Swedish heavyweight in library market to pave the way for Systematic
With eighty per cent of Swedish libraries in its customer database, the Swedish company BTJ is the perfect business partner for Systematic, which is busy winning over the Swedish market with its library solution Cicero.
BTJ, the Swedish publisher and content provider for libraries, has entered a strategic partnership agreement with the software company Systematic, which means that BTJ can now add the library solution Cicero to its product catalogue.
The partnership with BTJ is strategically important for Systematic’s plans to create competition in the Swedish market for library systems which has been dominated for many years by one large provider.
“Eighty per cent of all Swedish libraries are already BTJ customers, so having BTJ on board as our Cicero partner and distributor gives us a unique sales channel to introduce everything the system has to offer directly to almost all the school libraries in Sweden’s 290 municipalities,” says Group Senior Vice President Flemming Thomsen from Systematic.
Flexible solution offers more options
Tomasz Nowocien, head of business development and sales at BTJ, believes the partnership with the Danish software supplier holds significant potential:
“Through our sales, we’re already meeting almost all the libraries’ needs. In future, we can now also offer a user-friendly, economical, reliable and secure system which can be adapted to the wide-ranging requirements of Swedish schools. Some need a simple and mobile solution which the school librarian can take into the classroom. Larger schools on the other hand can choose a solution which includes a library system, a statistics tool and a self-service client. Cicero enables the libraries themselves to compose exactly the solution that suits them best,” he says.
Web-based technology developed with library professionals
For more than 80 years, BTJ has been helping school libraries free up time and resources so they can devote their time to pedagogical work and helping pupils.
Cicero has been developed in collaboration with school librarians and professionals as part of the Danish joint library system (Fælles Bibliotekssystem (FBS)) and is in use at almost all public libraries and pedagogical learning centres (school libraries) in Denmark.
The solution is based on web-based technology which, among other things, allows teachers and librarians to help students borrow and return books etc. directly in the classroom via a tablet. In this way, Cicero supports the common goal of the Swedish municipalities that all children have access to a school library.
More than 400 Swedish school libraries already use Cicero, and in October the Municipality of Norrköping decided to buy the solution for its 50 school libraries.
“We think it’s important that Swedish school libraries have a choice when it comes to library systems. It’s good for all players in the market,” says Tomasz Nowocien.
Contact at Systematic:
Flemming Thomsen, Group Senior Vice President
+45 2544 9841 | [email protected]
Contact at BTJ:
Anette Grönroos, Managing Director
+46 739 823 131 | [email protected]
Tomasz Nowocien, Business Development and Sales Manager
+46 739 446 581| [email protected]
