New LMS Staff at PLS

The LMS project budget was constructed with funds to provide some for project management support to libraries.  At the start of the project we needed to ramp up resourcing really quickly and we were also unsure as to the level of longer term, ongoing resources we would need for ongoing project implementation.  We therefore engaged a project management company KDN to provide us with project management staff.  Over the last 8 months we have had anywhere between 1 and 4 KDN staff working part time for us assisting a number of councils with their implementation.

Now that the LMS implementation process has settled into a very busy but predictable path we have decided to directly engage staff to work on the project and also to bolster our support for the help desk function for libraries which are beyond implementation and needing ongoing operational support.

To this end PLS now has Tanya Hurkmans and Leeanne Duvnjak working at PLS, as well as formalising Kathy Haese working with us 2 days a week.  (Kathy has been working with us for about 12 months - but on a less formal arrangement.)  These staff will support the existing team to both take on the project management responsibilities for implementation and to provide operational support.  These additional staff will also allow us to provide leadership for libraries beyond the immediate "go live" part of the project.

 

Tanya comes to us from Salisbury public library where she worked in information systems support & before that worked at BAE systems where she worked as a database administrator. She will be working to support both the usual PLS IT functions as well as being part of the LMS daily operational support team.

Leeanne comes to us from TAFE SA where she was a systems librarian. She will be working as part of the project implementation team as well as working in the daily operational support for LMS customers who have implemented the system.
 
We have a number of project objectives to be achieved in coming months & the team is now sufficiently resourced to achieve these objectives. This includes:

• support libraries to utilise Portfolio, 
• implement EZProxy to allow for seamless authentication, 
• work on a few known bugs in the system,
• test and then roll out the next Symphony & Enterprise software upgrades, 
• load the Libraries Australia authority files,
• get Paypal to work in the Australian context,
• Implement other 3rd party product/s as agreed,
• Develop a suite of statistical reports to meet the business needs of libraries
• integrate e-books into Enterprise - a longer term goal

We are looking forward to working on these parts of the system, along with supporting libraries in their project implementation in 2013. We are working on the project plan for next year's roll out & hope to release it in the near future.