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Six Months Journey with Anaqua: Interview with Mike Frechtman

Business Management | IP-Strategie
Mike Frechtman - Senior Director, Sales & Accounts
Tags: AQX Law Firm

It’s been nearly six months since Anaqua acquired O P Solutions, the provider of the PATTSY WAVE IP management software. Now, PATTSY WAVE is part of Anaqua’s suite of product and service offerings. Michael Frechtman, former Director of Sales at O P Solutions and now Senior Director, Sales and Accounts at Anaqua, shares his journey. Mike was interviewed by Nancy Hegarty, Vice President, Marketing:

What does being acquired by Anaqua mean to you?

When the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting health crisis hit, Anaqua’s strategy was to invest in the business and come out stronger on the other side. To me, the fact that acquiring O P Solutions and our team was part of that strategy is incredibly flattering and shows that Anaqua believes in our success.

How has the O P Solutions’ operation changed?

A focus at Anaqua has been to make sure that we don’t make grand-scale changes to our operations, so we can continue to make quick and efficient development efforts and be responsive to our customers. A good example came up this past October, when the USPTO changed the way data could be accessed electronically from the TSDR website. This was problematic since many of our clients rely heavily on our Web Data Validation Tool. Thankfully, our team was able to quicky develop a patch and just a couple of weeks later, we were able to distribute it to our clients. Most vendors are not able to be that nimble.

On the other hand, with Anaqua supporting us, we have a broadening focus and resources that simply weren’t available in the past. This is evident with the new interface for the Anaqua renewal service and the overhaul of user interface for PATTSY WAVE. We would never have been able to undertake such significant development efforts on our own.

I think we’ve always done a good job listening to clients and developing solutions that would help improve their productivity. Now, with a focus on maintaining the core of what makes PATTSY WAVE special, we can also take advantage of the ambitious initiatives that Anaqua has made possible.

What do your new and existing clients think?

O P Solutions historically operated as a ‚bare bones’ operation, so we were always limited by the fact that we didn’t have an organization like Anaqua behind us. Now we’re part of a company with a commitment to growth, and enhancing our software is a priority objective. We’ve seen that not only do firms love the new investment, but they are also excited that they will now have access to all the Anaqua services and offerings.

Beyond existing clients, prospective customers will be reassured that PATTSY WAVE is backed by a stable company that will be able to meet their needs and support their practice as it grows over time.

How has your job changed?

I still have the same responsibilities I had in my previous position, including client accounts, selling software, and supporting product development. However, with the ambitious initiatives that Anaqua has undertaken, there’s a lot to be done. I’ve been able to handle the new challenges, but admittedly, it is a lot of work.

What’s the best thing about working for Anaqua?

The opportunity to work with the people at Anaqua has been one of the more welcomed aspects of my early time with Anaqua. It’s a great experience to see the approaches my new colleagues take for different situations and to get a feel for how they work. It really is a pleasure to work with such an experienced team of professionals.

But also, it has been refreshing to finally have the resources available, to invest in our software for things that we’ve wanted to accomplish for a long time. The new annuity interface, the UI overhaul, the hosted environment, and integration with DMS systems are really just the tip of the iceberg!

Where do you see yourself and O P Solutions in six months’ time?

In the next six month, we expect to be welcoming new clients and expanding our foothold in the law firm (and corporate) market. It will be great to see the results of our labor, as our clients start realizing the benefits of all the investments we’ve been making. It will surely help our new and existing customers work in a more efficient and productive manner.

While we’ve always known there was an untapped, global market out there, we had been doing well enough in our own bubble that we didn’t worry about expanding in that way. Now we are setting our sights beyond North America; it will be exciting to help expand our business to the international markets and see our software used all over the world!