Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
Things are not always what they appear. What may initially seem like an excellent price on Intellectual Asset Management Software, may end up costing you more in the long run.
A myriad of other factors come into play such as cost of operations, cost of maintenance, useful life span, and training costs. Over the effective life of an intellectual asset management application, the cost of maintenance and support dwarfs the cost of initial deployment.
Let's take the example of purchasing a car. By no means is this the end to all car-related expenses. You won't get more than three hundred miles before the gas tank needs filling, oil changes, new tires, various filters, belts, hoses, taxes, insurance... all of this contributes to the total cost of owning the vehicle. The same metrics apply to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for Intellectual Property (IP) asset management software.
There are five major metrics of TCO analysis for the IP asset management software: Acquisition, Implementation, Operations, Maintenance & Replacement.
1. Acquisition
All too often, acquisition costs drive decisions concerning intellectual asset management deployment. This forces attention to up-front, direct, and budgeted costs. Acquisition includes the capital expense of IAM software licenses in the case of on-premise software and the operating expense of the subscription fees in the case of hosted solution. Be sure to know the differences between Hosted or On-Premise IP Asset Management.
For on-premise installations, the acquisition also includes the costs associated with the necessary hardware and infrastructure (operating system, database licenses) to host the application.
On an average, acquisition contributes to 10-15% of the overall cost of ownership of the IAM software.
2. Implementation
The implementation includes services to make the system work for users.
The costs associated with the implementation of the intellectual asset management application include development (customization/configuration), integration, testing, data migration, and training.
It is critical that the system does not require software expertise for any customization. That will make you dependent on the vendor and will cost you dearly in the long term. Ensure that the IP management software provides supportable, off-the-shelf capabilities for data migration from legacy docketing systems as well as integration tools to integrate seamlessly with existing systems. These capabilities should be easy enough for use by the IP team without the need for internal IT support or outside consultants. Read more on IP Management Data Migration.
On an average, the implementation contributes to 30-40% of the overall cost of ownership of the IAM software.
3. Operations
The operational costs occur in time and productivity loss. These costs are more difficult to quantify, tend to be process and people oriented, and often add significantly to the TCO. They can include unproductive end-user time, troubleshooting, and system downtime.
For measuring operational costs associated with intellectual asset management software, pay attention to how much staff is required to operate the application smoothly. Choose an application that can be managed without an IT/vendor team as opposed to the one that requires IT/vendor help for basic operational changes. These "people" costs contribute heavily to overall TCO.
On an average, the operations contribute to 30-40% of the overall cost of ownership of the IAM software.
4. Maintenance
The maintenance costs include country law updates, patches, upgrades and administration of the hardware, software, and databases.
Many hard coded IP asset management applications require significant downtime and break custom processes during upgrades. While determining maintenance costs, include the support labor hours and the management overhead to oversee any issues.
On an average, the maintenance and support costs contribute about 15-20% of the overall cost of ownership of the IAM software.
5. Replacement
It is important that you don't lock yourself into a specific IP asset management software vendor. During or after the expected life span, you should be able to transition to better software with ease. The software should provide you the tools to export the data easily into new applications. Often, this is difficult to determine upfront. You need to consider the extra support needed as you get up to speed with the new application.
On an average, replacement contributes to 10-15% of the overall cost of ownership of the IAM software.
The long term goals of IP asset management deserve the most sustained attention; In the short term, tactical cost reductions should not impede the achievement of long term goals and priorities.
Lecorpio provides a powerful intellectual asset management solution with comprehensive functionality, can be deployed 2 times faster, at a lower upfront cost and overall 50% of the total cost of operations than competitors. This is possible because unlike hard coded competitive applications, Lecorpio utilizes a powerful, model-based application platform. This results in faster turnarounds, lower maintenance costs, and better user adoption.
Get more information on best practices for IP asset management project implementation. Please post your thoughts to the comments.
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Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Mon, Mar 08, 2010
The market for Intellectual Asset Management - IAM Software is fragmented with many smaller organizations providing a wealth of features and functionality. This makes it difficult for corporate IP departments to choose the best software for their needs.
A number of our customers started their selection process looking at over 30 software vendors. Each vendor claimed to have the most comprehensive solution. The selection process was long (sometimes over 2-3 years), frustrating and confusing.
Here are the top five tips that will help you reduce the number of vendors for your evaluation and to separate the wheat from the chaff:
1. Usability
Without this, nothing else matters. If your users will not adopt and use your selection, it's a waste of time and effort. You should look beyond the glitz and try to understand how your users will accept the new IAM system. In short, the user interface should be simple and intuitive for the first time user.
2. Accessibility
If the software is not accessible via standard web browsers such as IE, Firefox, Safari or Chrome, discard it immediately. To make your IAM system deployment successful, you need strong adoption from your inventor community. In many organizations, inventors use different types of computers, operating systems, and browsers.
Your Intellectual Asset Management application should support such variations seamlessly.
3. Configuration
Ask you vendor to demonstrate how to add a new field of your choice. Most vendors who claim to have the most configurable application will hesitate to do this. If your selected software does not have tools to do these basic tasks, you got yourself locked into the vendor's roadmap.
4. Searching and Reporting
How good is IAM software if it can't provide good searching and reporting tools? It is frustrating to many users that they can't easily get to the data that they entered a few months ago. Ask vendors to demo their searching capabilities and make sure the searching and reporting tools are part of the basic system and do not require a PHD degree in rocket science.
5. Integration
If you have been previously involved in the deployment of IAM software, you already know it. The world of "docketing in a black box" is over for corporate legal departments. It is critical that your software can be easily integrated with other systems inside your organizations such as HR, accounts payable, active directory, etc.
Lecorpio IP Asset Management solution has been designed for strong user adoption, is accessible on all browsers, and provides robust configuration capabilities. Please don't hesitate to contact us for a free consulting session to help you better plan for a successful Intellectual Asset Management software project.
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