[Evergreen-general] ILS Conversion Justification Questions

[Deborah Luchenbill]

I want to second everything Rogan and Joan said. (And with the disclaimer
that I work for MOBIUS, but also have my community hat on here.)

There was a really good session at the 2020 Evergreen International Online
Conference that discussed how to talk about the value of open-source. It
addresses a lot of your questions, and might be helpful:
https://youtu.be/LP1_PKol8ac.

Best,
Debbie

Debbie Luchenbill
Associate Director, Open Source Initiatives
MOBIUS
2511 Broadway Bluffs, Ste. 101
Columbia, MO  65201
debbie at mobiusconsortium.org <deborah at mobiusconsortium.org>
573-234-4914
https://mobiusconsortium.org <http://mobiusconsortium.org>
Evergreen Help Desk: help at mobiusconsortium.org / 877-312-3517
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers


On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 1:26 PM Joan Kranich <jkranich at cwmars.org> wrote:

> Hello Wendell,
>
> We have been an Evergreen system since 2012.  Before Evergreen all of our
> systems were proprietary systems.
>
> The ability to have some control over development is a big bonus.  We can
> implement new features that have been developed and we can also have
> development done for features not yet available.  The Evergreen community
> is very supportive.
>
> Good luck with your process.
>
> Joan
>
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 10:35 AM Gragg, Wendell E <WGragg at bryantx.gov>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone.  This is my first post here, so if I am posting in the
>> wrong place, please feel free to let me know.
>>
>>
>>
>> Our library system (3 branches) is considering a move from Polaris to
>> Evergreen and we are going to need to jump through a number of hoops in
>> this process, beginning with the point of my post, justifying the
>> conversion.
>>
>>
>>
>> What we are looking at is using a hosted solution due to the fact that
>> our city IT department will not allow us to have anything but a Windows
>> based server. Currently, we have a production server, telephony server and
>> a test server, all running Windows and MS SQL.
>>
>>
>>
>> Currently, we have approximately 204k bib records, around 49k patrons and
>> an annual circ between 500-600k. Only two of our branches circulate.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have received quotes from three companies (Mobius, Equinox and Emerald)
>> for hosting and migration services and all three would come well under the
>> approximately 40k per year we are paying for Polaris maintenance, so
>> financially it would make sense. What I need is justifications/reasons to
>> convert to an open source ILS from a proprietary system.  What are the
>> advantages, both theoretical and real world and the potential pitfalls?
>> Has making such a conversion saved you time and effort in administration
>> and operation of the system?
>>
>>
>>
>> One of our biggest hurdles in getting this approved is going to be the
>> cyber security section of our city IT department.  They are quite
>> aggressive and demanding (oh the stories I could tell…), so I will need to
>> gather information on that too. Any advice there would be greatly
>> appreciated, especially if you can impart any knowledge as to the security
>> aspects of Evergreen and/or the hosting providers I mentioned.
>>
>>
>>
>> Please feel free to contact me off list if that is your preference.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendell
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendell Gragg, MSIS
>>
>> Automation Services Supervisor
>>
>> Bryan+College Station Public Library System
>>
>> Bryan, TX
>>
>> 979-209-5613
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Evergreen-general mailing list
>> Evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org
>> http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/evergreen-general
>>
>
>
> --
>
> ​​
>
> Joan Kranich | Library Applications Manager
>
> CW MARS
>
> jkranich at cwmars.org
>
> 508-755-3323 x321 or x1 <(508)%20755-3323>
>
> http://www.cwmars.org
>
> Pronouns <https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why>: she, her, hers
>
>
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