Civica Asia Pacific – Spydus

Spydus: The next generation library management solution has been selected as an ABA100® Winner for Cloud Innovation in The Australian Business Awards 2020. The Australian Business Award for Cloud Innovation [CLD] recognises cloud products and services that provide innovative solutions for new and existing market needs.

Civica is a global leader in software for public services, with solutions used by more than two million professionals to deliver vital every day services in 10 countries, impacting 100 million people and businesses worldwide. Combining exceptional sector experience, customer focus and track record, Civica provides the software and automation to more than 3,000 organisations around the world transforming the way they work and to achieve better outcomes for people and communities. Civica has a highly resilient business model focused around core markets and capabilities. In ANZ, Civica delivered growth on the back of its corporate strategy focusing on products, customers, people and acquisitions. Acquisitions are also a core element of Civica’s global strategy to add complementary capability and to increase scale in order to respond to market opportunity.

Libraries have evolved from being institutions that solely offered printed material for literacy and learning. Factors such as shrinking council budgets, changed user behaviour, and advancement in digital technology have challenged the traditional notion of libraries. In fact, with the introduction of the internet, the volume of online information now exceeds that available in every physical library in the world. Advances in digital accessibility and a proliferation of social media has resulted in information being available anytime anywhere, and “shared” in the real time. This, coupled with changed user behaviour where users access library resources online and in physical spaces, and a need on part of libraries to stay relevant to their audience, led to these institutions evolving into thriving digital hubs of the community and offering much more than print resources by taking on diverse roles that focused on educational, health, personal, social and digital skill development. Research shows that many library users still prefer to interact with librarians in physical spaces and read physical books, in addition to taking advantage of what the digital world has to offer. Councils needed a solution that would result in time and cost savings while recording and submitting disaster data to the government. As such, they have been moving away from self-hosted solutions to cloud-based systems, helping them to deliver a high standard of service for an increasingly digital savvy community.

Civica has structured its development approach to ensure Spydus is continually evolving to meet the changing needs of library staff and users. Spydus as a cloud and managed integrated library solution delivers greater efficiencies and creates a stronger foundation for new technologies and innovation. Civica’s locally supported Spydus cloud solution reduces customer infrastructure costs and provides a secure, resilient, scalable environment, thereby enabling them to safely take advantage of the cloud whilst improving their IT security and performance. The fully managed Spydus offering ensures that critical data and applications are kept up to date, secure and protected at all times. As a cloud solution the Spydus library management system delivers better, faster, efficient and more innovative public services that generates considerable cost savings, freeing up budgets for future investment. The Spydus system also increases staff productivity and focus on delivering better outcomes for communities by automating low-value tasks, enabling library staff to focus on the most strategic ones. It also reduces IT complexity and ensures customer systems remain up-to-date by decreasing reliance on ageing technology. The software is fully customisable to meet the needs of any library regardless of its size and operating model. As a result, libraries of all types and sizes, including large consortia, trust Spydus to deliver enhanced experiences for their communities, increased engagement and experiences for their communities, increased engagement and automation. Current customers worldwide include public libraries, education libraries, national libraries, and special libraries. automation.

For Spydus it is both the library staff and patrons who are the end users of the solution. Spydus library patrons include members of the public, students, and company employees. Spydus meets the needs of both library users and staff by providing patrons/library users with data privacy and accessibility. Spydus also has a simple user experience due to their easy to navigate system allowing patrons to manage their accounts, fill in forms and submit information with a few clicks, as well as it being a secure system that works on all the devices they use. For library staff, Spydus maintains their data privacy, and is a simple and stable solution that is easy to use resulting in minimal training requests. It also reduces risk and overhead IT costs through a cloud based offering. It is a scalable solution that suits the requirements of small single institutions, large public libraries and consortia of any size, as well as giving libraries the ability to connect with third party providers. Spydus allows libraries to have flexibility with innovation and experimentation, giving customers the ability to push the boundaries in library service delivery.

Share: The Australian Business Awards