SirsiDynix announces new "Rome" ILS (Xposted at Scattered Librarian)

1st: Starting with this entry, I'll be crossposting selected blog posts from Scattered Libraria n here as well-- basically the stuff that (I like to think) is particularly interesting or insightful. Feel free to visit there for more of my posts on Time management and my thoughts on all things Library.

2nd: This email from the folks at SirsiDynix was waiting in my box when I got into work today...

Dear valued SirsiDynix customer,
Later today, SirsiDynix will make an exciting announcement for both our company and the library market. Before the announcement becomes public knowledge and a press release is issued, I wanted to personally share now what the rest of the world will hear shortly – as well as explain to you what it means for customers of SirsiDynix Unicorn, DRA Classic, and MultiLIS integrated library systems.
SirsiDynix will unveil that we are blending the strengths and best features of Unicorn, Horizon/Corinthian, and other solutions to create a new, versatile technology platform to serve 21^st-century libraries and consortia. Code-named “Rome,” this platform goes beyond the traditional integrated library system to encompass the full range of technology building blocks for managing library operations and resources, while providing meaningful user experiences to your information consumers.
Rome is built on the architecture of the industry-standard Unicorn Library Management System – with its record of stability, quality, and performance – and will include an impressive set of new solutions created as part of Horizon 8.0/Corinthian development. The first release of Rome will be available in the fourth quarter of this year. The target time for the second release is late 2008.
What does this mean to Unicorn, DRA Classic, and MultiLIS customers?
There are several key points you should know:
SirsiDynix will continue to maintain and support Unicorn. (Note SirsiDynix’s policy of actively supporting a given product in its current release and two prior releases.)
Unicorn GL3.2 and Horizon 8.1/Corinthian will not be released. Instead, the new functionality of both will be incorporated into Rome over time.
We will focus our research-and-development efforts on Rome. As a result, Rome will be the platform for all SirsiDynix users in the future.
However, Rome will offer a host of features and benefits developed for Unicorn, and the Unicorn architecture is at the heart of the new platform. When upgrading from Unicorn to Rome, current Unicorn users will find Rome to be very familiar, therefore requiring little or no additional training or other upgrade services.
Here are the upgrade or migration paths for Unicorn, DRA Classic, and MultiLIS customers:
Customers on Unicorn GL3.1 or earlier can upgrade to Rome using the same criteria as in the past.
Customers not already on Unicorn GL3.1 should proceed to this latest Unicorn release, as it will provide for an easy upgrade to the Rome platform. After Unicorn GL3.1, the next major upgrade for Unicorn sites will be Rome.
DRA Classic and MultiLIS sites have the immediate option to migrate to Unicorn GL3.1. Otherwise, they can follow the path to Rome in the coming months. (Note that SirsiDynix has announced DRA Classic’s end of life, with support for this legacy product ending on February 28, 2009. Previously, SirsiDynix announced end of life for MultiLIS, with support ending on June 30, 2007.)
The upcoming press release will offer more information about the major features and benefits of Rome. I cannot stress enough that this new technology platform will provide the “best of both worlds” – the stability you require and the features you need.
As always, if you have questions about your particular case, please contact your SirsiDynix account representative.
Regards,
Talin Bingham
Chief Technology Officer
SirsiDynix

Note: the press release has since been put out on the SirsiDynix website, click here to read.
Can't say I'm surprised, anyone with a brain knew that they were going to merge Unicorn and Horizon, economies of scale being the whole point of the SirsiDynix merger. From an unashamedly selfish standpoint I'm glad "Rome" is being built on the basic Unicorn framework--we're just getting used to this interface, and I was not relishing the idea of having to relearn our ILS in a year. I'm not acquainted with either platform well enough to venture an opinion on whether they picked the "right" horse. I am intrigued to see how (if at all) SirsiDynix responds to the 2.0 paradigm with Rome's features, and while some of the statements in the press release sound intriguing/promising, we haven't even seen screenshots or a features list, and the PR-speak could really mean pretty much anything. For where we are right now as an institution, a proprietary ILS is the best route for us at the moment (I like the recent description I heard of OA as "free as in puppies"), and it gives us the flexibility for the projects and needs that we have right now. Will it still be a good fit in a year? we'll have to wait and see.

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Comment by Dave Pattern on March 13, 2007 at 5:43pm: We went out to full tender last year and decided to stay with Horizon purely on the strength of Horizon 8.0. We were scheduled to upgrade this summer and staff were genuinely excited about the new features they'd be getting in their modules. The upgrade was also embedded into the Annual Plan and a hardware budget put aside. But that was yesterday and tomorrow it's back to the drawing board.

Unicorn was one of the systems we shortlisted during the tender and it scored very poorly against our criteria. In fact, I think it came last out of the five systems we looked at. Now I have to face staff and say "you remember that system we looked at and didn't think was at all suitable and you said rude things about..." ;-D

It's a shame Evergreen isn't feature complete yet, as I'd seriously consider putting forward a proposal that we fully evaluate it.

Comment by Sarah Clark on March 13, 2007 at 5:24pm: Yikes. Believe me, it was a 2 year battle to get our upgrade approved, so I can relate to public libraries' resource problems. Being new to SirsiDynix (and I've only been in LIS for about 2 years), I didn't fully appreciate the history for those of you on Horizon. I'm watching the open source ILS movement with great interest, and if Sirsi's really behaved that poorly to horizon customers, OSS may start looking like a more attractive alternative...Long term I do think Proprietary ILSes are doomed (or at least in trouble)--it's just a question of how long it takes to get there.

Comment by Dave Pattern on March 13, 2007 at 5:09pm: It's been a couple of years now since Sirsi took over. They initially talked about Rome in 2005 as being based on Horizon 8.0, but with an optional Unicorn front end.

The CODI Board were told yesterday that 8.0 has been totally abandoned and instead Rome with be built on the 20 year old Unicorn code base.

Dozens of libraries are already well down the road to implementing 8.0, and hundreds have already committed time, money and resources in preparing for 8.0 -- public libraries often struggle to raise cash and many have bought hardware for 8.0 that may not work with the Unicorn based Rome. Instead of an apology, there are being told that this is an "exciting opportunity" for them.

If everyone we've been told for the last 2 years has been a lie, you wouldn't blame Dynix/Horizon sites for being angry and/or highly sceptical. Why should they believe anything the company ever says again?

Time to seriously evaluate open source ILS's!

Comment by Sarah Clark on March 13, 2007 at 4:52pm: Well, considering we're migrating to Unicorn from DRA Classic, anything's a vast improvement for us (i.e. we're not jaded quite yet *wry grin* ). I'll admit I'm surprised on the tight launch schedule for Rome--and they can't have been working secretly on Rome for all that long--the merger was only what, a year ago?

Comment by Dave Pattern on March 13, 2007 at 4:23pm: Bear in mind Horizon customers were promised all these features 3 years ago and where are we now? Up the creek with just vapourware.

Given the timescales they've stated in the press release, they've either been secretly working on Rome for a couple of years (in which case they've been wasting everyones time with 8.0), or it'll be a rushed buggy mess.

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