Hello!

I’m hoping this group can help me out! I’m researching whether there are organizations that have had an external software development firm* develop a digital preservation software solution for them built to their specifications. I’m particularly interested in learning more about if and why organizations use outside developers to build digital preservation software solutions. 

What I’m not looking for are:

• Organizations that use out-of-the-box digital preservation software solutions like Libsafe, Preservica, or Rosetta

• Organizations that have built their own digital preservation software solution in house for in-house purposes only

Organizations of interest to my research may have hired a software development firm to build them a digital preservation software solution from scratch, or built something using an open-source or third-party software, such as Samvera or Archivematica. That same software development firm may or may not provide ongoing support services for the software.

If you are from one of these organizations or from a software development firm that has done this work in the past, would you be willing to reach out to me directly to answer a few questions? 

For organizations that have hired a software development firm to build them a digital preservation software solution, I’m particularly interested in answers to the following questions:

1. Why did you decide to hire a software development firm to build a digital preservation solution on your behalf rather than buy an out-of-the-box solution or build a solution in house?

2. Who did you hire to build your digital preservation software solution?

3. What sort of ongoing support do you get from the software development firm?

4. Was it the right choice or would you do it differently if you could do it again? 

For software development firms, I’m interested in learning:

1. How many clients (roughly) have you worked with in this capacity?

2. Why do organizations build their own digital preservation software solutions?

3. What sort of ongoing support for the software do you provide/is expected?

If you aren’t one of these organizations, but know an org that has hired a software development firm for this type of work, please feel free to pass this request on to them. 

Feel free to email me directly at [log in to unmask]

Thanks so much for your assistance!

Very best,

Amy

*Or single software developer