Meet Qi, the universal software that's shaping the future of arts & culture
Versatile, customisable, modern
For over two decades, we’ve combined design and technology to empower cultural organisations. Qi, our pioneering content and collection management system, transforms how museums, archives, artists, collectors and heritage institutions organise, interpret and share their collections.
See our projects
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Offering unparalleled versatility to create, manage & support collections at any scale
Key features
Qi delivers universal flexibility, collaboration, simplicity and speed, empowering the effective management of any type of information.
- Dashboard
- Collection Management
- Digital Asset Management
- Shop
- Content Management
- Managing Your Data
- Teams & Permissions
1 Global search
Global search across the entire database, on every field and using Boolean logic. Controlled by user permissions.
2 All content at a glance
All sections and records, including draft content, in one comprehensive list.
3 Calendar
The dashboard calendar can be configured to show dates for any activity in Qi, such as exhibitions, loans or transports.
4 Easy access
Quick access to pinned records, recent changes, records to approve and your own drafts in progress.
5 Quick links
Configurable links to create frequently accessed content, such as accessions, objects or exhibitions.
6 Resources and help
See disc usage and limits. Access online help, including video tutorials, PDF resources and online manuals.
7 Recent activity
See recent activity across all content and for all users of Qi.
8 Light/Dark mode
A new dark theme is available across Qi.
Serving museums, corporate & public archives, collections & other cultural institutions worldwide
Global reach
For more than two decades, Qi has supported cultural and heritage organisations worldwide, accommodating their distinctive structures, diverse collections and audiences.
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Selected clients
Over sixty organisations between museums, collections, libraries, archives, collectors, publications and artists have chosen Qi to manage and present their collections.
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Built with user-focus in mind, fully configurable & integrable with anything
Detailed specifications
Read a detailed description of Qi and download the specifications for later.
Flexibility and Customisability
- Entirely customisable data architecture and workflows
- Support for multiple sites/repositories within the same database
- Ability to adapt to any data structure and design
- Support for multiple collection types
- Availability of over 20 different field types
- Ability to re-use content and assets
- Includes unlimited users for a fixed fee
Collections Management
- Manage any collection, including objects, archives and publications
- Spectrum 5.1 compliant, with support for any procedure
- Ability to customise procedures and workflows
- Multilingual content and translation workflows
- Integrated shop (products, memberships, donations and tickets)
- Ability to use external authorities via Linked Open Data
- Report from templates in Word and Excel
Content Management
- Manage your collection and website with the same CMS
- Create narrative content for your collections
- Multilingual content and translation workflows
- Full change audit trail and versioning
- Publication scheduling and editable metadata
- Support for any metadata standard
- Support for any character set
- WAI compliant
User Interface
- Calendaring option for important dates and events
- Interface localisation in any language
- Ability to pin frequently accessed records to the dashboard
- Hierarchy browser for archive repositories
- Customisable multiple input screens
- Support for drag-and-drop across the board
- WYSIWYG Editor
- Web-based administration
Performance and Scalability
- Native integration with Elasticsearch 8
- Advanced multi-layered caching using Memchache
- Support for shared, dedicated, cloud and multi-tier environments
- Support for database replication
- Support for load balancers and scale-on-demand environments
- Mobile support
Interoperability and Security
- Full CRUD REST API
- Customisable support for LIDO/Dublin Core
- Support for OAI-PMH
- Granular, role-based permissions
- Support for SSO and multi-factor authentication
- Integration with SAML and OAuth
- Statistics of login history and activity
- Automatically block failed logins
- Customisable password patterns
Advanced Features
- Boolean and complex searches
- Configurable high-priority search fields
- Integrated LOD authorities, including AAT, Geonames, VIAF, Wikidata, Library of Congress and anyone else with an API
- Create stub records from external sources or media asset upload
- Mobile movements control with companion iOS App
Digital Asset Management
- Complete asset management solution (docs, images, audio, video, 3D)
- Automated thumbnail generator
- File format conversion (image and video)
- Integration with ImageMagick and FFmpeg
- Generation of IIIF files and metadata
- Upload multiple files simultaneously
- Manage complex, multi-file assets
- Display and manage file meta-data
- Viewer audio and video and hi-res images
- Support for Amazon S3 and Microsoft Blob
Web Publishing
- Integrated website content management
- Direct web publishing from Qi, without exporting to other systems
- Availability of REST API and Elasticsearch for integration with other CMSs
- Automated creation of friendly URLs
- Award-winning design options
Technology
We offer training programmes, comprehensive documentation, in-application help, modular front-end framework and REST API among other things.
Web browser support
- Google Chrome (latest 3 versions)
- Safari (latest 3 versions)
- Microsoft Edge (latest 3 versions)
- Firefox (latest 3 versions)
Interface languages
- English
- German
- Dutch
- Swedish
- Norwegian
- Finnish
- Any other language on request
Programming languages
- Back end: PHP 8
- Front end: HTML5 with CSS3
Database server
- Compatible with MySQL version 5.7 or greater
- Recommended MySQL version 8 or greater
Accessibility
- Compliant with WAI Level AA guidelines
Web Server
- Apache
- NGINX
Leveraging digital design that helps to shape the way we experience culture & history
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Crafting the digital presence for a unique repository of contemporary art materials
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Harnessing technology to democratise the UK’s public art
Historic Texas Maps
Capturing Texas's historic landscape through an e-commerce website of over 40,000 records