Follett School Solutions (Follett), the leading provider of K-12 educational technology solutions, today announced that it has acquired Access-It Software Ltd (Accessit), the global library management system provider with more than 4,000 customers in over 45 countries. The acquisition brings together two of the most complete and innovative solutions in the school library automation market.
School districts have long-trusted Follett Destiny Library Manager to be their school library automation system of choice, making it a leading solution used by many districts in North America. Now coupled with Accessit Library, an international market leader, the combined business provides a more complete offering with opportunities to deliver new capabilities to all customers worldwide and further support the ever-evolving needs of the school library.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled about the combination of Follett School Solutions and Accessit. Bringing together a solution leader in North America and one across schools internationally creates an opportunity for innovation that will support educators worldwide with the challenges they face every day,” said Chris Porter, CEO of Follett School Solutions. “We strive to help educators provide the finest educational opportunities for students, and this merger expands our ability to have that positive impact.”
Porter, who brings more than 20 years of experience leading education technology businesses, joined Follett School Solutions earlier this year as CEO of the software business, and has been a visionary leader dedicated to helping educators create better opportunities for students everywhere.
“Joining with Follett School Solutions is a natural progression of our growth in supporting educators and students everywhere,” said Martin Neyland, CEO of Accessit. “We see our own desire to positively impact education also reflected in Follett School Solutions, and are excited about our path together.”
Like Porter, Neyland has a strong educational background and has always been driven by the desire to create powerful software that enriches environments for educators and students. Neyland and co-founder Jo Copland have built Accessit over the last 28 years with a focus on providing great library software solutions and services for educators all around the world.
Neyland and Copland will continue to operate the Accessit business while working collaboratively with Follett to align the companies to best meet the needs of educators worldwide. Existing product investments and roadmaps will continue for both companies’ products as currently established. The Accessit Library and Destiny Library Manager solutions will both continue to be actively developed and supported, leveraging the best of both solutions to drive even greater innovation for the school library.
Follett, in addition to being the recognized leader in the delivery of library management and collection development technology tools, also provides Follett Destiny Resource Manager to help districts track and manage technology and digital resources, Follett Aspen Student Information System, as well as access to curated content from thousands of publishers and sources.
About Access-It Software Ltd | accessitlibrary.com
Founded in 1994, Access-It Software Ltd and Access-It Software International Ltd are together a global library management system provider with over 4,000 customers in over 45 countries. Driven by the desire to design engaging library and information management technologies, Accessit Library, has been built upon years of global user experiences, insights, and best practice. The technology is used internationally across all school levels, government organizations, and other special libraries to provide a wide range of intuitive and flexible tools. Accessit has approximately 60 employees based globally and their head office is based in Wellington, New Zealand.
About Follett School Solutions | follettlearning.com
Follett School Solutions is the largest provider of educational materials and technology solutions to K-12 libraries, classrooms, learning centers and school districts in the United States, and a major supplier to educational institutions worldwide. Follett distributes books, reference materials, digital resources, ebooks and audiovisual materials. It also is one of the leading providers of integrated educational technology for the management of physical and digital assets, the tracking, storing and analyzing of academic data, and digital learning environment tools for the classroom focusing on student achievement. Find Follett on Facebook, and follow on Twitter (@FollettLearning).
