Managing intellectual asset inventories

December, 1998

Does it make sense to apply inventory control concepts and practices to intellectual assets? Three factors are driving the trend:

• Increased emphasis on applying and re-using knowledge;
• Wider use of "objects" (chunks of computer code or information) in software development, training, and publishing;
• Changes in accounting methods for intangible assets.

Managing intellectual assets as an "inventory" in a database makes it easier to produce, deploy,  re-use, and assign a value to them. Among the beneficiaries of this approach are investors, managers, product marketers, and information professionals.

The investment we made this year in an intellectual asset inventory is now beginning to pay off. Among the lessons we learned were:

• Use a team approach
• Keep it flexible
• Include people assets
• rovide for multiple inventory levels
• Rethink business models
• Include cost estimates
• Make time to document

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