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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Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Mon, Mar 01, 2010
Intellectual Asset Management is not only a technical project but more importantly a business project. In fact, Intellectual Asset Management is a mindset on managing your IP and the real work starts once the technology is deployed.
New technology brings change and change in any organization inevitably attracts resistance. This is especially true when the change has to do with the implementation of a new intellectual property (IP) management software solution.
The challenge is getting inventors to accept new applications and processes, in spite of feeling uncomfortable with the prospect of having to change their habits and conform to an unfamiliar system.
Here are five proven tips to overcome the user adoption conundrum:
Demonstrate Value:
You should be able to demonstrate clearly the value proposition of your new IP management system. Inventors get direct benefits from IP management software such as: effortless submission of new ideas, visibility into their past submissions, real-time status of their awards, access to corporate knowledgebase and much more. By communicating direct benefits, it is easier to get them onboard.
Keep it Simple:
With exception to prolific inventors, most inventors are most likely to visit your IP management portal a few times a month. Create an interface that is simple and easy to use.
Avoid multiple clicks. If it's practical, get them the necessary information and actions within 2 clicks. The most common actions include the ability to submit a new invention disclosure or check on the status of previously submitted ideas or patent applications.
Start Off Small:
Rollout the IP management software in bite-sized chunks. Start with invention disclosure submission and review process. Once they are familiar with this process, introduce them to patent management. Keep adding more features such as open source, NDA, licensing, and other features until they have gradually begin using all major functions of the software in their normal routine.
Work the Way They Work:
Most inventors and patent committee members are used to a certain system. This may not be a technology based system, but it is still a functional system. While deploying, you should look at improving existing processes, but equally balance it by adapting the new IP management system to their own working style.
Use Incentives:
Incentives are a tool for proactively shaping growth. Your incentive program should tie their benefits to a well-considered strategic development plan.
For example, if your award program pays some amount for each disclosure approval, make a clear declaration that the amount will be paid only for electronically submitted disclosures.
Lecorpio IP management software applications are very intuitive and easy to understand. The "à la carte" model allows IP departments to implement a practical phased implementation of each application. Lecorpio IP management implementation methodology focuses on enabling the end user, this approach provides faster ROI.
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Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Fri, Jan 08, 2010
We have been asked this question a number of times during our interactions with the prospects.
In response, we ask them to remember the last time they needed the support from their IT organization. How much time did they take to resolve the issue?
Hosted
This option works best when you do not have adequate support from your IT organization. You can "go live" faster and your vendor is a single point of contact for any issues during or post implementation. You do not need to procure any hardware for this approach. The vendor provides security and back-up infrastructure as well.
If you plan to integrate with other systems (such as Finance, Matter Management, Corporate HR directories or others), you should check with your IT if they allow third party hosted applications to integrate with internal systems.
On-Premise
On-premise means that the IP asset management application will reside behind your firewall. Regardless of the vendor, you should have IT on your side.
In this model, your IT should provide hardware/software required to deploy the application and database. Typical software required is Windows/SQLServer or Windows/Oracle. IT would also need to set up a mechanism for regular data backups.
IT support issue may be secondary for some companies if they are very sensitive about their data. On-premise is the only choice for them.
Lecorpio provides both deployment options: hosted and on-premise. The application functionality is the same for both options. Feel free to contact us for more details.
Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Thu, Jan 07, 2010
Now that you have selected the right product, it is time to start preparing for the implementation. If not planned carefully, the execution can be a long, tense, and frustrating experience.
Here are the top 5 tips that can help you make your project successful:
1. Establish a core team
It is critical that you set up a core team. This team will be responsible for answering vendor questions, providing feedback, and training other users. Choose the team carefully. Have at least one representative from the IP team who has visibility beyond a specific function such as docketing or annuities. If possible, include somebody from the IT organization who can help you in extracting your data from the existing database and/or provide help with setting up for on-premise installations.
2. Be realistic
IP asset management is a new discipline. Take time to understand your situation. Do you know what you want? Do you have the in-depth understanding of the workflows or processes that you would like to implement? Do you understand nuances of the data migration process? It is fine if you don't. Most IP departments do not have any experience in deploying enterprise scale products. Most departments have not worked in an environment where various stakeholders such as inventors, patent committee members, and law firms are collaborating. Let the vendor help you document the processes.
3. Be mindful of scope creep
Understand that a good product delivered in a reasonable time is better than a great product never delivered. Prioritize and focus on the must-have critical items. "Nice-to-have" items can always be added later. If a situation happens only once a year for a single user, it can wait.
