Most technology transfer offices start out with a simple technology setup: you log invention disclosures in a shared spreadsheet, manage workflows in project management software, and respond to deadlines as they arise. However, as an institution grows and new IP cases increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage the challenges of technology commercialization without a dedicated, modern software solution.
But making the case to upgrade to a purpose-built IP management system can be difficult, too. How do you know when you’ve reached the limits of what you can do with your existing processes? How can you tell that it’s time to invest in a solution that’s specifically built for the issues a TTO faces?
Every institution makes their tech investment decisions differently. But in our experience working with research institutions, the following problems tend to prompt TTOs to explore better IP management solutions away from spreadsheets or older systems that have limitations as the office grows.
You can’t view your IP status in aggregate
Your TTO is responsible for keeping your patents current, docketing invention disclosures, and managing the various licensing agreements you’ve made with outside parties. Each of these moving pieces is on its own timetable, and offices that aren’t using an advanced IP management software system use one (or various) systems to make sure each individual case is being tracked and tended to appropriately.
As an institution grows, so does the number of active IP cases. However, while the workload can grow rapidly, staff size rarely does. And that means the more your institution grows, the harder it becomes to get an aggregate view of all your IP cases’ statuses. Doing so would require pulling data from various spreadsheets or disparate systems, task management apps, PDFs, and email threads—which takes a lot of time and leaves a lot of room for human error.
This leaves TTO leaders in a precarious position: there’s no way for them to survey their IP portfolio as a whole. There’s no way to tell what the current mix of patent statuses are, no way to view progress on invention disclosures, and no way to get the big picture of their tech commercialization pipeline. (And there’s no quick, clear way to find any of this information, either.)
This makes it extremely difficult to plan effectively. Without an aggregate view of IP cases, it’s difficult to plan for busy months and it’s hard to make the most of slower months. Patents lapse, licensing agreements go unrenewed, and the backlog of invention disclosures piles up—keeping tech you could be commercializing buried in an inbox somewhere.
A lack of visibility also gets in your way of advocating for the resources you need. Most TTO team members already feel like they have more work on their plates than they can reasonably handle, but it’s hard to make the case for increasing headcount if you can’t provide an accurate overview of the work your TTO has to do.
A purpose-built technology solution does away with this problem. Tech transfer IP management software (like Evolve) lets you pull all your existing IP cases into one system, and includes invention disclosure and docketing capabilities that make it easy to add new cases to the mix. This, combined with built-in data visualization tools, gives you (and anyone else at your institution who needs it) the ability to see your entire IP portfolio’s status in aggregate. Further enhancements by integrating live patent annuities data saves time, with no double docketing between systems, and improves IP data integrity with solutions like Astria-Evolve.
You can see which cases need no attention, which cases have upcoming needs, which cases have action items pending, and which ones are overdue for attention. This level of visibility lets you plan and manage tech commercialization activities with a level of clarity that just isn’t possible when using disparate systems and spreadsheets.
Your finances are full of surprises
It’s common for tech transfer offices to find themselves with expenses that don’t match their budgeting plans. Because cases are managed in isolation from each other, there’s not much opportunity to protect your office from surprise expenses, such as paying for redundant services.
Upgrading your IP management systems can go a long way on this front. A good tech transfer software solution pull together the financial information from all your IP cases, making it easy to see exactly what you’re on the hook to pay, and when you need to pay it. This also gives you the tools you need to dig into your TTO’s financial data and uncover opportunities to reduce spending—such as consolidating vendors, batching work for paid services, and eliminating redundant fees.
You’re years behind on iEdison reporting
Keeping government reporting up to date is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to do using manual systems. It’s not uncommon for TTOs to be years behind on their iEdison reports, and getting back on track manually would require more resources than they have to spare.
However, maintaining reporting compliance is essential to securing government funding, and it can help when forging long-term partnerships with commercial parties. Falling behind may be a forgivable offense, but staying behind is another story.
Getting back on track with reporting becomes much easier with a dedicated system. A sophisticated IP management software platform will track your reporting needs, alert you when it’s time to submit reports, and automatically compile and arrange the data you need in order to stay current and compliant.
Reporting is a nightmare
Gathering data to report to institutional leadership is notoriously difficult in the world of tech commercialization. It’s already difficult to keep track of case statuses and financials when using spreadsheets and generic project management tools—and that goes for pulling together accurate and meaningful reports for leadership too.
This is partially due to the inherent vulnerabilities of manually managing TTO IP cases. For many small and growing TTOs, IP case data is double-entered into various spreadsheets and software programs, sometimes more accurately and thoroughly than others. And when new IP cases (or new TTO team members) enter the mix, they can introduce even more opportunities for chaos.
Without any unified standards on when and how data is entered, compiled, and interpreted, it becomes increasingly difficult to create clear, consistent, and accurate reports for leadership. This makes the reporting process very time-consuming, to be sure, but that’s only the surface of the problems this creates. Without consistent, comprehensive, and accurate reports, it’s extremely difficult to prove when your TTO is performing well—and it’s even harder to prove that you could be performing better with more staff and resources.
Upgrading to tech transfer software can put this problem behind you. Having all the data from your invention disclosures, government filings, licensing agreements, earnings, and expenditures in one place lets you pull together the important numbers you need in order to give consistent, accurate reports. Plus, advanced systems (like Evolve) allow you to set up custom dashboards, giving you, your team, and non-TTO stakeholders real-time summaries of your TTO’s performance.
Your team isn’t bus-proof
When you’re running your TTO using an array of different spreadsheets or dated TT systems, it’s easy for some of the most important information to go unrecorded. Instead, it lives in your team members’ heads.
It’s great to have a team of people with deep understandings of their workload—but if information is exclusive to any single person, it creates vulnerabilities for your entire operation. When you lose a team member, you don’t just lose their ability to contribute to the work—you also lose any information that they haven’t made available to the rest of the office. This includes minor bits of information (e.g., which person to contact at a third party in order to get a call on the books with a decision maker) and very important details (e.g., anticipated changes in agreements, unofficial timelines and obstacles, etc.). This issue is magnified as IP commercialization can take many years and so tracking the whole story through to impact is paramount.
And even if the lynchpins on your team do record all this knowledge somewhere, without a centralized system, there’s no good way for you to make use of it.
A good IP management software fixes this issue by housing all your TTO activities in one system. This allows every lynchpin on the team to add their knowledge to their cases, and every other member of the team to access it when they need it. Upgrading to a purpose-built system gives your team’s institutional knowledge an organized place to live. But beyond that, it makes the knowledge transfer process much faster and easier—speeding up the process of onboarding new team members and drastically reducing brain drain when people leave.
Upgrade your TTO with Evolve
If you and your TTO are experiencing these problems, it’s a sign that your TTO would benefit from a dedicated IP management software solution—one built for addressing the specific needs of the technology commercialization process. Wellspring has invested significantly to build the next generation IP management and tech transfer solution for the modern TTO.
As a leading provider of IP management software and services to tech transfer community, Wellspring is trusted by TTOs globally, including Texas A&M University and the University of Colorado.
Organizations use Wellspring’s solutions to:
- View and analyze IP cases in aggregate
- Reduce unnecessary spend
- Automate iEdison reporting
- Create robust custom reports
- Increase information accessibility
Your institution is growing, and an IP management system is key to helping your TTO grow with it. If you’d like to see how Evolve can help your office, we’d love to show you how it works. Book a demo with us today!