Eileen’s Blog

Well, I just got back to work from the annual CODI, Customers of Dynix, Inc., annual conference and the last one to boot. Because of the demise of Horizon as a product there will no longer be a CODI conference but a joint conference with the Unicorn User Group beginning in 2009 in Dallas. We, I say we because until the end of December I’m on the CODI Board, have had very cordial talks with the UUGI Board and they are a very nice group of people.

The conference as a whole was very good with many good customer generated programs. Amy Terlaga did an outstanding job considering the very real hurtles she had to jump. I can’t say enough about what a great job she and the programming committee did. The SirsiDynix staff did their best to provide insights into the Symphony product that they will be offering to all of their customers, Dynix Classic, Horizon, and Unicorn, soon. That I find the product at this point inadequate compared to Horizon does not take away from their earnest efforts to convince us this is the way to go.

They have even recognized that since THEY put us all in the position of having to migrate they needed to step up and provide a FREE, yes FREE option to do so. That option is open for anyone wishing to make the move without an RFP and with the signing of a 3 year maintenance commitment and not needing any custom services. I’m encouraged by their recognition that something had to be done for the benefit of the customer.

Many very nice things happened at the conference but the buzz, the thing everyone who was not there wants to hear about is the unannounced, invitation only meeting with Martin Taylor from Vista Equity Partners about open source. Mr. Taylor began the meeting in a very cordial way and with a charm about him that belied the basic message he proceeded to give. That message was, we know more than you do and if you don’t like it you can go to some other “happy place”. He actually said that on more than one occasion. Never at any time did he acknowledge that Vista put its customers in a very bad position and that in any way were they sorry for it albeit that the decision might have been the right one for them at the time.

Any one who knows me knows I don’t mince words. If you ask me a question you had better be able to take the answer because I’m going to give it to you as I see it. What I saw and heard at that meeting, and I’m not alone, was a total arrogance that I never thought I’d see from a vendor. While I happen to agree with his assessment of open source for a library ILS at this point in time and the many problems with the very nature of the beast without some kind of regulating body, the message was lost in the messenger’s attitude. I did make a comment that Vista was responsible, single handedly of opening up the Pandora’s box of open source as an option to Dynix and Horizon customers. The very acceleration of Evergreen as an option, in my opinion, is something they brought on themselves and it might very well be their undoing.

So, OPPL will most likely go to some other “happy place”. And in many very personal ways this makes me sad. I’ve made a lot of friends both in the user community and amongst the company staff. They are good people who understand the library community and want to deliver a good product. They are being cut off at the knees by an owning company who seems to care nothing about them or us or the product.

Many people have asked me if we will leave and where we will go. OPPL will put forward our RFP. We will choose from vendors who want to do business with us WITHOUT insulting us. Many people at the meeting told me they were poor and felt they HAD to stay because they didn’t have the money to move to another vendor. My answer is you CAN move if you want to move. Other vendors are out there who WANT your business and are willing to make the deal you need. They can work around a multi-year finance option if you just ask.

The decision is really up to us. We are not sheep who will just keep writing those checks and take what a vendor wants to give us and be happy about it. We do have choices be they open source such as Evergreen or other ILS vendors. We are intelligent users who know the library world, our patrons and staff, and how a library automation system ought to work. We know how to network and share with one another. And no one at Vista or any other company should take us for granted as a never ending revenue stream.