AI companies
Win the enterprise customer while preserving your product business
An AI company negotiated an expansion while distinguishing customer-specific deliverables, shared improvements and the core know-how supporting its product and growth.
01 / The context
The situation.
An AI company supplied an operations assistant to an enterprise customer. A successful pilot created interest in wider deployment. The customer requested extensive customisation, broad ownership of resulting work and access to detailed operating materials.
The opportunity connected a particular customer's needs with a product intended to serve a wider business. Customisation, operating knowledge and reusable software met within the same delivery discussion, making the relationship's commercial boundaries relevant to both the account and future development.
02 / The challenge
The decision that matters.
The contract could support growth, but combined customer documents, company software, reusable evaluation knowledge and new contributions from both teams. Sales wanted a commitment; engineering needed a product it could keep improving. Leadership had to agree what the customer would receive and what would remain available for the wider business.
A broad commitment could cover contributions with different roles in the business. Customer documents and specific deliverables supported the deployment, while reusable knowledge supported continuing product development. The challenge was to express the customer's needs without making the company's broader commercial position an unexamined concession.
03 / The strategic perspective
Keep the account and the product business connected.
An enterprise collaboration can create value for a customer while drawing on capabilities intended for a wider market. The commercial question is how the agreement recognises both. A customer-specific deliverable, reusable software and the knowledge needed to operate the product may appear together in the work while serving different business purposes.
Ownership, licensing and access discussions are connected with pricing and product direction. Their significance lies in what each party needs to do next: the customer must be able to use what it buys, and the company needs a deliberate position on the capabilities supporting its continuing business.
04 / DELSOL Group’s contribution
How DELSOL Group contributed.
An offer both sides can value
DELSOL Group helped leadership distinguish customer-specific value from the reusable product contribution, supporting the development of a commercial offer that addressed the customer's deployment needs while recognising the company's continuing investment. The distinction connected the account's value with the wider product's economics. DELSOL Group kept customer-specific commitments and reusable capability within the same commercial discussion, rather than treating customisation as an isolated delivery question.
Clear priorities for ownership and licensing
DELSOL Group supported business leaders and counsel in framing existing assets, new deliverables and permitted uses, connecting negotiation priorities with the intended collaboration and the revenue model beyond this single account. This brought the intended scope of the relationship into the ownership and licensing discussion. The question was what access the customer needed and how the company's continuing ability to develop its product should be reflected.
Knowledge sharing with a commercial purpose
Through Fractional CIPO support, DELSOL Group helped connect documentation, expert access and confidential know-how with delivery commitments, informing the company's choices about what to share, license or retain as core capability. The discussion connected information sharing with its purpose for the customer. It also kept attention on the commercial significance of operating knowledge that supported the company's capability beyond the individual deployment.
05 / Intended value
The business objective.
The objective was to establish a clearer basis for enterprise expansion, with understandable customer access and continuity and an agreed path for the company's product development. The aim was to support decisions about the price of concessions and whether customisation served the company's growth ambitions.
The intended value was a commercial proposition in which the significance of each commitment was easier to judge. Customer access, delivery responsibilities and the company's wider development needs were meant to inform the same negotiation, including the value attached to any concession.