Regional botanic gardens records management system – welcoming Botanical Software

Tex (Terence) Moon, Ranger Team Leader, Dandenong Ranges Gardens

BGANZ negotiates great deal for members

Two years ago, a BGANZ working group embarked on a journeyto find a suitable plant records management system to provide tomember gardens. The objective of the project was to be able togive members access to a plant records management solution thatis robust, reliable, secure and accessible, with optimised performance to meet the current andfuture needs and demands of regional botanic gardens.

After a long and thorough EOI and tender process I am happy to announce Botanical Softwareas the successful tenderer. The product developed by Botanical Software is called Hortis. It iscloud‐based, user-centric and adopts a mobile-first philosophy. The system is primarily designedto be used in the field, and to be interactive and intuitive with multiple levels of access anddetails that are typically accessed by dropdown/expandable menus. Input is validated at the timeof entry and can be used in areas with and without mobile phone coverage. It was judged to bethe sort of system that a moderately competent user of a mobile phone could use with a limitedamount of training.

The evaluation team was particularly impressed with the customer/user focus of BotanicalSoftware, their organisational capacity (in partnership with the Candide group) and their generalunderstanding and experience of collections management.

Tex Moon

Great BGANZ deal for all members

Botanical Software’s costing model works on a pay-per-service model with the choice of monthlyor annual plans (like a phone plan). BGANZ has negotiated a BGANZ member discount.

All members, on signing up to the lowest plan, will be allocated 20 Billable User days per month. This will be doubled in the first year of registration, provided members sign up any time in the next four years, commencing 1 July 2021.

It is expected that most gardens will sign up to a base annual plan of $972 per year ($81 per month). This plan allows for 20 billable user days (BUDS) per month (240 BUDS per year), which equates to one person working on the system full time. Note that read-only (searching) access is free.

Botanical Software are currently running Hortis information sessions for BGANZ members, so if you haven’t already logged on to one, check the BGANZ website for session times. More information will be coming out in the coming months as to how to get involved in this exciting BGANZ initiative so keep an eye on the newsletter updates and website.

We very much look forward to working with Botanical Software to roll out this system to the BGANZ membership. I would like to personally thank everyone who has helped get this project to this exciting point, BCARM and the BGANZ council and all of those who have helped on the working group and evaluation panels: Emma Bodley, Sheree Parker, Benedict Lyte, Grant Cameron, Donna Thomas, Prue McGruther, David Cash, Jill Grant, Lindy Harris and Eamonn Flanagan.

For more information, please see https://hortis.com/bganz

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