Efficiency is always important, and a challenging economy tends to make this an even more critical driver of success. Our present moment is no exception. IP Professionals and their companies are seeing their world upended. For some, this means they are struggling with previously unanticipated revenue and expense challenges. In times of falling revenue, managing expenses can become a matter of survival. Other companies are scrambling to ramp up swiftly to meet unanticipated demand surges that may be required. This, too, can create challenging cost overruns, as resources are hastily hired and redeployed, often leading to inefficient organizational design both during the surge and once it passes. Regardless of your present situation, if you are like most companies, you and your organization are presently turning your attention to quickly identify means for improving efficiency and managing costs tightly.

Operational Efficiency with Less Resources

In today’s environment of dramatic changes in workflow and internal operational processes, many professionals are needing to adapt to new ways of getting work done. In addition to working from home and the newly ubiquitous video conferences and endless conference calls, many are finding they need to get the same or more work done with fewer resources. Whether covering for a colleague, assisting other impacted departments, or simply adapting to less predictable flows of work, IP professionals are often challenged to find ways to efficiently address sudden shortages and surpluses of resources. This is where personal and organizational stress and inefficiency can occur if not handled well.

In talking with our clients, a couple of themes emerged in terms of how they successfully leverage their relationship with GPS to address these types of challenges and bring efficiencies to their own organization. Even if you do not currently use GPS, you may be able to apply these same approaches within your own business or firm. Our successful clients tell us that having and leveraging an external relationship with us enables them to:

• Have trustworthy on-demand resources available at the precise moment they are needed.
• Staff at anticipated, or slightly less than anticipated, work levels. Therefore, they are less likely to be over-staffed during slow periods, and they can readily address spikes by using external resources, thereby avoiding the creation of bottlenecks.
• Continue to address initiatives that are strategically important but might otherwise get scuttled due to more immediate priority needs. For instance, portfolio reviews and technology or competitor landscapes can be driven using external resources while internal resources address important near-term needs. Or vice versa.
• Reduce the expense of other high prosecution costs by contracting directly with GPS for information that helps them make better file/no-file decisions.

Whatever your current processes are, difficult and challenging times present an opportunity to re-examine everything to ensure existing workflows and resourcing approaches are optimizing the return for your organization. As IP professionals, we should be more familiar than most with the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. All of us hopes, even expects, that innovation will ultimately flourish as a result of the health and economic shock we are currently experiencing. It is important that each of us also proactively seeks new and innovative approaches within our own work environment.

Ask us how Global Patent Solutions can help streamline your execution process, reducing time and expenses, while still achieving high-quality results.  Contact Robb at 877-758-8634, or robb.evans@globalpatentsolutions.com