Inmagic earns Certified Partner status in Microsoft Partner Program

Inmagic recently announced that it has earned certified status in Microsoft's Partner Program, in recognition of its demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven ability to meet customer needs.

"We are extremely pleased to have earned certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program. The certified status allows us to clearly promote our expertise and relationship with Microsoft," said Phillip L. Green, President and CEO at Inmagic. "The benefits provided through our certified membership will allow us to continue to enhance the offerings that we provide for customers."

"Only companies that have demonstrated high levels of customer service, proved their experience and attained advanced certification receive the designation of Microsoft Certified Partner," said Allison Watson, vice president of the Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft.  "Today, Microsoft recognizes Inmagic for its skills and expertise in providing customer satisfaction with Microsoft products and technology."

In order to achieve certified status, Inmagic needed to meet a number of qualifications, including customer references (e.g., from several customers who have implemented Inmagic® Presto), and technical competencies. 

Customers rave about Inmagic's Professional Services Group

For a cost-effective way to cut implementation time and risk, many Inmagic customers rely on Inmagic's Professional Services Group (PSG).  Here's what they say about their PSG experience:

"When CDM redesigned its intranet, we needed to make an existing reference request system look like the branding used in the new intranet. Getting all of the functionality from the old system to work in the new intranet was a challenge. There had been a lot of customization, and the person who had created that system was no longer at CDM. Although I've created a lot of things in Inmagic software, this was beyond me.

Eric Welge from Inmagic's Professional Services Group truly saved the day for us. He put a lot of effort into redesigning the system so that it worked with our current intranet templates. He persevered through unexpected technological issues and made sure that it all worked. And he didn't just create it and leave. He went over the new system with me, so that I now can maintain it on my own.

Within days of taking the new system live, we were getting favorable feedback from end users, especially about the system's ease of use. We will turn to PSG again for our future needs."

Stacie Cohen
Librarian
CDM

"I highly recommend Inmagic's Professional Services Group.  They helped us to customize Genie by adding several fields that are specific to our end users, and converted thousands of records for use in our new Genie system, including the mapping of categories from our old system into Genie.  This service saved us hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of work because it was done correctly the first time. They were invaluable."

Cheryl Fujii, MPA
Resource Specialist
California Child Welfare Resource Library
Department of Social Work
California State University, Long Beach

"As a new Inmagic customer, we turned to Inmagic's Professional Services Group to ensure our success with its software. Inmagic's help with installation, configuration and troubleshooting -- as part of its 'JumpStart' services -- got us up and running, quickly and efficiently. Eric Welge and Jean Billingham brought their expertise and good nature to the onsite process, carefully stepping us through it. Eric stayed in close communication and repeatedly offered suggestions as we worked through subsequent details, always ensuring that things were working before he signed off. We are pleased."

Andrea L. Hylton, M.L.S.
Information Services Librarian/Webmaster
James B. Duke Memorial Library
Johnson C. Smith University

PSG's services include data conversion, data cleaning, configuration, setup, installation and training.  PSG uses its proven methodology and its unique Project Gateway to enable rapid implementation and adoption. PSG's detailed methodology builds upon Inmagic's 20+ years of collaborating with information professionals.  The Project Gateway is PSG's highly-acclaimed online tool for collaboration, communication and file/document sharing with the organizations that it serves.

If you're considering a project where PSG may be able to help, contact Paul Puzzanghera, Inmagic's Vice President of Professional Services: email or phone (1.800.229.8398, Ext. 232).

Survey: Your favorite information sources

Information, information...we're all swimming in information.  The type and number of information sources continues to grow. 

If you're an information professional, we're curious to know which sources you consider essential for keeping up with industry trends and the array of products and services that help you to do your job well and keep your end users happy.

Let us know.  If you complete the survey, you will also get access to view the results. (No specific identifying information is collected.)

You may discover a valuable new source, or simply find it interesting to see how your information consumption mirrors that of industry colleagues.

Complete the survey

Inmagic co-founder and information science visionary Elizabeth "Betty" Bole Eddison dies

Elizabeth "Betty" Bole Eddison, one of Inmagic's founders and a recognized leader in the library world, died recently after a period of declining health.

Inmagic was built upon her vision of the future of information technology.  At her previous company, Warner-Eddison Associates, Betty pioneered the application of library science principles to business information problems. Her greatest passion was to raise awareness in the corporate world of the value of the unstructured information lying around in the organization, and the benefit of using trained information professionals to manage this information.  She promoted her vision tirelessly through speaking engagements, published articles, and leadership positions in professional organizations such as the Special Libraries Association, as well as through her company's consulting and services business.

Inmagic, Inc. was a natural successor, building software to support the same vision. Betty, who was Inmagic's Chairman for almost 15 years, remained active in the company and in the information industry until her retirement in 2001.

Betty co-founded Inmagic with Karen Brothers.  Karen notes "Betty was a high-energy, strong-principled lady whose vocabulary did not include the word 'can't.'  She made a major, positive difference in the lives of many of the people she met."

Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College, and a past president of the Special Libraries Association (2001-2002) recalls that "Betty was forward-looking and cared deeply about the future of the profession and the education of librarians. She was an early entrepreneur in the information industry, first with Warner-Eddison Associates and later Inmagic, and served as a role model for many SLA members. I saw Betty in action first at the association level with her Board service and her conference presentations, and appreciated the Housing register which she provided for SLA and managed during conferences. Then when I moved to Boston I began to know Betty as a friend and local colleague/mentor. I was very pleased when Betty as an entrepreneur and successful business woman agreed to join Babson's Library/IT Advisory Board. Her opinions and thoughts were insightful and valuable. During my presidency in 2002 I was particularly pleased to acknowledge Betty with the SLA Hall of Fame award. For several of her later years Betty was at the same nursing home as my mother-in-law, and she would brighten up when I mentioned SLA. I miss her personally and professionally."

A memorial service will be held on September 9 in Lexington, Massachusetts.

For additional background on Betty, along with information on how to donate in Betty's name and sign Betty's online guest book, please visit our website.

We've been delighted to have the chance to talk with many of you at trade shows during the past few months - Computers in Libraries, SLA 2006, American Association of Law Libraries.   And we've also been delighted at the enthusiastic response to not only those Inmagic products that you've relied upon for many years now, but also some of our more recent introductions: Inmagic® Presto, Inmagic® Genie, and Inmagic® Genie Express. 

We are committed to continually enhancing our products.  Here's a brief preview of what we'll be delivering over the next few months.

Inmagic® Genie v3.0 coming this fall

Look for:

• OPAC enhancements, including "My Genie OPAC" - a personalized OPAC for the end user
• Added configurability, including configurable "Edit" screens
• Workflow improvements, including a Statistics page (preview overdue loans, overdue serial issues, etc. with links to view report and email notices), and the ability to upload and route an image of Serials issue Table of Contents
• MARC record acquisition enhancements, including the ability to find, download and import MARC cataloging records via the Web, and also a BookWhere XML Transform
• Support of the .NET Framework 2.0

Inmagic® Presto v2.0 to be released by year-end

Look for:

• Events logging
• Alerts (via email, portal or RSS)
• RSS portal
• Content type configuration (all associated screens and views created/maintained via the UI)
• Support for SQL Express

For further information, contact your Inmagic representative or call (800.229.8398) or send email to:

Get insights about research asset management from IDC analysts Sue Feldman and Melissa Webster

Learn more about how research asset management can help you to make sense of a complex information environment.  Download an IDC report in which Sue Feldman and Melissa Webster examine the needs of information-intensive organizations and assess how research asset management can help.  Their comments on Inmagic® Presto may help you to determine if it's a possible solution to your organization's needs.

IDC paper: "Inmagic: Tools to Make Sense of Complex Information Environments"

Learn about best practices in research asset management

More than ever... your organization's success depends on quickly finding and acting on various kinds of research assets: the high-value internal and external information that professionals at all levels use to gain insights, plan, and execute.

However, based on Inmagic's conversations with hundreds of organizations in a variety of industries, the management of internal and external research assets remains challenging for most organizations -- including sizable organizations with otherwise sophisticated capabilities.

How do the "best practice" organizations manage their research assets?

How can your information center be an invaluable resource across the organization (and beyond, if you serve external audiences as well)?

Through our work with numerous organizations, we've identified best practices for research asset management -- a critical competency in today's information-driven economy where nearly everyone is a "researcher" in some way.  As an information professional, you need to not only find information on behalf of end users but also make their own research efforts more productive.  For over two decades Inmagic has provided the tools and applications that enable information professionals to build information repositories and make their organizations' research assets easily accessible by end-users.

Join us to hear about seven best practices in research asset management. We'll also discuss return on investment (ROI): how those best practices organizations (and especially those who lead them) gauge the impact of effective research asset management. 

Register for a webinar about better research asset management

Tight on time, or want to share the concepts with colleagues?
Download an Inmagic-produced white paper covering the same topics

Inmagic® Genie webinars

If you're considering a new integrated library system (ILS), get a quick introduction to Genie via a webinar.  The webinar highlights many Genie features including Cataloging, OPAC, Serials Management, Circulation, Orders and ILL.

Genie is a Web-based application designed to meet the needs of the expanding corporate information center where the focus is on managing and providing effective access to internal content.  Learn how Genie allows information professionals, library staff and information users access to the information center from their desktops.

With Inmagic Genie, library staff can use the Web-based cataloging and circulation capabilities to add new materials to the library catalog; edit existing materials; and perform check-in, checkout, and borrower maintenance -- all directly from their Web browsers.  Genie offers end users a rich and robust search and retrieval environment, making self-service in the virtual library a reality.

Because Genie uses .NET technology and Web services, it can be integrated within your organization's overall IT architecture.  Genie creates a framework to expand the reach of your library to encompass the growing volume of content resources that must be managed.

Register here for upcoming Genie webinars

August 15, 2006: Inmagic Co-Founder and Information Science Visionary Elizabeth "Betty" Bole Eddison Dies

July 11, 2006: Inmagic Earns Certified Partner Status in Microsoft Partner Program

June 6, 2006: Inmagic Customers and CEO Share Insights at SLA 2006 About New Requirements for Managing Information Assets

Trade shows

Stop by the Inmagic booth to get a look at our newest products, get an update on our other products, or just say hello.

Internet Librarian
October 23 - 25, 2006
Monterey, CA
Booth 416