Our Approach
Infor’s suite of products is based on a User-Centered Architecture (UCA). UCA underscores the rapidly changing information landscape in which greater demand for personalized content, collaboration and interaction are driving changes in programs, allocations, and services. In this environment libraries face increasing challenges to improve the delivery of services to users who place increasing emphasis on interacting with information in a social, "on-demand” and personalized context. This of course has clear implications; the user experience will drive usage, enhance the dissemination information and strengthen the overall awareness of the library’s services and collections.
It is in the context of improving the user experience that Infor offers libraries a comprehensive solution to address the shift from a traditional ILS to an open, user- centric architecture.
UCA consists of:
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A de-coupled "collaborative” front-end
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A CRM focused back-end
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A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that ensures system extensibility
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Flexible metadata and repository management
A collaborative front-end
Infor’s collaborative user interface, Iguana, provides libraries with a set of applications to understand user needs, and to promote collaboration with the library, and between library users. Users can discover information in the library’s catalog, share information with others in their existing affinity groups and enjoy a personalized environment in which content is based on their specific interests With Iguana, libraries:
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Deploy a set of Web 2.0 applications to understand and engage users.
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Engage users in multiple, collaborative ways around the library’s services and collections
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Effectively promote the library’s services and collections, and engage users in a single environment.
A CRM focused back-end
CRM involves a defined spectrum of activities to engage and communicate with users, and to understand usage and user needs. Our solutions support the fundamental life-cycle retention and growth by enabling libraries to manage contacts and understand usage as integral components of the back-end workflow.
Examples include the ability to:
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Manage critical customer contact points such user information and communication including visits, complaints, questions, requests and records of telephone conversations.
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Gain insight and understand usage of collections and services. Libraries can answer important questions about usage in combination with customer data such as residential area, borrower category, age, etc.
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Develop collections on the basis of user-provided and usage-based data by combining both CRM and analysis.
Service Oriented Architecture
Through SOA, libraries can implement additional software applications that are loosely connected and extend the library’s service offerings to its users. When deploying software, libraries must be able to easily change components of their software applications and / or add third-party solutions, without going through major, disruptive upgrades and implementation processes. The cornerstone of this approach, and an underlying principle of Infor’s software development, is a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOA thus enables libraries to extend services with seamless links to, for example:
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External resources and databases
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Self-service machines, RFID, etc.
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Digital repositories
Alongside SOA, Infor enables customers to extend the reach of deployed applications by using core system data to offer new and increasingly diverse services to users. This approach to openness involves an emphasis on connectivity. In this scenario, customers interface with core system data to enable a host of supplementary services. The most prevalent modern method of enabling this type of openness in our applications is through web services using common protocols and standards such as HTTP, XML and SOAP.
With the availability of a set of flexible web services, Infor offers libraries additional means to easily integrate system data into other institution-wide applications. The tighter integration of data between multiple systems in our applications facilitates extended functionality for information delivery, circulation, inventory management, etc.
Flexible metadata management - from an ILS to a repository
Metadata management comprises two areas; the management of flexible data formats by library staff on the one hand, and user-contributed metadata on the other hand. Both areas must be integrated with, and "inform” one-an-another to create a rich discovery environment for users. Through the integration of flexible metadata management, library users enjoy a true repository of knowledge including digital objects and traditional materials of any kind.
