Nick Dimant now, starts off by covering the growth in PTFS Europe customer base – now including East Dunbartonshire Council in Scotland who are to be the first Evergreen installation for PTFS Europe in the UK.

Growth in customer base has meant PTFS Europe have to extend their staff at the same time (quick run down of their current staff).

Why both Koha and Evergreen? Koha meets the needs of a large number of libraries, Evergreen focussed on consortium.
Nick outlining how library automation has changed over recent years:

• Growth in web tech
• Increase in self-service
• Acquistions via EDI
• Catalogue records imported
• Serials mostly electronic
• etc.

At the same time:

• Growth in library consortia
• Growth in shared services

These two (Nick suggests conflicting) trends served by the two different systems.

PTFS charge daily rate for services as needed, and charge for hosting where desired (which is what most customers do)
To give broad idea of costs, for customers in 2011:

• Y1 costs – £8k-£60k per org
• Annual hosting and maintenance have ranged from £3k-£20k
• Quotes on request

Nick says, typically annual maintenance on old system pays for complete migration and thereafter significant savings on hosting and maintenance. Nick stresses not just about cost, but also good, modern, library systems.

• Hosting – PTFS Europe use Bytemark for hosting.
• Support – help desk; bug fixes; upgrades – all part of annual service
• Most customers don’t have custom software development done, but PTFS Europe do offer this where required

Evolution in the UK – enhanced functionality:

• EDIFACT EDI
• SIP2 Enhancements
• Circulation and Acquisitions enhancements

PTFS Europe have formed partnerships with various organisations – work together with other Koha users/customers – enhancements going back into Koha code base.

Future plans for PTFS Europe – development of ILL, possibility of supporting other software (to be discussed later today).

Q: What is relationship with PTFS Inc.
A: Work with them where makes sense, but PTFS Europe committed to community version of Koha in contrast to approach of PTFS inc/LibLime in the US

Q: What is PTFS Europe attitude to the FE Market – what knowledge do they have of those needs etc.
A: Price can be an issue – FE colleges used to paying for low cost library systems, difficult for PTFS to compete This led to some discussion around this -feeling that this isn’t always true, and some FE concerns paying much larger amounts – especially where there are consortium etc.