Manage Your Digital Assets to Maximize Company Value

An important reminder to invest in your digital assets and development of your company's trade secrets is in a recent article: Localization is the New Globalization in PwC's Strategy+Business. Your intangible assets need to be protected to maximize your company’s value. Today, this means managing these assets digitally.

“Today, information, data, and technology are the primary sources… of value. The most valuable companies in the world don’t really own much in the way of reserves or physical assets. They own intellectual property, patents, R&D, and brands.” - Strategy+Business

Your company’s digital assets can include:

• Your company’s domain(s) and website(s);

• Your company’s social media accounts and content (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter, etc.);

• Customer information and client lists, which may be maintained in a customer relationship management (CRM) application;

• Business practices and processes, which should be documented;

• Images and videos that your company has created;

• White papers, articles, blogs or any other kind of written documentation in the public or private domain;

• In-house applications; and

• Trademarks and patents.

These assets are what set your business apart from the competition and add substantial value to your company. Keeping well-documented, “evergreen” digital records of your company’s intangible assets will be very valuable to a prospective acquirer of your company or give your company an edge for a future product or service launch. It can also protect your products and processes from being easily replicated by your competitors – or defend your position in the case of a copycat product or service.

According to PwC, the COVID-19 pandemic “demolished any lingering doubts about the benefits of digital transformation. Those businesses with an established digital presence generally fared better; those without one struggled and fell further behind – particularly in retail and hospitality – if they didn’t have an online sales option.”

Moreover, the global e-commerce market is expected to reach $6.2 trillion USD in 2022 compared to $4.2 trillion USD in 2020, almost a 50% increase in two years. This trend is another indication that service and product companies not only need to have an online presence – but they should monetize that presence with e-commerce functionality or risk obsolescence.

Using customer relationship management (CRM) tools, such as Salesforce or Mailchimp, enables you to reach your market with focused “intention” by leveraging analytics to “recapture shoppers’ affection (and dollars).” Most e-commerce solutions and accounting applications, such as QuickBooks for smaller businesses, are designed to integrate with your CRM platform, which allows you to combine your customer list and contact history with valuable, customer-level sales data. (The recent acquisition of Mailchimp by Intuit (QuickBooks) gives you an idea of just how powerful and valuable the digital combination of CRM and sales data is to any-sized business.) The customer sales data you generate will allow predictive analytics based upon a strong history of customer purchasing patterns and demographic insights about your target market.

Focusing on the digital management of these intangible assets protects your assets and allows you to leverage up on what makes your brand - and business - unique from your competitors. Take the time to review the way these assets are managed at your company, and plan to periodically revisit this plan in our rapidly changing, digitally driven world. In times of uncertainty, the only certainty is digital – and proper digital asset management is key to maximizing your company’s value.

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Christie Solomon, MBA, established Elevate Next Business Consulting after ten years of broad experience in corporate operations and administration, including mergers and acquisitions. Contact us today for a complimentary session to see how we can help you better manage your valuable digital assets. 

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