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Client Community is Our Company and Culture

Innovation
Tags: Anaqua Experience, Professional Services, Client Growth

By Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua

Continuing Our Customer Focus

The pace of M&A in the Intellectual Property solutions market continues to underline the importance of IP assets for IP owners globally. While there is consolidation in the industry, here at Anaqua, we continue to stay focused on what’s most important – our clients and understanding how we can provide better solutions and services to both them and the market.

For us, the foundation and reasoning behind all our strategic decisions is our customers. This customer-centric approach is ingrained in our company and culture. Client Community is a critical part of our DNA and ultimately differentiates us from others in the industry.

Founded by IP Practitioners for IP Practitioners

Anaqua was founded by IP leaders from Ford Motor Company and British American Tobacco to address a gap in solutions serving the IP industry. Managing IP with patchworks of commercial and homegrown systems left them with unreliable data that increased their costs and exposed them to risk. Taking matters into their own hands, they collaborated on a new web-based, unified system for intellectual property–a comprehensive software platform capable of managing and automating the full IP lifecycle of patents, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, and contracts. That collaboration was the beginning of Anaqua–the world’s first web-based unified platform for intellectual property.

Company Culture That Empowers Clients

When our founders wrote what became the original specification for the ANAQUA platform, they also set the stage for a company culture that empowers its clients. At Anaqua, clients are stewards of the company’s strategic product development, helping to inform our long-term investments, determine our product roadmap priorities, and validate our highest-impact features and functions.

We partner closely with our clients, in a structured manner, through client committees and working groups. Our client working groups span over 60 different companies and include more than 100 executives and senior IP attorneys working closely with our leadership to bring their vision to life. Simply put, if it is not in our clients’ best interest, then it is not in our product roadmap.

“One key benefit of Anaqua is the Users Group which has been formed. Talking to top-class IP owners about the system at User Group meetings and also the processes and procedures each company uses to manage its Intellectual Property rights is tantamount to bench-marking with the best.” -Toe Su Aung, Former Head of IP, British American Tobacco

Investments in Capabilities and Expertise Driven by Customers

Our focus is, first and foremost, understanding how we can provide better solutions and services to our clients. To accomplish this, we work closely with them to develop a long-term strategic roadmap where we identify gaps and opportunities (such as functional capabilities and talent) for us to determine what elements to build, buy, or partner with that best support our platform, and most importantly our clients. We also view our growth alongside our customers’ growth. So, as we continue to build our client community and listen to their needs, we focus on increasing our investment in R&D to make these ideas implemented and actionable.

Anaqua understands that clients’ needs are ever-changing, and so is our solution. Over the years, we’ve made it a priority in our product development to address these needs. This tradition has continued with the tenth major release of our 15 year-strong flagship software platform, AQX, and we recently added a second platform called PATTSY WAVE to address the diverse needs of the broader law firm market. Not only are we focused and intentional in our portfolio solutions, but also our leadership as we hire dedicated IP experts in critical locations around the world. This is reflected by the recent launch of our dedicated law firm business unit.

Meet the Team Here: https://go.anaqua.com/law-firm-team-video

The Client Journey

At Anaqua, we strive to ensure our clients achieve their business outcomes through our interactions. Our client-success business model is built to support and provide clients with dedicated staff, who have IP expertise and touchpoints at every step of the process, ensuring seamless customer experience and value. Starting with our initial discussions, through implementation and post launch, our focus is on helping customers define and meet their short and long-term business goals.

“With Innovation Centers in Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, India, Singapore and China and a portfolio of 25,000 patents, the challenge was huge. Despite this, I have never seen a more successful IT system implementation project. It is a tribute to the whole team – NXP, Anaqua.” – Hans Pennings, Former SVP of IP & Licensing, NXP Semiconductors N.V.

Our investors were unhappy with the inflexibility and lack of usability of the new system. For this and other reasons, we are very glad to move back to ANAQUA. We were also impressed with the fast implementation process. We are a small team and could not afford to dedicate significant resources to the effort. Anaqua was able to complete the whole project in six weeks, including data migration and training.” – Matt Holmes, Chief Patent Counsel, Jaguar Land Rover, Ltd.

Our proactive relationship management helps move clients forward through quarterly business reviews and client training, among others. In addition to our unparalleled client support, Anaqua’s IP solutions are designed with configurability and customization in mind to adapt and meet each of our client’s unique goals and objectives.

“After a thorough review of the potential suppliers, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of Anaqua’s ability to meet our current and future needs. We have been very impressed with both the Anaqua product and its people and look forward to a long partnership.” – Dr. Udo Meyer, Former SVP of Global IP, BASF Corporation

We Are Here to Listen

Time will tell how recent consolidation in the IP industry will impact IP practitioners.  At the center of it all, of course, are the respective customers of the merged entities—and how they are impacted by the changes taking place with the organization.

At Anaqua, our customers have and always will continue to be our number one priority. This customer-centric approach, along with our software integration, define Anaqua’s roadmap and we will continue to build on this successful model – through organic growth and strategic M&A – to keep delivering the dedicated staff, solutions, and most importantly stability customers need in today’s environment.