When you look at the patterns of intellectual property (IP) management software implementations in different industries, you will notice that the main benefits do not come out of the box. To reap these benefits, IP departments must be patient and redesign their business processes to take advantage of the capabilities of the IP management system and retrain their users in new processes. Even for most progressive IP departments doing their jobs well, many of the benefits of IP management software take time to achieve.
Key users, such as inventors, I / H consultants, and paralegals, must become familiar with how to perform their daily tasks in the new IP management software, learn about new system capabilities, and overcome natural resistance to change. Departments need to pay more attention to reporting and analytics that take advantage of the new and stronger data available in IP management software and make it available to users to help them understand the benefits.
There are five main stages of benefits derived from a typical implementation of intellectual asset management software. These benefits start at the beginning of the project and typically take 1 to 2 years to realize their full potential. These are the characteristics of each stage:
Stage 1: Requirements Analysis
Typically this is the first step in project implementation. For most companies, this is the first time they have been able to visually view their IP processes “as is” and define IP “To Be” process flows. Since most IP departments did not have company-wide deployments where people outside of their department had access to their log data, the importance of this stage should not be underestimated.
Engineers and R&D teams are important contributors to data entry in the new enterprise system for the management of intellectual property, hence any new invention disclosure management; or patent management processes should take into account their acceptance.
Stage 2: Broadcast Live
Bruce Lee said, “If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. On dry land, no mood will help you.” Using this analogy, the key benefits of intellectual asset management software begin with “getting it up and running.” With most IP departments now having a true portal for collaboration for the first time, learning curves for users and business processes are seriously challenged at this stage. Most of the benefits are tactical and increase for intellectual property departments with faulty or limited legacy systems of record.
Stage 3: Incremental improvements
At this stage, key users learn to perform their functions using the new IP management system. Any data discrepancy or lack of functionality vs. legacy systems of record are fixed and the intellectual property department can often achieve a series of incremental improvements through increased efficiency.
For most IP departments, it takes 1 to 2 full cycles to use the new system to get to this stage. For invention disclosures, it could be the first meeting of the patent committee and for patent management, it could be drafting through the filing process.
Stage 4: expand capabilities
At this point, users and IP departments have become more familiar with the capabilities of the new IP management system. As additional features are added that are not available during initial startup, IP departments can expand their benefits. The capabilities of intellectual property management software are more aligned with your business processes and objectives.
Stage 5: create new capabilities
The great benefits derived from the implementation of IP management systems often come from the use of clean and integrated data entered by inventors, patent committee members, external advisers, legal assistants and other key stakeholders. This data opens doors to create new capabilities and highly differentiated services for a competitive advantage.
At this stage, intellectual property departments can make significant changes to the way they do business, removing many traditional limitations. This typically takes 1 to 2 years after the full implementation of the IP management software.
Both the costs and benefits of an intellectual property management system are closely related to life cycle factors. This fundamental fact must be well understood before starting any project or selecting a supplier.
Lecorpio intellectual property management software applications very intuitive and easy to understand. The “à la carte” model allows IP departments to implement a practical phased implementation of each application. Lecorpio’s IP management implementation methodology focuses on enabling the end user, this approach provides a faster ROI.