Measuring TTO performance with indicators and opt-in benchmarking

A technology transfer office measures its performance well when every number has a written definition, is counted on a stated date and is shown next to the previous period. Add a clear line between activity outputs and outcomes, keep confidential cases out of the detail but inside the totals, and comparisons with other institutions become possible without sharing a single record. This article explains how to set up such indicators and how EnaTTO calculates, tracks and, if you opt in, benchmarks them.

Start with definitions, not dashboardsCopy Anchor Link

"Number of patent applications" sounds unambiguous until two people count it. Does an application count when the record is created or when it was filed? Does a PCT application count separately from the national phase entries that follow it? Does a withdrawn draft count?

Every indicator needs four things written down:

• Definition and calculation: what is counted and how, including exclusions.
• Counting date: the date that decides which period a record falls into. A patent application is counted on its filing date, not on the day someone entered it.
• Period: month, quarter or year, aligned with your fiscal year.
• Source: which records the number comes from.

A number without a definition should not appear on a dashboard. If the definition changes, the history becomes incomparable, so change definitions rarely and on purpose.

EnaTTO ships with an indicator dictionary that follows these rules. Each indicator has a definition, a calculation method, a measurement period, a counting date and a source entity. Quarters and years start from the fiscal year start month in your regional settings, every indicator is shown with the previous period, and archived and draft records are not counted unless stated otherwise.

Separate outputs from outcomesCopy Anchor Link

A TTO can be busy without being effective, and effective without looking busy. Mixing the two in one list hides both. A useful classification:

• Activity outputs: what the office produced, for example disclosures received, patent applications filed, project applications submitted, training events held.
• Operational outcomes: how well the process worked, for example median days from disclosure to decision, the share of disclosures taken into protection, missed deadlines, the win rate of industry demands.
• Commercialisation outcomes: licences and assignments signed, licensing and royalty revenue, spin-offs.
• Long-term impact: economic and societal effects that rarely fit a quarterly report but belong in the strategy.

EnaTTO's indicator dictionary assigns every indicator to one of these classes, so you can read outputs and outcomes side by side instead of as a single list of counts.

Point-in-time indicators need historyCopy Anchor Link

Some indicators are flows (how many applications were filed this quarter), others are states (how many patent families were active at the end of the quarter). States are easy for today and hard for last year: the database only shows the current status.

EnaTTO calculates end-of-period indicators for past periods from stage and status history, such as workflow events and patent status changes. If a period ends in the future, today's status is used. That is what makes an "active patent families at year end" figure for last year reliable.

Money and confidentiality in totalsCopy Anchor Link

Two practical rules prevent misleading reports:

• Amounts stay in their currency. Budget, expenses and revenue are summed per currency; EnaTTO does not convert between currencies.
• Confidential cases count, but do not show. Confidential and strictly confidential records are included in totals, but their titles, people and details never appear in report rows. A university executive with the institutional viewer role sees aggregate reports without getting access to individual confidential invention records.

Follow trends, not snapshotsCopy Anchor Link

One quarter tells you little. Trends show whether a change in process made a difference. In EnaTTO's reports you can follow selected indicators over the last 2 to 12 months, quarters or years. Each indicator has its own chart (different units, no double axes) and a table view; money indicators are shown as a separate series per currency.

Indicators you look at regularly can be saved as an indicator set. A set is personal by default; sharing it or scheduling it requires export permission. A scheduled set sends an e-mail summary once a period has ended, with the last completed period and the one before it, to the recipients you select among members who can read reports. The summary contains only aggregate counts and amounts, no record names or codes.

Exports for the reports you already oweCopy Anchor Link

Most offices report to their own management and to funders or ministries in a fixed format. Period indicators, the IP and project dashboards and key record lists can be exported from EnaTTO as Excel or CSV. Exports are prepared in the background, only the person who requested them can download them, and they are deleted after 7 days. In export files, confidential rows carry only code and status.

Country profiles label the indicators that belong to a reporting framework (for example TÜBİTAK 1513 monitoring indicators in Türkiye, HE-BCI in the United Kingdom, ASTP for Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the general profile). These are labels; the official template columns are mapped once a sample template is shared.

Benchmarking: compare without sharing recordsCopy Anchor Link

Internal trends answer "are we improving?". Benchmarking answers "how do we compare with offices like ours?". Done carelessly, it exposes sensitive information. Done well, it shares as little as possible.

EnaTTO's benchmarking is optional and works like this:

• What is shared: only the values of 28 selected indicators, as rates, durations and scores, and counts converted to per 100 institutional staff. The staff count itself is not sent. Amounts, operational indicators, records, names and codes are never shared.
• Once a year, after your approval: a person with integration rights previews the values for the last completed fiscal year and approves them. The values are recalculated on the server; if the year changed after the preview, the submission is rejected.
• Peer group: the same country and institution type (university, research institute, technology park, hospital, public institution, other). If there are fewer than 5 organisations, the comparison falls back to the same type across all countries; if there are still too few, the indicator is not shown.
• What you see: only the lower quartile, median and upper quartile. Minimum and maximum values are never returned, and only organisations that submitted for that year can see their peers. A position label (below, within or above the middle half) carries no "good" or "bad" meaning.
• Leave at any time: leaving deletes all your submissions, both in ENA Cloud and locally.

A short checklistCopy Anchor Link

1. Write a definition, counting date and source for every indicator you report.
2. Split your list into outputs, operational outcomes and commercialisation outcomes.
3. Show every figure with the previous period, and look at trends before drawing conclusions.
4. Keep confidential cases in the totals and out of the details.
5. Compare with peers only through aggregated, approved values.

To see the indicator reports and benchmarking preview with fictional data, request a demo.