Effective September 25, 2020 Demco has transitioned its Boopsie mobile app division to Solus UK Ltd. Boopsie customers will be contacted individually by Solus to discuss the transition of their Boopsie subscription over to the Solus Library App.
Solus was founded by two Scottish entrepreneurs, Neil Wishart, CEO and Andrew Daye, CTO.
They worked hard to understand the needs of public libraries and public librarians. Working with key players in Scotland’s Library and Information landscape, especially Edinburgh (Scotland’s capital city) they launched the UK’s first-ever innovative Public Library App.
In 2013 they brought on board Liz McGettigan – an early adopter and a prominent Scottish Librarian, Past President of CILIPs and Co-Chair of Internet Librarian International.
In 2015, the company created a joint venture with Sanzap, Ltd. in Melbourne Australia and has seen widespread adoption of the Library app in Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, Solus hired John Richardson, industry veteran to manage Solus growth in the US and Canada.
The company has now gone on to become the largest supplier of Library apps globally, white labelling the app for several ILS/LMS suppliers. The products are unique, class leading, innovative and continually evolving. SOLUS is now the global leader in delivering affordable mobile apps to libraries, now serving over 5,600 library locations on 5 continents. Over 1.4 billion searches have been performed with the SOLUS app, enriching library members around the world in over 20 languages.
Demco researched the market and ascertained that the Library App from Solus UK (also known as BLUECloud Mobile for SirsiDynix customers) was by far and away the global market leader, surpassing the number of installations and features over Communico’s Engage, OCLC’s Capira and MyLibro, Chilifresh and LibraryThing among others.
Additionally, the Solus team has global server deployments in various countries to aid in insuring Patron privacy – that the data resides in the home country. A review of the Solus technology infrastructure provided a comfort to the Executive team at Demco that the transition will provide an immediate upgrade of patron functionality, is scalable, secure and is leading edge.
No! In fact, Boopsie customers will receive a wealth of new functionality with the new app including, but not limited to:
COVID-19 Functionality
No, Demco was able to negotiate that existing Boopsie customers will not be charged any additional fees for the migration, except for 2 add-on options (discussed next).
For Consortia customers, there is the ability for member libraries to have their own “template”, which provides them with the ability to:
There is a one-time setup fee and an annual maintenance fee for each template.
There is a one-time setup fee and annual maintenance fee for each location that wishes to deploy this functionality.
Of course, libraries are welcome to go through that evaluation process, but we believe that once you’ve done your due diligence, you will come to the same conclusion that Demco did, in that Solus is offering best-of-breed in the Library App space. Plus, as a reminder, the upgrade is being provided at no additional cost.
There are several suppliers that are offering an appointment-based curb-side pickup module for a one-time or annual fee. The Solus Click-and-Collect is not based on appointments, but rather similar to how consumers are picking up groceries, Home Depot orders, food orders, etc. The patron informs the library they are coming to pick up their material via the app and the Solus software has a very efficient workflow process for checking out the materials and preparing them for pickup. This functionality is being deployed live in libraries in September and is provided at no additional cost.
Solus and Demco will be working on transferring libraries over as fast and efficiently as possible. We will be contacting each one of you and planning a migration strategy.
Effective immediately, Solus UK will be responsible for future subscription billings for the Library App. Solus will be reaching out to your known billing/invoicing contact at each customer’s site. If you know there has been a change in that contact person, please contact John Richardson (JR) at: jr@sol.us with name of institution, department, name, email and phone number.
No, only if the optional elements are subscribed to.
Support tickets are sent to Solus via servicedesk@sol.us and staff hours are 9am – 5pm Monday-Friday, except public holidays.
Please feel free to contact us by using the form below:
