ConsortiaManager Tips for Success

By James Wiser, Consortium Director

Thanks to all of you for your patience with the new procurement system as we’ve rolled it out this fall. The good news is that the January renewals have been completed already – on time and ahead of schedule, actually. I have turned in all our orders and have even signed most of the license updates for next year’s subscriptions.

That said, I too have been learning ConsortiaManager, and I’ll take this time and space to add the following notes:

• ConsortiaManager sends a lot of automated messages that look like they are coming from me but in fact are being sent from the system; if you receive an email that addresses an overdue payment, unless you have a special reason to ask for a delay in payment terms, there’s no reason to reply to these emails with any explanation of your circumstance.
• The old rules still apply once you confirm an order in the system: you can’t retract it. The orders you and we place are sent almost seamlessly to our vendors, and usually all I do is confirm with our vendors that you submitted the order before I sign an agreement confirming these orders. This can all now happen in a matter of minutes. If you change your mind about an order, it makes our consortial workflow exceedingly complicated, so please be sure your library knows what it wants before submitting orders in the system.
• ConsortiaManager definitely wants to put all your college’s subscriptions on the same invoice, and to split out databases on different invoices is much harder than it was with the old system. In fact, I have to actually cancel the order and begin again. If you need things invoiced separately, please email me almost immediately so I can know before I generate the invoice.

In this season of change for so many of us, I again want to thank you for your patience and good cheer in moving to this new system. Onward and upward, and have a great holiday season.

Respectfully submitted, 
James Wiser