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Implementation Planning
Implementation Planning represents a cornerstone of
Jaguar ’ s formula for client success. Competent Contract Rights Management
system project management requires carefully co-ordinated information
gathering, integration and presentation. Nearly a decade ago, Jaguar
standardized a set of interview procedures, analytical tools and reporting
formats designed to clearly establish the goals, efforts and strategies
required for success.
The planning process represents 10 to 15% of the
overall project schedule. The payoff is a 50%
reduction in the time required to achieve live operation.
Management enthusiasm is galvanised. Staff vision is clarified. Plans are
reconciled. Priorities are established. Resources are assigned. Obstacles
are recognized. Contingencies are documented. Expectations are managed.
A document called the Implementation Evaluation and
Plan is produced. Major sections of the report include:
Executive Summary
- Company Status
- Project Summary
- Vision Statement
Project Recommendations
- Priorities and Phases
- Summary Schedule
- Implementation Team
- Resource Estimates
Project Detail
- Software Modifications
- System Interfaces
- Network Requirements
- Workflow Transition
Individual Department Status
- Overview
- Process Notes
- Communications
- Vital Statistics
- Obstacles
Department Automation
- Short Term Goals
- Ultimate Vision
- Change Management
- Success Parameters
Documentation
- Approved Interview Summaries
- Project Milestones
- Human Resource Grid
- Replacement Reports
- Business Process Flow Chart
- Software Modification Quotation
- Configuration Options
Motivations to Action
Much of what
people do in life is driven by the desire to avoid pain. Rejection,
disappointment, conflict, stress, abuse…, are all worthy of active steps
to avoid experiencing them. Companies that purchase System 7 frequently
decide to do so based upon a perceived need to reduce the agonizing pain
of endless confusion, despair and disrespect that plagues their internal
operations and external relations. Senior management usually first becomes
aware of this situation when
departmental
restructurings or personnel turnover rip through a thin veneer of frantic
containment
to expose key
organizational shortcomings and vulnerabilities.
Sales Mayhem
Keepers of manual and semi-manual sales support systems commonly find
themselves preoccupied with responding to highly repetitive requests for
information from their account representatives. While wasting expensive
senior staff and middle management time on redundant low-level tasks is of
obvious concern to everyone involved, the hidden damage to sales performance
is caused by questions that are never asked, either because answers cannot
be trusted, or because the effort seems to exceed anticipated
rewards.
Failure to
deliver timely and accurate Availabilities, Rights Clearance, Sales History,
Contract Verification, Current Payment Status, Performance Detail and
Release Window Analysis creates missed opportunities
, day after day,
year after year.
Gross Negligence
Partners of all types rely on the intellectual property organization
to act as a clearinghouse for the information needed to efficiently run
their own businesses and careers. Producers, Creatives and Master Licensors
each have a stake in receiving current corporate news. Likewise, licensees
are continuously concerned about receiving the approvals and feedback
necessary to succeed in their marketplaces and avoid expensive contractual
penalties. Company representatives must exercise extreme levels of
initiative in gathering, analyzing and updating acquisition contracts, sales
records, rights management, account collections and distribution detail to
meet these demands.
Audits,
lawsuits and negative publicity are the common result of failure to achieve
acceptable accuracy and comprehensiveness in privately published
documentation.
Violated Rights
One of the vital concerns within an intellectual property business is
risk of unintentional overuse or misuse of rights granted, either to or by
the organization. A wide variety of complex scenarios expand the challenges
of basic rights management. Key assets are often compilations of components,
each with their own unique rights, restrictions and expirations.
Distribution rights are commonly split among collaborative partners in
complex configurations of uses, territories, distribution channels and
exclusivities. Mature properties typically carry idiosyncratic contractual
baggage from previous exploitation cycles. Production agreements create
likeness and distribution restrictions (and options). Amendments to long
term agreements further cloud rights issues over time. Conservative rights
evaluations by Legal Departments, aimed at avoiding embarrassing exposure to
costly disputes, both public and private,
eliminate
profitable non-exclusive release windows and inexpensive incremental revenue
opportunities.
Severe Penalties
Legal Departments also carry core responsibility for another critical aspect
of contract administration, contract option and renewal expirations. Options
and Expirations frequently involve contingent dates that shift over time as
production schedules, release dates and approval deadlines adjust to reflect
emerging realities. Negotiators reach agreement on key contractual dates by
making them variable rather than attempting to establish a fixed compromise
in the face of an uncertain future. Contract Administrators are then faced
with the challenges inherent in maintaining an
extensive
calendar of unknowable future dates, any one of which could potentially
cause financial disaster through an undesirable renegotiation.
