The opportunity looked promising. MCNC could extend its fiber-optic network into another part of North Carolina, potentially with some financial support from the state. But when CFO Sarah Taylor examined the proposed investment, the numbers told a different story.
“It just didn’t pencil,” Taylor recalls.
For MCNC, a nonprofit that operates a 5,000-mile fiber network serving schools, healthcare organizations, universities, and government agencies, such decisions carry particular weight. Expanding connectivity into underserved communities remains central to its mission. Yet Taylor believes that mission must coexist with a clearer understanding of investment returns and operating costs.
Read More
Her approach is helping change how MCNC evaluates opportunities. Rather than viewing outside funding as sufficient justification for a project, Taylor asks what the organization itself must contribute, which customers it expects to serve, and whether the investment makes financial sense.
That discipline extends to financial reporting. Taylor has shifted board presentations away from full financial statements toward deeper discussions of operating margin and days cash on hand. She’s also introduced five-year forecasting, emphasizing continuous margin improvement rather than rigid adherence to distant targets.
Her earlier experience bridging finance and business intelligence at MemorialCare helped shape this approach. There, she learned how data quality and cross-functional understanding could transform financial planning.
Now Taylor is preparing another substantial change: reimplementing NetSuite and overhauling MCNC’s chart of accounts to expose the true costs of running the network.
For Taylor, better financial visibility isn’t simply about producing better reports. It’s about making better decisions with the dollars MCNC has available.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: And forgive me, I should have asked you, but for listeners who are unfamiliar with MCNC, what does the company provide, and whom does it serve?
Taylor: We’re actually a nonprofit, but we function in the telecommunications space. So what we do is provide internet and connectivity services, as well as a variety of other technology services, to K through 12, higher education, healthcare, and government agencies. In a nutshell, we own and operate a 5,000-mile fiber-optic network that runs all throughout the state of North Carolina.
Read More
CFOTL: Help us understand MCNC’s funding and revenue model. Which sources of financial support are most important to its operations?
Taylor: We’re actually structured as a nonprofit, so we’re generating all of our revenue from those technology and connectivity services that we’re providing. We don’t really function in the space of soliciting donors. We do apply for grants when they fall in our space and that makes sense. Basically, customer revenues are really the main source of our income.
CFOTL: You’ve introduced new financial reporting at MCNC. Which operating measures now give you the clearest picture of the company’s performance?
Taylor: Right now we’re focusing on operating margin as well as days cash on hand. We’re really trying to get our operational folks focused on that margin. How are we maximizing the infrastructure that we have? Operating margin is a good, clean way for us to measure that. In fact, we just changed the presentation that we’re making to our board, so it’s no longer a full set of financials. It’s just a couple of metrics, and really talking about those in depth.
CFOTL: What can you see today that wasn’t visible before?
Taylor: We need better visibility into the costs that it takes to run our business. I think before there was a lot of allocating costs in a lot of different ways that probably just don’t make sense for the business that we’re in today. Right now, we’re kind of sifting through a lot of that complexity to really understand what does it cost to run the business. What does it cost to connect that new customer?
CFOTL: What are your priorities for the coming 12 months as CFO?
Taylor: Biggest thing for us is better visibility into the cost of running the business. Right now, what we’re working on is actually reimplementing NetSuite, overhauling our chart of accounts, the departments, all of the things that enable us to dissect our business, really tell us how much does it cost to run this? What are our indirect costs? It’s going to be quite a lift, but overall, I think it’ll lend us a lot of value over the next five years, at least.