Operational excellence in intellectual property management
Balancing costs and benefits
During execution of the IP strategy, operational excellence is key to balance value creation versus costs. Based on our IP Risk Framework we consider: IP portfolio categorization, lean IP processes and an efficient IP organization together with a synergetic IT landscape, pragmatic budget control and meaningful KPI reporting. Improvements in one or more of these aspects may safeguard IP management from portfolio cuts or operational risks that potentially jeopardize the long term value creation from IP.
We support IP organizations in defining and bridging the gap between the current and future state of Operational IP Management with focus on 3 different aspects: transparency, reduced complexity and budget control. We believe that fine-tuning any of these will help IP organizations to strive towards operational excellence.
Figure: Topics to consider in driving operational excellence
Transparency
Categorization of the IP Portfolio according to different classifications serves a two-folded goal. It helps to get insights where future value creation may come from and it identifies what needs to be done to maintain or increase that potential.
Integrating information from different systems such as the IP Management System, ERP System and staffing data into a KPI dashboard, leads to transparency. This will help you to create trust through insights in value and spend towards senior management, highlight even more the importance of IP and will allow to identify and mitigate operational risks.
Through improving transparency on IP, we can assist in detecting value and fortifying the company’s IP position.
Reduced complexity
To allow flexibility and uniformity in handling work throughout the organization it is useful to have lean IP processes that can also improve speed and efficiency.
There is a huge amount of IP tools available in the market where it might not be clear which functionalities will suit a company best. We can support you with selecting the right tools based on your needs, thereby facilitating the creation of a synergetic and cost effective IT landscape for IP.
Once the size of an IP portfolio needs a digital management solution, we support in selecting and defining the requirements for an IP Management System that fits the size of the portfolio and the ambition of the company. By having one source of truth for IP data & information, the balance between costs and benefits is positively impacted through the improved efficiency and reduced risks in data maintenance.
Budget control
Suppliers such as IP agents and annuity service suppliers generate a lot of invoices for which manual control can be quite laborious, even more when different currencies come into play. Reviewing the ways-of-working and defining standard procedures help to keep track of spend for this kind of services. Moreover, budget control requires systematic reviews and controls of suppliers costs and licensing revenues. It is part of our cost & revenue recovery program to support companies in this domain.
