Dec 2003: Imaginatik Announces Breakthrough in Idea Evaluation with Idea Central V5
BOSTON, MA (9 Dec, 2003) - Imaginatik announces the immediate availability of Idea Central Version 5, the tenth major release of the award-winning Idea Management software package since its launch in 1999.
Idea Central Version 5 now contains forty reviewer features and tools that can be configured to handle a variety of review processes. Tools include the ability to restrict access to ideas, the facility to share private collaborative comments between reviewers, and the functionality to review ideas based on configurable scoring criteria. The advanced toolset supports idea clustering, ‘review in context’, and advanced export and reporting.
Idea Central Version 5 draws heavily on the studies conducted by Imaginatik Research with clients such as Grace Performance Chemicals, Georgia-Pacific, UOP and Cadbury-Schweppes. These studies found that companies using Idea Central are generating significantly more high quality ideas and concepts, but have been struggling with the evaluation process. Improvements to the idea collection process and the collaborative idea development functionality in earlier versions have lead to the generation of a high volume of quality ideas. A timely and thorough assessment of such contributions had become a considerable challenge for the team responsible for the evaluation and decision making process.
“For years companies have struggled with evaluating ideas and project candidates,” says Mark Turrell, CEO of Imaginatik. “One hundred ideas may not seem like a lot, but they can easily absorb one hundred man hours of effort without careful process design and technical support”.
Following a six week beta program, Imaginatik’s early customers report that review throughput has been increased by over 500%, freeing up valuable time for management, and allowing companies to handle greater volumes of creative input. Clients report higher satisfaction from management, more commitment to the ideas, and more prompt feedback to idea contributors.
The latest Idea Central Version 5 is already used in customers for Strategy Development, Packaging Concepts and Customer Co-Development. The breakthrough features are enabling clients to use Idea Central for new applications, such as Project Evaluation and Product Development Review meetings. “Idea Central is no longer just Idea Management. It is a platform product for Innovation Management,” says Turrell.
About Imaginatik
Imaginatik is the long-time leader in enterprise Idea Management software. Its flagship solution, Idea Central, is designed to elicit ideas and insights from employees and extended enterprise partners, provides a shared collaborative space to develop ideas, and is equipped with sophisticated tools to evaluate and select the top ideas for implementation. Idea Central has won the Basex Excellence Award 2003, and is in use in clients such as Georgia-Pacific, Cadbury Schweppes, W. R. Grace, ChevronTexaco, Bayer AG, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Imaginatik's software and consulting services have helped clients discover significant sources of additional revenue, as well as tangible cost savings, process improvements and an increased product pipeline. Imaginatik is also committed to developing strategic solutions in the field of innovation, working with academic institutions such as the London Business School and the Cass School of Business, London, as well as leading practitioners of corporate innovation.
Imaginatik and Idea Central are trademarks of Imaginatik plc.