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SCELC Conspectus - Financials and Business Model
- SCELC finances are robust
- Reserve fund is in excess of the equivalent of one year’s operating budget
- Operational budget funded principally by our Administrative Surcharge business model
- Each licensing or purchase transaction includes an average overhead charge of ~3%
- Master Renewal model
- Similar to a subscription agent, SCELC bills each library for their subscriptions in aggregate prior to the close of each fiscal year
- Reconciliation invoices, sent three times/year, cover any price changes for libraries that are not yet available when master renewals are issued
- SCELC banks substantial funds and is thus able to pay all vendor invoices within 30 days, making SCELC a highly desirable consortium partner for vendors
- Developed a custom consortial business system called Wisdom in 2004
- Wisdom allowed SCELC to quickly scale its licensing business and manage exponential double-digit growth for many years
- Wisdom enabled SCELC to produce and consolidate all orders, invoices, and vendor and member contact information
- Upgraded our business system to ConsortiaManager in 2018 to take advantage of a more modern cloud-based system
- Established Affiliate fees to help underwrite additional overhead, allowing non-member libraries to license through SCELC
- Interest earning approach to banking has produced additional revenue
- Board Finance Committee provides oversight of SCELC budget
