ZIMS Project

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ZIMS Release 1 Delivery March 2010
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• After transition planning, the ZIMS project
  re-started in October 2008.
• Since ISIS took direct control of ZIMS, the
  project has run smoothly, met all of its
  deadlines and remained within budget.

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ZIMS Fee
For quite some time it has been clear that that
the zoological community would need to pay for
the completion of ZIMS through a ZIMS fee. The
ISIS Board of Directors has unanimously agreed on
the ZIMS fee detailed on the next page. We are
announcing the fee now to help institutions plan
their 2010 budget. The ZIMS fee is not an annual
fee. It is dedicated solely to fund the
completion of ZIMS. 143 ISIS Member
institutions have pre-paid their ZIMS fee with
their generous advance pledges for ZIMS.
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ZIMS Fee
Large Institutions 30,000 (Zoological Budget gt
10 million U.S.)   Medium Institutions 15,000
(2 million U.S.lt zoological budget lt 10
million U.S. )   Small Institutions 5,000
(500,000 U.S.lt zoological budget lt 2 million
U.S.)   Very Small 2,500 (Zoological Budget lt
500,000 U.S.) Zoological Budget general
operating budget less budget for gift stores,
concessions and new construction. Add in any
costs for donated salaried staff services, such
as city gardeners. Very small institutions whose
total ZIMS software fee would exceed 0.5 of
their zoological operating budget should contact
the ISIS office with supporting budget
information.
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ZIMS Fee
Institutions will have an option to pay 100
within 12 months of receiving the invoice in
early 2010. or 50 within 12 months and 55
within the following 12 months. (Adding 5
interest for the second payment.) These fees
include complete on-line training and support for
your staff.
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ZIMS Fee
143 ISIS Member institutions have already paid
their ZIMS fee by making and paying pledges to
the project. If your institution made a
contribution or a pledge to the ZIMS project and
you have questions, please contact Kim
Hastings Phone [phone] Email
kim_at_isis.org
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ZIMS Fee
Your animal management software is a critical
business tool. In 2007, a sample survey of ISIS
zoos and aquariums found that, on average, they
pay 814 per user per year for each critical
business software (accounting, ticketing,
fundraising and retail). For a medium-sized zoo
with 12 ZIMS users, over five years, the ZIMS
cost per user is 250, less than a third of the
cost of other critical business software.
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ZIMS Fee
Example medium-sized zoo software fees (U.S.
dollars) Next year Over 5 years
Avg. per year Accounting 11,000
55,000 11,000 Ticketing 9,000
45,000 9,000 Fundraising 14,000 70,000 14,
000 ZIMS 15,000 15,000 3,000
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ZIMS Value (Return on Investment)
Efficiency ZIMS eliminates repetitive data entry
and streamlines workflow for every staff member
who works with animals. Access ZIMS increases
the speed and quantity of access to information
you needed planning collection and exchanging
animals. ZIMS release 2 will offer
veterinarians access to current and expanded
veterinary (anonymous) norms for a large number
of species, including anesthesia and
treatments.
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ZIMS Value (Return on Investment)
Savings ZIMS studbooks will save the zoo and
aquarium community millions of dollars each year
on assembly of (and printing) studbooks. Savings
Global Animal Available/Wanted will reduce costs
for regional organizations and institutions. Savi
ngs As ZIMS deploys widely, other cost savings
will become evident.
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ZIMS Deployment Each Release adds functionality
Release 1 ZIMS Animal Management for Zoos and
Aquariums Release 2 ZIMS Animal Health Release
3 ZIMS Studbooks Release 4 ZIMS Advanced
Functionality
Final testing Dec 2009 Release March 31, 2010
March 2011
September 2011
March 2012
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• In recent weeks ISIS has demonstrated new ZIMS
  screens to approximately 100 future users.
• The response has been enthusiastic.

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Sample ZIMS Screen Zoo Enclosure Observation
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Sample ZIMS Screen Aquarium Life Support
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ZIMS Questions
ISIS has created a web page for you to find
Frequently Asked Questions and answers about
ZIMS. Go to ZIMS.ISIS.org If you have ZIMS
questions, please send them to Jaime Meyer
jmeyer_at_isis.org The following pages contain
the top few questions asked recently.
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ZIMS Questions
Q Will the ZIMS fee be charged to new ISIS
members joining say, three years from now after
ZIMS is out, or only to current ISIS members? A
The policy set by the ISIS board is that all ISIS
members will be invoiced for the ZIMS fee.  
Q Will ARKS continue to exist or is the move
towards ZIMS compulsory? A There will clearly
be a period of transition as more and more ISIS
member institutions adopt ZIMS while others are
still using ARKS. We project that in total it
will take through 2012 for the entire ISIS global
community to changeover to ZIMS. The 143
institutions that invested funds early in ZIMS
development will have the choice to receive ZIMS
first, and we expect they will choose to do so.
After that group of investors, institutions that
pay the ZIMS fee soonest will receive ZIMS. ARKS
will continue to be in use during this time, but
steadily declining in use as institutions
transition to ZIMS.  We expect to cease
supporting ARKS by the end of 2012, and to be an
ISIS member will mean to be a ZIMS user.
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ZIMS Questions
Q Our institution is under a great deal of
financial stress. How do you expect us to pay an
additional ZIMS fee? A ISIS certainly
understands the economic stresses that all of our
member institutions are experiencing, especially
nowadays. The technological update requested by
the global zoological community cannot be
completed without paying for it. ISIS has been
able to raise over a million dollars from outside
the zoo and aquarium community to help support
ZIMS development, but ultimately, ZIMS must be
paid for by the institutions that use it. As a
non-profit organization serving its members, ISIS
is building ZIMS for much less than a commercial
software company would expect to receive for a
complex tool like ZIMS. Our community used ARKS
for a very long time, and ZIMS will be a
valuable, time-saving and money-saving tool for
zoos and aquariums for many more years.
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ZIMS Questions
Q I thought ISIS had a lot of money for ZIMS
from contributions from the community and other
fundraising. Why is there a need for more
money?    A The ZIMS Capital Campaign, launched
in 2002, had a goal of U.S. 10 million. 143
visionary zoological institutions pledged an
average of 30,000 each, for a total of 4.3
million. Although the unfortunate change in
vendors cost the project time, we recovered all
members pledged funds spent on alpha ZIMS. In
addition, ISIS raised 1.5 million from external
sources, and reallocated 1.3 million from ISIS
operations, for a total of 7.1 million in ZIMS
project funding.  The total ZIMS budget is 12.5
million, so we must raise the final 5.4 million
from the community that will use ZIMS. The ZIMS
fee is designed to do this.   12.5 million may
seem like a lot of money, and it is. However,
experience has proven conclusively that ISIS, as
a not-for-profit organization serving the zoo and
aquarium community, is building ZIMS for much
less than what a commercial software company
would charge.
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Thank you