What are tokens?
Publishers offer token packages as a way for organizations to prepurchase content at a discounted rate as an alternative to subscriptions. This can be helpful for organizations with diverse research and therapeutic areas or with lower volume needs, as they can use tokens to access individual articles from a wide breadth of a publisher’s catalog of publications.
However, tracking token usage and budgeting accordingly can present challenges. Many organizations have trouble determining when tokens are going to run out and how to plan for future token purchases. Some tokens expire after a certain period, so making sure the right number of tokens are purchased is important so as not to have too many tokens left over that can’t be used. Since information managers cannot know exactly how many tokens will be consumed, to plan appropriately for token purchases, they should be making data-driven decisions based on historical consumption trends.
Where to start?
For existing token packages, the key to anticipating future purchases and keeping track of when tokens will run out is to look at past usage. Ideally, administrators want to look at how many tokens are used each month to get the average usage per month overall. The first step to get that average is to obtain a usage report from the publisher which shows how many tokens have been used each month. For some publishers, that may be found in the publisher admin portal under a usage statistics section for the token account and available in an exportable file. For other publishers, that may need to be requested. The file should contain the total tokens used each month.
For a time span, information managers should choose a length of time to look at for historic consumption. One option is using the past 12 months to determine average usage, but the past 6 months can also be accounted for. Looking at the past 6 months is beneficial to see if usage has had a sudden increase or decrease that should be considered.
For example, over the past 12 months there may have been an average of 42 tokens used per month, but the past 6 months saw that average jump up to 78 tokens used per month due to a recent shift in research area. There is also the option to look at a longer time frame to see if token usage typically spikes or dips during a certain time of the year.
Calculating the monthly average can help forecast when tokens will likely run out and how many to purchase going forward. The primary goal is to reduce the risk of either running out and having an unbudgeted expenditure or buying too many tokens up front and risking that they expire unused.
When will tokens run out?
To calculate when tokens will run out, take the balance of tokens, and divide by the average tokens used per month. The value from that calculation will give you the number of months you should have left in your package. For example, if 200 tokens are left in one of your token packages, and on average 40 tokens are used per month, then your existing token package should last another 5 months. Having the information of when tokens will likely run out will help you decide when to purchase an additional package of tokens and factor that into budget planning.
How many to purchase?
Knowing the average tokens used per month also helps with planning token purchases. Calculating how many tokens to purchase is done by multiplying the average tokens used per month by the number of months included in the purchase. For example, if the historical average of tokens used every month is 40 tokens, and an administrator is looking to purchase one year worth of tokens, then the number of tokens to purchase would be 40 tokens multiplied by 12 months, which is 480 tokens.
If the purchase period were for two years’ worth of tokens, then the calculation would be 40 tokens multiplied by 24 months, which is 960 tokens. If the token package happens to be more of a “deposit account” structure where a set number of tokens aren’t purchased, but rather a set amount worth of articles is purchased, then average usage should still be used to plan, but in this case the average usage would be the amount of money spent each month from the deposit account. For example, if $1,200 is spent each month out of the deposit account, then $14,400 is how much would be needed to last a full 12 months ($1,200 spent per month multiplied by 12 months).
How to know if a token package makes sense for your organization?
If your organization is considering purchasing a new token package with a vendor, then it’s important to determine if a token package makes sense for your organization. With no historical token usage to base your decision on, it’s helpful to look at document delivery usage for the publisher in question. The key thing to look for is how much money has been spent historically for content that a token could potentially cover.
For companies that utilize RightFind Enterprise from CCC, administrators can look at past orders to determine historic content spend, which can be used to compare to the token package cost or subscription cost with your publisher representative.
Things to consider when looking at past document delivery purchases to determine future token packages:
- Are you looking only at the publications that could also be included in a potential token package? A publisher may have many publications, but not all may be part of their token package offering.
- What are you using the content for? If you need to distribute copies outside of your organization, token agreements may not cover that usage without further licenses or rights purchasing.
A solution to track usage and forecasting?
Did you know that RightFind Business Intelligence from CCC offers analytics to support data-driven content investment decisions? The software solution reduces the manual need to analyze token packages by aggregating your token usage in one token chart, offering past usage, a forecast of when tokens will run out, and insights into how many tokens to purchase, all in one place.
Manually tracking down token usage for multiple token accounts can be burdensome, but the token chart in RightFind Business Intelligence connects your token packages to your organization’s RightFind account, so the number of tokens used each month through RightFind automatically populates the chart accordingly. RightFind Business Intelligence also provides analytics on subscription usage using COUNTER statistics and document delivery usage, so your organization’s usage data can tell your content ROI story.
Visit our RightFind Business Intelligence page now to learn more about the many features and benefits of this CCC analytics solution.