As an IT professional services firm, your intellectual property (IP) is one of your most valuable assets. It supports your strategies and produces services that attract clients to your business. Therefore, it’s essential to protect and organize your IP properly. In this blog, we will discuss the best ways to do so and the benefits of doing it.
First, it’s crucial to identify and audit all the valuable information that is held by consultants on their laptops. Ensure that it’s backed up on your central server, so it’s easily accessible to your staff. Invest in a simple document storage and management system like MS Sharepoint, which makes finding and updating the IP easy for all consultants.
Investing in automatic backup software that uploads changes from each laptop daily is another essential step in protecting your IP. It prevents the loss of new IP and provides you with a backup copy if anything goes wrong.
People come and go in organizations, so you need to protect your company from any loss of IP due to consultants leaving. Ensure that they leave behind any hardware and pass on any valuable information to other team members. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) can help in preventing consultants from sharing confidential information outside of the organization.
Organizing and protecting your IP decreases risk and enhances compliance from people within your organization. It’s also good for building company value, so there are no excuses not to do it.
In conclusion, identify ways your IP can support your consulting business, select IP or processes that meet your objectives, and gather them all in one place. Make sure your team understands the importance of protecting and organizing your IP and is on board with the processes you have in place.
We’d love to hear from you. How are you protecting your IP? Do you think NDAs work for people who leave your organization?
Join our new FB group, where expert and seasoned consultants are joining, too! Let’s continue the conversation and discuss the best practices in the IT consulting industry. Thank you for reading, and we’ll catch up with you soon.
