improve and enhance what we already have. We then have a mixture of tools, functions and products:[explain some of these in some detail] Public interfaces & Apps GIS tools Workflow Integrated Pest Management DAMS tools Onyx Sapphire Plus more Summary So in summary, this is not a new concept and I did talk about this model in February 2015 but given all the changes and work that has happened I thought it best to reiterated our strategy and explain it in a bit more detail. We have already seen the value of combined developments and shared expertise and this has had direct benefits on our customers, eg. DAMS tools at IWM, Axiell Move at the Museum of the American West, GIS tools and expertise for the Sara project, etc. If anyone has a project that could benefit from one or more of these tools or components that I have mentioned, please come and see me to discuss it further. Our products board chaired by Bern Marshall (ALM CTO) uses input from our customer base to help influence priorities on our roadmap. Next are Timescales and Costs ….
• #15: [NO TRANSITIONS] Now I’m going to spend a bit of time on this slide as it is an important overview of what we are building for our customers. My aim is to highlight to you, our customers, what there is to gain from being an Axiell customer. As an Adlib, Selago, KE, or DS customer there were definite benefits and strengths in the products developed and supported by those companies. But when you put those strengths together, we as Axiell can now produce something better than the individual companies could ever do alone. We still have a way to go in some areas but the future is certainly bright. So on to Axiell Collections …. 1st Slide transitions – Axiell Collections web interface We have been developing a new web interface for our users. This allows: Flexible access to your collections data via a common web browser (without any plug-ins) It is an extension to your current system (Adlib, EMu, Calm or Mimsy) and is entirely optional The interface understands your existing system – no migration of data is necessary Easy to use, easy to manage Intuitive and flexible design 2nd Slide transitions – However, Axiell Collections is but one part of a larger platform we are building Axiell Collections is a web interface that is a key component of a larger platform. We are building this platform to provide more flexibility to Axiell Collections as well as other application or tools that we roll out in the future. 3rd Slide transitions – Axiell Collections platform This overview shows where our Axiell Collections web interface fits in, it is an important component but it is but one component of our wider offering and strategy. Key points to this infrastructure: Starting at the bottom we have the data layer. We then have a security layer. The security of data is very important and the tools to manage the security might involve integration with existing security and access tools. The API – currently we have a mixture of APIs as a result of the legacy of the 4 products. Our aims and current plans are to continue to enhance this API layer as a matter of priority. The more flexible and consistent the API layer is, the more opportunities there are to share developments and enhancements across our whole customer base. This leads into the top layer or the icing on the cake: On the left we have the 4 windows client interfaces that we are still supporting and developing We then have Axiell Collections which is a web based interface as previously discussed. This will be the same web application but will have different views to suit Adlib, Calm, EMu and Mimsy Next to the web interface component is the 3rd Party Connections and Public API. Some of our existing products have already had considerable effort and development put into Public APIs and connection tools for integration with 3rd party interfaces or applications. We want to not only have a Public API available to all our products but we want to improve and enhance what we already have. We then have a mixture of tools, functions and products:[explain some of these in some detail] Public interfaces & Apps GIS tools Workflow Integrated Pest Management DAMS tools Onyx Sapphire Plus more Summary So in summary, this is not a new concept and I did talk about this model in February 2015 but given all the changes and work that has happened I thought it best to reiterated our strategy and explain it in a bit more detail. We have already seen the value of combined developments and shared expertise and this has had direct benefits on our customers, eg. DAMS tools at IWM, Axiell Move at the Museum of the American West, GIS tools and expertise for the Sara project, etc. If anyone has a project that could benefit from one or more of these tools or components that I have mentioned, please come and see me to discuss it further. Our products board chaired by Bern Marshall (ALM CTO) uses input from our customer base to help influence priorities on our roadmap. Next are Timescales and Costs ….
• #17: For those that pay support and maintenance we want to recognise this investment and not double charge you. We see a standard web interface as being an alternative way of entering data into your system not a new application - Our aim is to make the web application as accessible to our customers as possible. Optional tools may incur some costs, eg. iBeacons, DAMS
• #19: I now want to discuss where the museums or ALM part of the business fits within the bigger scheme. We have discussed the benefits of sharing resources and creating a platform for all our ALM users but what else are we trying to achieve? The business areas are separate but they overlap and given that we are the same company we have some really interesting things to offer our customers and the market. We have done some market research and there is a real interest in this cultural offering so our next step is to find some interested candidates who have a need for these tools and then we will modify them to suit. So what are some of the new tools we have launched…..
• #20: Quria is a cloud-based, digital-first Library Services Platform, designed to facilitate the transformation of the modern public library. It’s unique in how it supports library staff, making daily work routines more efficient, dramatically reducing the number of systems that staff need access to, and providing a complete overview of what is happening in the library. WeLearn is a digital gathering place that helps educators to find and use all of the school's available resources and link them to the goals and knowledge criteria in the curriculum. In WeLearn you always have access to your resources, and you can work integrated with the tools you already use, such as Google Apps or Office 365 Support. A part from combining strategies with technology offerings there are 2 areas we are investigating further: Providing easy tools to combine museum collections data with library data in a consistent and flexible format A tool for museums to better create, manage, share and track the usage of learning resources. To essentially tag museum objects (including digital resources) in a pedagogical way that makes sense to teachers/schools and increases the use of museums as a core learning resource.
• #21: Education and Library offerings