4. Treat the vendor as a partner and communicate openly
You must believe that you and your vendor have the same end goal, a successful project delivered in reasonable time. This can only be achieved if everybody works together as one team.
Treat your vendor like a partner. If you have an end date in mind, share it. If you don't like the user interface, share your concerns. That's the only way the vendor will know your issues.
5. Iterate
For a successful IP asset management project implementation, it is important that the custom implementation is accepted by their team, outside counsels, and inventor community. To achieve that, think iterations. Two or three iterations are fine, but more than 4 iterations can only mean one thing: either the team should go back to the design or your vendor does not have the right tools.
Lecorpio has an excellent track record of successful IP asset management project implementations. Lecorpio's professional services use a powerful combination of strategic insight and superior execution to optimize the cost and efficiency of our client's IP operations. Feel free to contact us if you need more information on best practices for IP asset management project implementation.
Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Wed, Jan 06, 2010
There are many myths about IP Asset Management Systems related to project implementation, data migration, and actual costs to name a few. Here is a list of the top 5:
Myth 1: Docketing = IP Asset Management
Many organizations still believe that the docketing system is all what an IP asset management system is. Indeed for law firms, but not for corporate IP departments. Now you have an option to transform your IP operations from a support cost center to a strategic function. You can improve inventor community satisfaction, reduce costs and make your team more effective by creating a self service portal for them to submit new invention disclosures or check the status of their submissions/patent activity. You can monitor the activity of your law firms in real-time and keep a tight control over the budget. You can perform sophisticated analysis on your portfolio to find out key areas of innovation or spot any process bottlenecks. Of course you can do docketing, and so much more.
Myth 2: IP Asset Management software is a commodity product
A typical legal department does not have much exposure to enterprise-wide implementations. Yet, without full understanding of client's processes, many vendors pitch their products at an unrealistic price. One of our customers had demos from over 40 vendors before making a decision. About 90% of them did not even have a web based system. A web based system which runs on all browsers should be your starting point for any discussion with a potential vendor. It is unreasonable to expect your entire inventor community to install software on their computers just to submit new ideas.
Myth 3: Data Migration is nothing but import and export of some data
Many organizations underestimate the complexity of data migration. They wait until the end of the project implementation to start the data migration. This approach leads to catastrophic failures. Moving from a desktop based system to server based enterprise workflow system is a huge shift. The data in the legacy application may not fit into the new workflows unless carefully mapped. Be sure to make this an important part of your project plan.
Myth 4: We have the same process as everybody else
In all the implementations that we have done, we have yet to find a single mid-large size organization, whose processes are exactly same as anybody else. On the contrary, we found that each mid to large organization has unique processes, unique systems for integration, unique systems for data migration, unique UI requirements and preferences and unique team members. It is far easier to adapt the application to the needs of thousands of potential users over the alternatives.
Myth 5: My IT organization can provide first level of support
If you are a typical IP department in a mid to large size organization, the chances are that you are not in the priority list of IT department. For on-premise installations, you must ensure their participation from the beginning of the project. IT departments have higher turnover than the IP department, which means you should also check their transition plan.
The breadth of functionality provided by Lecorpio applications combined with personal attention to clients enables Lecorpio to avoid these pitfalls and offer tailored solutions to organizations of different sizes and industries. Please don't hesitate to contact us for a free consulting session to help you better plan for a successful IP asset management project.
Posted by Jerry Lamigo on Mon, Jan 04, 2010
Henry
Ford was once quoted saying, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants so long as it is black."This may be true for some businesses, but seldom for corporate IP Management Systems.
While each company has their own unique requirements, broadly speaking, you can group them into two categories:
IP Matter Management
If your main interest is to get organized first and get your docketing in order, you should start small. Get your data organized in a centralized repository, which your core team should be able to access and generate reports from.
IP Asset Management
If you plan to provide access to the general inventor community and law firms, your department can reduce administrative costs by deploying a workflow based system. This system should provide a self service portal to your engineering community and law firms to do a lot of administrative tasks themselves.
No matter which road you choose, the system should be web-based. If the system does not run on a browser, don't even bother asking further questions. If the vendor has not invested in updating their system 16 years after the web applications first started, you should not expect them to invent anything new in future.
Lecorpio provides solutions in both categories: IP Asset Management for enterprise wide workflow automation of all IP processes as well as Lecorpio On-Demand to manage all of IP related matters in a centralized repository.
