Consortium of UK Local Authorities Choosing Preservica

Preservica Ltd announces that the Dorset History Centre (DHC), working in collaboration with the West Sussex Records Office and the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, have selected Preservica’s Cloud Edition for consortia, to safeguard and provide greater public access to valuable long-term and permanent government records.

Local authorities carry a mandate to ensure a wide range of essential as well as historically significant government records are accessible for decades – from cultural history to social care, planning, infrastructure, transportation and democratic decision-making.

With many of these records in digital or digitised form, and with tightening budgets and IT resources, authorities have been deploying cloud-hosted digital preservation software like Preservica to future-proof and provide wider public access to these important digital records – and meet FOI and GDPR obligations. Preservica Cloud Edition for consortia goes a stage further, allowing local authorities to combine buying-power and expertise to access the full product, at a discounted price.

The consortium is led by long-time Preservica customer the Dorset History Centre (DHC).

Sam Johnston, County archivist commented: “Preservica Cloud Edition has given us a very cost-effective way to securely preserve and share our records via our online digital archive. It also synchronises with our CALM catalogue system and has allowed us to harvest and preserve older versions of our dorsetforyou websites. The Preservica consortia offering means we can now combine expertise and buying power with other local authorities providing benefits to all. I am delighted that West Sussex and Wiltshire & Swindon are the first to join us in the consortium which is open to other UK local authorities with no geographic restrictions. There is already keen interest and we look forward to others joining us in the near future.“

Mike Quinn, Preservica CEO, added: “We’re delighted to see that the DHC, along with West Sussex and Wiltshire & Swindon, have chosen Preservica Cloud Edition for consortia to support their vital mission to safeguard government records for the long-term. It is exactly what our consortia offering was designed for, to allow not-for-profit and government institutions to come together to benefit from closer collaboration, combined resources and attractive discounts.“

The decision was supported by the use of Preservica’s active digital preservation solution by government institutions of all sizes around the world – including 20 US state archives, US city and county archives, and other UK public sector organisations including Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Bucks, Nottinghamshire, Cumbria, Transport for London (TfL), the Met Office, and the UK National Archives.

Preservica is an AWS Government Competency partner, and is available via the UK G-Cloud digital marketplace.