Last month Ajilon client, the Swift Library Consortium, won a prestigious Local Government award for excellence at an award ceremony held at the MelbourneTown Hall

More than 500 guests were in attendance to see the Consortium win the award, in the Innovative Management Initiative category, presented for its work to "open up" the State's library resources and make them more accessible to the public.

Ajilon has been part of this project since its inception three years ago, project managed by Kevin Rusbridge.

“Ajilon was engaged to provide end-to-end project management services,” said Kevin, elaborating, “We developed an RFT to locate a suitable vendor that could not only provide the necessary software, but one that could manage the operating environment on a twenty-four-seven basis. We selected the successful vendor – SirsiDynix – then worked with them to develop and implement the solution, creating standard operating and cataloguing procedures across the entire Consortium. We also established an appropriate governance structure, which has enabled us to expand the Consortium in a managed and controlled way, so that growth only occurs if the Consortium can manage it. The Consortium of nine library organisations has now grown to 15, and will shortly expand to about 22. It’s now processing 85,000 transactions per day, with a 99.8 per cent uptime, which is a great result!”

Kevin said in the last 12 months, the number of intra-library loans within the Consortium has increased by more than 250 per cent. In addition, the average annual saving in operational costs has reduced by 30 per cent and the level of functionality made available to the public has considerably increased.

“The success of the project has largely been due to the collaboration that has existed between all members, at both a strategic and operational level. The stage has now been reached where up to 16 Sydney-based Councils now wish to become members of the Consortium - an action that will be agreed to next week. This is significant, because of the cross-border politics involved and because this is the first time such an arrangement has occurred. This award is a tribute to the many people who have been involved with this Project,” said Kevin.