Third-Party Research
A number of respected analyst and consulting firms are reporting on Innovation and Idea Management, and the role these areas play as critical Collective Intelligence capabilities for successful companies.
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specializing in the business impact of information technology and communications (ITC). Quocirca has a pro-active primary research program, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and services on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies.
From Problems to Ideas through to Innovation - Capturing Ideas and Creating the Right Culture to Maximize the Value of Intellectual Property
(Quocirca; November 2008)
This research report covers the following topics:
- The organizational problem: bringing ideas and problems together
- A task-oriented view of innovation
- Innovation: what, why and how?
- Alternative approaches to innovation management
- A push/pull approach to matching ideas and problems
- Legal and other considerations
The study advocates a push/pull approach using a tool which provides capabilities in the following areas:
- Prioritizing the challenges facing the organization
- Framing the context of a challenge
- Engaging with the correct resources
- Capturing ideas
- Filtering ideas
- Building on ideas
- Evaluating ideas
- Managing the lifecycle of ideas
- Rewards for suitable engagement, reflecting input and success
- Letting individuals work as they want
- Integration into existing systems
- The capability for individuals to participate at an anonymous or named level
- The capability to include external and semi-external resources
- A continuous means of revisiting and fine tuning ideas
- A search capability that is flexible enough to identify previously used or unused ideas
The document includes a case study covering the usage of Imaginatik's Idea Central software in Pfizer Global Research and Development.
Dr. Robin W. Spencer
Senior Research Fellow, Pfizer Global Research & Development
Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” highlights how the scale and economics of the internet, led by brands like Amazon and iTunes, have forever changed the landscape of retail. Analysis of very large data sets from years of experience with Imaginatik's Idea Central software at Pfizer, Cargill, