Corporate Libraries

A Corporate Library is a uniquely focused service that encompasses law libraries, medical libraries, museum libraries, news libraries, non-profit libraries, research libraries, information centres and knowledge centres.

This is our chosen market. We have invested decades in serving clients in this sector and we try hard to understand the pressures and the demands that are placed on managers and staff in this type of library.

Why Soutron will Transform the Way You Work

• Manage Digital Content – Physical and electronic materials can be held in Soutron thus making the digital and eCollection easier to manage.
• Systems that work as you want them to – We partner with world-class systems and service suppliers to make systems integrate and work harmoniously
• No more end of week reports – let the system pass data to accounts or email reports while you sleep!
• Simplified Journal System – A single form to receive multiple journals in one operation saves time and effort to get physical copies into circulation.

Created to serve Corporate Needs

Soutron has been created as a platform through which library management and knowledge services can be delivered to end users. The flexibility we bring is in direct response to the different needs that can be placed on a “special” library. The difference between Soutron and other library management systems is found at the point where a corporate library has to become a knowledge service. As Guy St Clair calls it “the nexus of knowledge services”. For a library to successfully serve a corporation it needs a set of tools that help it to deliver a knowledge strategy. We place ourselves, our software and our strategic alliances squarely in line to deliver an end to end service to put in place a Knowledge Services Platform. Beyond Library.

Soutron saves you and your staff time in the following ways:

• System Management & Configuration – the system is designed to allow you to make all necessary changes but does not demand a systems librarian to manage and administer it. There are no end of year procedures that consume effort or daily or weekly maintenance checks. Soutron is easy to administer too – any change is a simple menu driven selection that is applied immediately.
• Background Tasks can be set up to operate unattended – includes notices, alerts, reports, imports etc.
• Simple Receiving & Distributing Process – Receiving items into the library and distributing them with labels is all done in a single three step process. Multiple items can be received into the library, bar coded for distribution and published to the catalogue as well as printing labels to a preferred format, both simplify the process and save staff time. Up to a third faster than comparable one item at a time receipting.
• Automatic fund account allocation for purchases – makes the process of accounting for expenditures simpler and more accurate. This takes up to five minutes per order and saves staff time in calculating costs and reporting on them, as a result of an on screen display of up to minute analysis of spend using filters.
• Save time managing multi-volume sets and loose-leaf material – using our unique forms and related records capability. Adding new volumes and editions is simple, requiring only a few clicks, compared to the ten or twenty minutes older systems take to manage this task.

Spend More Time Doing What You’re Best At

Soutron saves time through the provision of prepared searches; saved searches, catalogue alerts and the introduction of Collections – a new feature to help sharing of content.

Soutron has search accuracy and relevance ranking that you can customize to help minimise the time users have to spend. Our search functionality is undergoing a transformation to provide more flexibility in the presentation of materials. This includes faceted searching and improved presentation.

For clients seeking a solution to integrate with information from other suppliers and publishers, there is functionality to further accelerate efficiencies and simplify the management of electronic information in this area to offer end users an enhanced user experience incorporating more than just library data.

The management of loans for physical materials and self issue facilities are built into Soutron. New capabilities to harness electronic materials by liaising with publishers are now possible and this future is realizable with Soutron’s web technologies. Our control over downloads and electronic documents and tools to protect copyright are practical and simple to put into effect.

Make Actionable Management Decisions, Quickly

Usage statistics, and analysis of what is being searched for, are available to inform and help the library manager make decisions about the content and which users are taking advantage of services. This information is a by-product of the normal activity in the system. This can be analysed by each library that is set up on the system and can be broken down by department or practice area. Additional reporting needs are met by a complete audit trail in the system.

Any reports that you need can be presented as menu selections to be run at any time to deliver real time data. Our database stores all historical data to allow year on year comparisons and to report on trends. If you would rather, we can arrange to have reports sent to an email address at a specific time and day of the week/month/year. Our background task services save you having to remember to pull data from the system manually.

Flexible in Meeting Future Needs of Librarians & Users

The flexibility of Soutron’s database means whether you want to load MARC records or use RDA structures or devise your own fields and templates, you are free to do so. Soutron is relational and can help you manage all types of data including images.

Risk Free Data Migration

We take data migration very seriously. It is the most critical part of a change of system. Our data conversion and data cleansing is the best in the industry, carried out by people who have been doing it for years and have library qualifications and experience. Our unique combination of skills and experience can help you to assess your data and convert it in a meaningful way. The process is time consuming but it is a worthwhile exercise that results in a balanced system.

We guarantee 100% accuracy in conversion of all data handed over to us and to a timetable that we jointly agree.

The process involves three steps:

• You hand over your data to us to examine
• We load it into a test system for you to examine and provide feedback; we configure and make decisions to help you see how it may be structured
• We jointly agree any changes needed and load it again for you to examine and test before it is signed off ready for a final live conversion.

We have migrated clients from all major vendors including EOS, Sirsi, Softlink, Bailey Solutions, Heritage, Access, Excel, Inmagic and Adlib. Our assurance and risk free guarantee extends into the future so you can take your data with you whenever you wish. Our Application Program Interface makes it simple to integrate Soutron with other applications be it SharePoint, Accounting systems, Web Sites etc.

Let Us Transform Your Library

If you are thinking about how to transform your library services, talk to us. Involve us in your planning and discussions. Let us help you prepare your business case and bring it to management. We have experience, ideas, a network of contacts, great partners and truly flexible software ready to apply to your cause.