Executive Leadership Panel

Q: Why can’t leadership changes be announced publicly sooner?

A (Yoav): As a publicly listed company, Clarivate is bound by strict policies and legislation on when and how organizational changes can be disclosed. Leadership rotations happen intentionally about once a year to share expertise across the business. The company communicates changes to the IUG steering committee first, then uses forums like this conference to announce to customers. There is no intent to hide changes — it is a compliance-driven format.

• The steering committee was briefed on recent changes (referenced “Eden”) ahead of the conference
• Public emails and press releases follow a regulated timeline

Q: Can you speak to concerns about the lack of Sierra sales and whether Sierra will continue to be supported?

Key points from multiple panelists:

• “We continue selling and supporting Sierra.” — Yoav stated this emphatically
• Polaris is the primary solution for new North American public library customers, based on RSP requirements around security, growth, and modern capabilities
• Sierra is actively sold internationally — recent deals in Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, and Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabia example: the Ministry of Education is planning 170 libraries over five years; their spec requirements pointed definitively to Sierra
• Over 400 Sierra customers remain globally — continued investment in releases, patches, and engineering
• Engineering investments include Decision Center analytics, linking integrations, and features being built for both Polaris and Sierra
• Product and engineering staff traveling from Belgrade, the West Coast, the East Coast, and other global offices to support Sierra customers

Academic Sierra customers in a public-library world

Q: Our consortium is mixed — mostly public but includes smaller academic institutions. Alma is not a good fit for us. What about continued support for academic features in Sierra?

• Leadership acknowledged academic Sierra customers are “caught between two worlds” — most academics attend IGeLU, so IUG is mostly public-focused
• Course reserves and serials functionality exists in Sierra but is considered legacy; those features don’t get strong enhancement traction due to small customer base
• Ashley Barey committed to taking this offline with the questioner and involving Mike (engineering) and Asaf (academic side)
• Discussed potentially organizing “birds of a feather” or table-talk sessions at future IUGs for academic attendees, specific consortium types, or regional groups

Q: How do you maintain the integrity of Polaris as an integrated library system when it’s becoming fragmented across modules?

(LX Starter for email notifications, Interact for SMS, Promote for marketing, Discover for OPAC)

Product perspective (Ashley Barey)

Acknowledged the current state honestly — Vega is a “work in progress” (used the metaphor of a “mason” — the building blocks are there but not fully connected yet). Investment is being made in three pillars:

1. Access — Single sign-on (already completed); ensuring everyone can reach everything they need
2. Data — Unifying data into one place for reporting and cross-product visibility (see: Vega Reports)
3. UI — Single point of entry; App Launcher was released but adoption has been low; needs more visibility

Road maps will be overhauled in the June time frame — more uniform presentation, three items per card plus comments, borrowing from the academic side’s approach. Plans to add more ethnographic research to the roadmap process so customers can “see themselves” in planned features.

Engineering perspective (Yaniv Shmuel)

The platform approach means building shared foundations — e.g., Vega Reports serves both Polaris and Sierra without needing separate development. The goal is that individual Vega products (LX Starter, Interact, etc.) will eventually be a seamless out-of-the-box experience — “a click of a button, you don’t need to install anything.” Focused on creating solutions that work for both Polaris and Sierra customer bases.

Q: When will Clarivate develop its own mobile app instead of relying on the third-party Solus integration?

No current plans to build a first-party mobile app (aside from mobile work lists, which were recently released). Rationale: mobile app development is not Clarivate’s core competency; third-party specialists deliver richer functionality.

Planned improvements for 2026:

• Better support flows with Solus
• Exposing additional API endpoints for a more harmonious integration experience
• Consolidating Solus documentation into the new Knowledge Portal for a single reference point

Other Clarivate mobile apps exist on the academic side (Campus, etc.) but no crossover plans for 2026.

Global & business expansion (Yoav)

• International expansion of public library products beyond the U.S. — already seeing early success in several countries
• Expand beyond libraries into other areas of the academic ecosystem — developing new products potentially by 2027; cannot share details publicly yet due to being a listed company
• Another line of business is being explored alongside the traditional library market

Platform & product investment

• Continued investment in the ecosystem — bringing all Vega components together
• The Clarivate AI platform is being realized within the ILS products as well as in academic solutions
• Library Open Workflows and other academic-side innovations will be brought to the public library side
• Alma Specto — a digital asset management (DAM) tool with AI capabilities:
  • Announced February 2025; full rollout expected early 2026
  • Manages special collections (national libraries, academic libraries, public libraries)
  • AI-powered cataloging, inventory management, and advanced search capabilities (compared to “Google Photos for your collections”)
  • Plans to extend to public library customers
• Cross-pollination between academic and public engineering teams will bring more velocity — shared resources, shared platform investments

Unified platform vision (Yoav)

After COVID, Clarivate set a goal to unify everything a library needs — ILS through engagement tools — into a single ecosystem. Claims to be the only company in the market that brought physical and virtual library space together under one platform vision. Competitors referenced (without naming specifics): some have strong ILS but weak engagement tools; others have strong engagement but weak ILS. The vision continues: best-in-class ILS combined with patron experience management for both physical and digital interactions, across public and academic.

Q: What headwinds should public libraries be aware of on the software/services side?

Public libraries are facing existential crises — the question asked what to watch for.

1. Budget pressure

Budget cuts are impacting both public and academic libraries globally, not just in the U.S. Academic libraries increasingly need help demonstrating their value to their institutions. This pressure flows through to Clarivate’s business as well.

2. AI disruption

AI is reshaping the landscape — Clarivate is committed to leveraging AI rather than suffering from it. Using AI internally to become more efficient. Implementing AI in products carefully and responsibly (see: AI The Right Way session). “If you will not do it, you’ll stop being relevant” — Clarivate has been tracking this since the initial ChatGPT release (~2.5 years ago).

3. Changing patron behavior

How patrons interact with libraries is shifting — Clarivate is researching this carefully. Goal: give libraries the tools and capabilities to service patrons broadly across different segments. Also helping libraries market their services to their communities.

Status page

Attendees expressed appreciation for the server status page being made available — “for me, that is golden.” “It’s okay to be broken. You just need to know.”

Known issues list

Expanding the known issues portal to more products (Polaris and Discover coming). Helps reduce duplicate support tickets for already-identified problems. Encourages proactive transparency.

New Knowledge Portal

Soft-launched the week prior — a modern platform for product documentation, release notes, and product-related information. Features an AI-assisted chat that answers questions based on documentation content. Feedback function on every page. Community resource directory — libraries can nominate their own documentation, best practices, and tips for inclusion. Accessible via banners on existing documentation sites.

Roadmap communication

Roadmaps will be overhauled in June for better uniformity and clarity. Clarivate steering committee members meeting over lunch to discuss further communication improvements. Interest in reviving Strategic Partners / Vega meetings, consortium-specific gatherings, and release-focused webinars. Recently launched a cloud webinar series; more tools coming.

Q (from Yoav to attendees): What feedback do you have about the structure of the event?

• Culture difference between public and academic libraries is very noticeable — IUG has a distinct community feel compared to academic conferences
• Session content has been meaningful and useful
• Venue space has been tight — Clarivate team members hesitant to take seats when rooms are at or beyond capacity; feedback to steering committee that larger venues would help
• Anne Paul (San Diego County Library) — first-time attendee, struck by the legacy and passion of long-time community members; encouraged to come by committed team members and glad she did
• The continuity of people who have been through mergers and acquisitions and “bumped along in a passionate way” was noted as a strength of the community