"Compared with other products, CommunitySites software definitely suited our project best..."
John Lewis Partnership archive
By Judy Faraday, John Lewis Partnership archivist
When compared with other products on the market, the CommunitySites software definitely suited our project best. It offers all the things we need and the whole package is a partnership. You don’t get whistles and bells, because you don’t need them; you get a good solid project for a good price. It’s the ‘John Lewis’ and ‘Marks and Spencer’ of the Community Archives world, as opposed to the flash or the boring ones. It sits very well with the ethos of our company.
Everybody has found that using the software is more straightforward and simple than they ever thought it would be. Some people who used the software didn’t have a lot of confidence, and this has helped them build their confidence. It’s the right software for the type of people who’ll be using it.
The group loved the training. You didn’t try to do too much in each session; it was in the right size chunks. You were able to gauge the training to suit the people in each group; you’re very good at being able to spot who’s good at what, and who needs support.
Because the software and training are so good, we haven’t needed a lot of support. It’s nice to know that CommunitySites is there in the background, but if we needed too much support it would be counter-productive; we want to be independent.