November 2002: Imaginatik Announces Release of Idea Central 3.5
BOSTON, MA (6 November, 2002) - Imaginatik announces the launch of Idea Central v3.5, a major milestone in the evolution of Idea Management software.
The new Idea Central v3.5 continues to set the benchmark for Idea Management software with an exciting group of new features that significantly raises the bar yet again on functionality, flexibility, and business methodology.
In addition to the already familiar features of Idea Central such as the ability to focus employee creativity, advanced idea capture functionality (for example identity control, categorization, file attachments, etc), collaborative idea development environment, structured evaluation processes and automated workflow – Idea Central 3.5 introduces a host of revolutionary new capabilities.
Highlights include IdeaMinder - an alert and reporting system to keep participants aware of new additions and comments to ideas of interest to them – and Send-A-Link, which allows participants to alert fellow employees of particular ideas. These two features significantly enhance employee contribution capacity, and knowledge sharing throughout the organization.
Further flexibility has been added to the system with the introduction of fully configurable questions within the Idea Capture Form, allowing Business Management to construct forms that exactly match their needs - without the need for IT intervention!
Other new features in this version take into account that Idea Management is a fundamentally human process, involving complex personal psychology and group dynamics. Imaginatik has continued to incorporate best practice for collaboration and knowledge management into the product itself, and has developed a flexible methodology to ease deployment and improve the yield of high quality ideas.
About Idea Management
Idea Management is a relatively new term for a hundred-year old concept, that of listening to employees to find ideas for improving the business. It involves the capture, development and selection of focused business ideas to help achieve corporate objectives for innovation, growth, and cost control. Idea Management is one of the most critical factors for successful innovation, alongside Leadership and Organizational Climate (Source: PwC Innovation Survey 2001). With 80% of senior executives reporting that innovation is the most important business issue today, tools such as Idea Management software are becoming the foundation for growth initiatives amongst the top companies (Source: Bain & Co., 2002).
In the past, many companies have resorted to in-house development of Idea Management systems, although industry experts from practitioners to consultants recommend commercial software rather than bespoke development. Indeed few companies have the knowledge or expertise to approach the area, with less than 40% of companies having any formal process for Idea Management, and just 15% of companies with any form of supporting IT system (Source: CBI and 3M Innovation Survey 2001).
About Imaginatik
Founded in 1994 and based in Boston, MA, Imaginatik is the long-time leader in enterprise Idea Management software, designed to elicit ideas and insights from employees and extended enterprise partners, to provide a shared collaborative space to develop ideas, and sophisticated tools to evaluate and select the top ideas for implementation. The core product is Idea Central v3.5, a web based application to collect ideas from employees. The Idea Central Framework consists of add-on products and modules to complement the core employee product. Idea Chain is a product to collect ideas from supply chain partners and business customers. The Portal Module is a front-end tool to promote innovation across the enterprise, and the Rewards Module is a points-based system to manage rewards from an Idea Central project. Imaginatik’s Idea Central can be used to support short term events or long term, continuous improvement and innovation activities. Case studies and success stories can be provided on demand.
Imaginatik’s clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cadbury Schweppes, W. R. Grace, Teck Cominco, PwC Consulting, IBM, Hallmark and Farm Credit Canada. Our software has helped these and other companies discover significant sources of additional revenue, as well as tangible cost savings, process improvements and an increased product pipeline.
Imaginatik (under the Imaginatik Research brand) is also one of the leading sources of new research into Idea Management and Corporate Innovation - developing the underlying theories and best practice in conjunction with academic institutions such as the London Business School, Penn State Smeal College of Business, the University of Virginia and the Cass School of Business, London, as well as leading practitioners of corporate innovation.
Imaginatik and Idea Central are trademarks of Imaginatik plc.
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