Sano Development is a UK-based company of innovators and designers. Specialising in the built environment, its team is dedicated to developing the homes of the future – with the entire life cycle of the home in mind.
While Sano is focused on researching and innovating to find incredible solutions in its field, its team also has a huge focus on managing and licensing its intellectual property portfolio.
In this case study, Richard Gover and Robert Orr explore how and why Sano Development chose Equinox to support their team and discuss the impact it’s had on their processes.
“Before we came to Equinox, our IP portfolio was managed by an external firm of patent attorneys. Once we decided to take over more of the management in-house, we wanted a system that could help us keep on top of tasks and organise documentation with ease.
“The firm we worked with was using Equinox already, so it was a great option for us. Our team has had experience with a variety of IP management systems, so we knew what to look for.
“We wanted a system that balanced functionality and cost with built-in document management, and we found that in Equinox. Other systems we’ve used have been slow to adapt and not very responsive, but Equinox has been brilliant in helping us set up the system and supporting us since.”
When you make the move to manage your portfolio in-house, keeping on top of your tasks can seem like a real challenge. Equinox uses pre-set processes to help you manage your assets without missing anything and combines with a powerful suite of tools to ensure you can handle your tasks with maximum efficiency.
We know that simple administration tasks like managing your documents are hugely important. That’s why our document management system is designed to be intuitive and accessible. Every document, email, or letter is stored with the case it’s related to, giving you an unparalleled overview of an asset’s history.
“We worked closely with Trad [from the onboarding team] to get set up on Equinox. We developed a good relationship and the whole process went quite smoothly.
“The data migration was well explained to us. There was a clear timetable for the process, and we had good communications throughout.
“Since the firm we were working with used Equinox, it was overall straightforward to migrate our data into our own system. We had some challenges, but the Equinox team helped us overcome those hurdles.
“When it was time for us to start using the system, Trad remained our primary point of contact at Equinox for a while. This was invaluable for getting support quickly, and we’ve found the Client Services team that took over to be responsive too.”
When you start to implement Equinox in your organisation, you’ll have an expert from our Onboarding team to guide you through the process. Getting your company started with a new software system has challenges, but our team will be with you the whole way and help you traverse any obstacles.
Plus, they’ll stay with you once you’ve started using the system. So, if you have any questions or problems in the early days of managing your portfolio with Equinox, you’ll be able to speak directly to the person who knows your needs inside and out, and who helped you configure the software to the way you want it to be.
Our onboarding team has helped hundreds of organisations get started with Equinox— you’re in good hands.
“The basic functionality of Equinox is really intuitive. You can do almost anything in the system from the most arcane tasks right through to more advanced processes. Primarily, we use Equinox for its seamless document management. Alongside this, we draft a lot of new patent applications, edit documents, and save cost information to track how much we spend on each case.
“The system is very flexible, and the strength of Equinox is in its customisation. We set up access within Sano Developments to allow our colleagues to independently access any documents they need from our team. We have a very open environment, and while most enquiries come straight to us first, it’s great to have the ability to signpost people to get what they need independently when necessary.”
Equinox is designed to be as simple as possible to use. The system is clear to understand and access, with no complicated, awkward processes that you might find in other systems. You have enough to think about, so we like to keep things simple!
Our aim is for Equinox users to manage as much of the IP management process as possible from right within the system. You can handle everything from emails and document management right up to bulk creating cases and processing renewals— all inside Equinox.
In a company where your intellectual property portfolio is so fundamental to commercial success, sharing information on your assets is an important task. Our Access Portal lets colleagues outside your team access the system to get the details they need, whether that’s downloading documents or viewing reports on your progress. In a big organisation where you’re responsible for updating a variety of teams, this functionality could save you bags of time so you can focus on the urgent tasks on your list.
“We’ve been using Equinox for about six months now and it does everything we need it to.
“It has fulfilled the key criteria we set out with when looking for an IP management system and has proven to be more cost effective and higher performing than other off-the-shelf IP management software.
“With our team having limited face-to-face working time, Equinox gives us a brilliant oversight of our colleagues’ tasks and actions on cases. The system works particularly well with our paralegal (who works remotely), as she can update cases for us to check all within the system. Plus, it’s helpful to filter tasks by what is fatal to ensure we never miss the most vital actions.
“For us, Equinox is a seamless document management and records system with the flexibility we need to make it work for us.”
Working collaboratively can be a challenge when your team is working from home or in different offices, but Equinox can bridge the gap and maintain those fundamental strong links. You can see who is responsible for what task, what’s been done, and what’s outstanding. You can even control the level of access each team member has, ensuring your documentation and processes remain consistent and secure.
Equinox is not only built to support everyone in your team, but it’s also designed to magnify the abilities of the user to maximise their impact. By making the system simple to use and effective at helping process tasks, we’re proud to offer a high performing software solution that’s used worldwide.
We’re enhancing corporate IP management
Equinox Corporate is purpose-built for IP professionals working in-house. So, whether you have in-house counsel like Sano or collaborate with an external firm, our system has tools to boost your team’s performance and help keep your assets protected.
