Philadelphia, PA USA-London UK-Southfield, MI USA - 02/08/2005 - Today, the Thomson Scientific market group of Thomson, announced that MDC, also
known as Master Data Center (www.mdcip.com),
successfully completed its first biannual IPMaster Application Support Workshop.
MDC is the industry’s leading provider of IP management software and patent
annuity and trademark renewal payment services. IPMaster is the MDC flagship software
product for managing intellectual property.
“During our recent client conferences and user meetings, many customers had
requested in-depth, technical training on IPMaster and the ability to share best
practices between firms”, said Alex Butler, vice president of sales &
marketing, MDC. “We want to ensure that our customers get the training they
need in order to use our IPMaster software more efficiently and effectively. It
is a credit to MDC colleagues and staff that they were able to work with clients
to organize and deliver this unique event in less than 60 days,” continued
Butler.
Thirty-nine participants from twenty-six domestic and global companies and
law firms congregated in St. Pete Beach, Florida, January 30 – February
1, for two days of in-depth presentations and training sessions on IPMaster.
Led by Phil Henderson, CIO and vice president, MDC, the sessions provided attendees
with detailed insight into the software’s technical components and requirements
and showed how to utilize and modify IPMaster according to individual clients’
needs.
“I certainly recommend the MDC IPMaster Application Support Workshop to
anyone who administers IPMaster”, said John Shea, database analyst at Hogan
& Hartson, LLP in Washington DC. “The informal learning environment
and availability of resources better prepared me for our firm's implementations
and provided me with ideas for optimizing our IPMaster systems. As a result,
I'm definitely interested in attending future workshops.”
During the first day, Phil Henderson presented a comprehensive overview of
IPMaster components and features. Presentations by Rajitha Boer, payment systems
project manager, MDC and Greg LaBelle, software developer at MDC, discussed
database components in more detail, including key tables, record selection,
rules, profile fields, modules, and procedures. In addition Kurt Highducheck,
product development manager, MDC, discussed features available via IPMaster
objects and how they can be effectively integrated and customized. Security
issues, such as access limitations, read-only systems, and data protections
were also addressed.
On the second day, attendees had the opportunity to participate in “hands-on”
training, led by the MDC IT and development staff, while completing exercises
on their laptops. The two training sessions were divided into two main topics:
browse maintenance and interface maintenance. The exercises educated clients
on how to create and modify browses, how to customize browses for specific users,
and how to export data.
Aside from the presentations and training sessions, the event provided ample
opportunity for clients to network with colleagues and peers facing similar
business challenges. Participants shared their IPMaster experience and discussed
individual customization features, which ultimately enriched the knowledge of
all attendees.
“Given we have just purchased the software, it was especially interesting
to hear from other customers with regard to the customizations and integrations
they carried out. I am quite sure with MDC’s help, our installation will
also integrate neatly into our ongoing KM system implementation and this time
next year we can stand up and announce what we have done with it”, said
David Anderson, IT systems manager, ITI Scotland.
MDC also gathered feedback from customers on current IPMaster features and
suggestions on how to improve the software. These suggestions will be taken
into consideration when finalizing the upcoming software upgrade for IPMaster
2.0, which is currently under development.
An IPMaster Application Support Workshop for database administrators is planned
for October 16 – 18, 2005, in the Napa Valley region of California. For
more information on IPMaster or future workshops, please contact info@mdcip.com
or call +1.248.936.3737.
