Work environment is changing and fast. In 2020, we witnessed many companies switching from in-office to remote work seemingly overnight.
A lot of those companies were not even ready.
Change is inevitable. When companies stay agile in their practices and tools, they’re better prepared to navigate whatever new circumstances their industry or even the economy brings upon.
That is why process improvement exists.
It challenges companies to take a proactive approach to analyze existing processes and identify areas to improve.
In the licensing space, many licensors, licensees or even agents rely on the same old processes, and tool to manage their day to day licensing activities.
People prefer to stick with what they know. That means old-school spreadsheets doing all their royalty calculation, email inboxes storing hundreds, if not thousands, of licensing agreements.
Deep down the hundreds of work emails, lie the licensing product approvals, which need to be reviewed to track the status of design approval process.
In the same email inbox, brand licensing assets, style guides, artwork, and logos can be found in attachments.
Many of us crave this predictability and routine to tackle our licensing operation, the same way we always did- even if it’s not terribly efficient.
It’s only when these companies give their current state a good hard look, they’re able to see adopting new technology can help them improve their processes.
Teams Resist Licensing Process Improvement
Not as much.
It’s not that your teams, sales or creative, even legal or finance are opposed to new tech.
But, if you want all your teams, from New York to Amsterdam, effectively use a tool- the first step is to ensure that you take no short cuts to implement the brand licensing software.
Training is important. Because signing a contract with the solution provider is only the beginning.
As a consumer of the solution, you don’t need to worry about the nitty gritty technicalities. As your trusted partner, our customer support will take care of the tools you need.
You will get ongoing support from implementation to deployment, and whenever you need, from our experienced individuals.
You will get an easy to use software suite to handle key processes.
Empower Partners To Collaborate In Significant Ways
In the licensing business, licensors and licensees need to work together in so many areas.
From administering intellectual property to rights management, directing product development to submissions and product approval, and ultimately managing royalties; it’s a crucial workflow, containing many moving parts in the partnership.
The truth is that your licensing partners, and internal teams need tools that help them get their work done seamlessly, give them the power of visibility over the brand licensing operation, in real time.
This helps them see how the new technology positively impacts their daily work.
Tools like Dependable Solutions empowers brand owners, licensees, and agents to collaborate smoothly, and see the big picture.
From legal, creative to finance and sales- it is everybody’s workspace. Everything they need—information, workflows, and access to one another—exists all in one place.
Lack Of Meaningful Collaboration Means Less Time Spent On Driving Growth
For decades, licensing relationships have relied on emails, phone calls to share information, give feedback on product designs, or come to a consensus on a topic.
But it can be a hard habit to break when it’s how work has always gotten done. Licensing partners may agree that some of these administrative tasks can steal so much of their time, and ultimately not let them focus on their licensing business.
Take a classic scenario for example- your licensing team is buried in spreadsheets, doing royalty calculations manually.
Managing royalties manually, matching them against contract terms, and checking if royalties are reported correctly per territory, sales channel, and SKU- the entire workload can get cumbersome.
It disrupts the team’s workflow. It doesn’t let them have enough free pockets of time to analyze their business and push expansion.
Empower Licensing Partners To Connect From Wherever They Are
Changes to the current workplace landscape have now enabled more teams connect remotely.
As a result, licensing partners should rely on software solutions to help them accomplish shared work.
Dependable Solutions’ tools allow teams to connect in real time from wherever they are.
Our brand licensing software are more than just a means for getting work done—they also help remote teams feel connected.
This shared workspace becomes the hub of sharing digital assets, storing licensing agreements, checking contract terms and everything in between.
Identify Bottlenecks by Automating Tasks
Improving your licensing process offers continuous forward momentum.
Imagine a typical day in your life-
your deal memo has just been approved. Licensing agreements are routing through legal departments.
Your creative teams have just been informed that they need to rush through hundreds of SKUs, product design and approvals.
You want the licensed merchandise reach the retail stores faster.
This is where you need all the help that you can get. This is also where inefficient workflows can slow progress, or worse—bring everything to a standstill.
How do you find you have all the digital assets that you need from licensors to begin designing?
Will it be easy for you to monitor the product approval process if you are constantly exchanging modifications via emails?
While you’re worried about getting into production, the legal teams are busy translating many contract terms to match the real life financial compliance and royalty management issues.
With the right tools in place, you can monitor these workflows by automating the administrative tasks, and not stay tied to emails. You can address bottlenecks before they get out of hand.
Process improvement challenges teams to find better, more efficient ways to work, and that includes how teams meet to share information. The good news is that technology gives teams the gift of virtual collaboration, which helps them get work done anytime and from anywhere.
Worried about teams accessing information they should not be able to see?
Don’t be.
Whether at the company level or licensing partners, our software suite lets you set permission level to specific brand assets, approvals, sensitive financial information.
Your data is safe with us. Our built in functionalities lets you have the control and prevent accidental internal, or external exposure.
Licensing partnerships and productivity suffered as they struggled to move conversations from email inboxes to shared workspaces and resources to a central location.
In the licensing space, brands and consumer product licensing companies need to adapt to changes fast to survive and thrive.
Licensing process improvements makes that possible.
Having the right tools in place can help companies address even the strong challengers of process improvement.