Huntsville, Ala. (Dec. 11, 2001) SIRSI Corporation announced today that SIRSI and Data Research Associates (DRA) have successfully integrated their operations. This announcement follows a careful internal evaluation, which was undertaken after SIRSI completed the DRA acquisition in late August 2001. Details include that (1) the company will be known as SIRSI; (2) it now has an integrated management team; and (3) its future technology strategy will focus on revolutionary solutions for serving library users, while standardizing integrated library system (ILS) development efforts on the open, modular Unicorn® Library Management System. According to Patrick C. Sommers, SIRSI president, "We are now ready to move forward as a single company, with an integrated management team, to capitalize on the very best that both companies have to offer. In partnership with our valued customers, SIRSI is positioned better than ever to deliver the technologies and services that the library community needs and deserves."

SIRSI has now integrated its product development, customer service, and sales and marketing operations to capitalize most effectively on the combined resources that have resulted from the SIRSI-DRA merger. The management team includes executives from both organizations: Berit Nelson and John Dickson, vice presidents of product development; Mike Casale, vice president of customer service; Terry Jarnagin, director of customer care; Andrew Morrice, vice president of sales and marketing and international operations; Charles Farley, director of sales; Larry Smith, chief financial officer; and Maggie Bell, vice president of human resources.

Product Strategy

For three months, the company conducted a thorough and objective evaluation of all SIRSI and DRA products to arrive at a technology strategy that will enable SIRSI to achieve its objectives for the future. "We are confident that our evaluation was time well spent and that we have made the right decision," said Sommers. "In essence, we will focus our development efforts on the Unicorn server and staff client and, most importantly, on innovations for serving library users." While no additional development will be done on Taos as a separate product stream after the general release of Version 1.2, scheduled for February 2002, SIRSI will incorporate many of the truly visionary concepts from Taos into future products.

SIRSI has made the decision to standardize on the Unicorn platform because (1) Taos still requires significant development effort to complete base-level ILS functionality; and (2) Unicorn is already an industry-standard, comprehensive, and scalable system that provides full ILS functionality to all types and sizes of libraries around the world.

Implications for Current Customers

Unicorn will provide current users of DRA Classic, Inlex, MultiLIS, and Web 2 and those using Taos in its current form with the functionality that they anticipated in a fully developed Taos solution. Most important, that functionality is available today in Unicorn. The company also plans to build the Taos client's innovative look and feel into the Unicorn client. All these enhancements can be implemented rapidly, thanks to Unicorn's modular architecture. "DRA users will not only get a fully functional, scalable system in today's Unicorn; but they will also continue to receive extensions to Unicorn and visionary innovations for serving library users," said Sommers.

Because SIRSI is a committed technology partner with all of its customers, no matter what ILS system they use, SIRSI will continue to support current Web2, DRA Classic, Inlex, MultiLIS, and Taos customers and to stay on track with Taos migrations already in process. Taos customers have the option of migrating to Unicorn at any time and at no additional cost. Current DRA Classic, Inlex, and MultiLIS users have the option of migrating to Unicorn at a cost similar to that of migrating to Taos or continuing to use their current systems.

Current Unicorn users will benefit from expanded product development resources gained by SIRSI's integration with DRA, including a development team now tripled in size. Unicorn users will also benefit from key Taos technologies that will be incorporated into Unicorn, making it an even stronger and more versatile platform.

Vision for the Future

SIRSI's vision for the future focuses on continued development of technologies for serving library users. Specifically, SIRSI will continue to develop the electronic library concept embodied in the iBistro/iLink and Web2 products. In early 2002, the company will make the unique iBistro environment available across all platforms in the SIRSI family: DRA Classic, Taos, Inlex, and MultiLIS, as well as Unicorn. And the second major release of iBistro/iLink will be unveiled at the June 2002 ALA Annual Conference.

"Now is an exciting time to be in the library technology business. SIRSI will continue to develop the industry's most effective ILS platform, while expanding our responsive customer service program. Yet we are most excited about SIRSI's innovation of visionary technologies that will help libraries expand the diversity of their user communities and enhance the experience of their users," Sommers added.

SIRSI (www.sirsi.com) recognizes that today's librarians are on a mission to break down walls - barriers that limit the knowledge and resources accessible to library users. A partner with leading libraries around the globe since 1979, SIRSI provides software and services that assist libraries in breaking down walls; thereby promoting learning, empowerment, and opportunity for diverse library user communities everywhere.