Failed Audits
Auditing focuses relentlessly on following trails of financial
postings back from published results to their source transactions. The
flexibility and spontaneity of Excel spreadsheets is traditionally deemed to
be an impediment to this process. Justification for revisions, or the actual
fact of the change itself, can be lost while rushing to close accounting
periods and meet reporting deadlines. Moreover, recent high profile scandals
have raised the standards by which “acceptable” documentation is now judged.
This concern becomes particularly acute in situations where multi-million
dollar invoices and checks are being issued to business partners that are
perceived to be “insiders” for one reason or another. The net result is
increased exposure to a withering review of departmental policies and
procedures by internal and/or external auditing teams.
Royalty Fraud
Royalty-based agreements are both inherently dynamic and built upon
trust, a fundamentally challenging situation. Contractual stipulations of
profit definitions, rate escalations, allowed deductions,
cross-collateralization, contingent guarantees, royalty reporting detail and
cancellation terms are subject to diverse interpretation and, most
significantly, inconsistent administration. The ongoing challenge is to
efficiently capture these errors in reports received from licensees while
simultaneously avoiding these same kinds of mistakes in the organization's
submissions to its own licensors. This is virtually impossible in a
spreadsheet-driven environment. Compensation for weak internal systems
ultimately results in an
over-reliance
upon royalty auditors that risks straining important long term business
relationships.
Willful Misconduct
Successful Intellectual Property creation, distribution and
exploitation demands careful collaboration. Dozens or perhaps hundreds of
business entities adopt and implement a shared vision in order to maximize
the overall return on investment. Product design, marketing and distribution
are artfully synchronized to properly execute a worldwide release. This is
the dream. The reality is much more of an inspection, review and containment
procedure aimed at avoiding serious trouble and confusion over the first
critical months and years of the intellectual asset lifecycle. Active
surveillance of agent, distributor and manufacturing activities is crucial
to successfully navigating the pitfalls of unleashed creative forces.
Maintenance of formal processes designed to
detect, document
and terminate infringement of legal rights, common sense and good taste
is essential
to proper implementation of the intellectual property business plan.
Breached Contracts
Breach of Contract is a serious charge that can inflame tempers and
endanger careers. While, in theory, any unfulfilled contractual term (or
implicit fiduciary responsibility) can engender this type of confrontation,
in practice, the greatest risks involve conflicts between related agreements
and unmet financial commitments. Inadvertent overlap of release windows,
violation of exclusivities, inconsistent product quality, chronic
under-marketing and ineffective geographic distribution control are examples
of grounds for expensive lawsuits. While overlooked payments, late reporting
and miscalculated account statements are usually easily rectified with
either remedial action or an apology. Breaches that diminish the value of
the licensor or licensee's investment in rights to an intellectual asset are
far more challenging to rectify to the satisfaction of all parties.
Prevention through the studied application of contract intelligence is
vastly more economical than a pattern of attempts to extend more favorable
terms or substitute assets in
situations where
it has become impossible to simply give the parties what they bargained for.
About
Jaguar News
Jaguar News is published periodically for the
purpose of maintaining communications with Jaguar’s clients, prospective
clients and other parties interested in the field of
Intellectual Property
Contract Rights Management. Jaguar Consulting was founded in 1985
for the express purpose of designing, developing, installing and
supporting Intellectual Property Software
Solutions.
Clients include Alliance-Atlantis Communications,
Cinar, DIC Entertainment, Explore International, Flextech Television,
Goodtimes Video, Hallmark Entertainment, Harmony Gold, HIT Entertainment,
Jim Henson Productions, Lions Gate Entertainment, Major League Baseball,
MGM, NBA, NBC, National Geographic Society, Nelvana, Sesame Workshop,
Southern Star, Warner Home Video and WNBA.
System 7 Universal Rights Management is
Jaguar’s seventh generation software product. It is an all-new design
created specifically to bring contract rights management technology to all
forms of intellectual property, including patents,
copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and
permissions. This groundbreaking system features a
Universal Contract Database, Multi-Level Rights Inheritance, a
fully-configurable Custom Rights Framework, and Integrated Rights
and Royalties Management. System 7 is available in
the following software modules: Intranet Portal, Contract Administration,
Rights and Restrictions, Workflow Management, Revenue Accounting, Royalties
Receivable
and Participations Payable.
Further information including
a white paper, System 7 Fundamentals, and a
test drive of System 7 Intranet is available at
http://www.jaguartc.com/system7.
Jaguar Consulting Inc.
Pasadena,
California
Lincoln Center, New York
London, United Kingdom
For additional information: Visit http://www.jaguartc.com
Or contact Jaguar at 626/796-1955 or
info@jaguartc.com
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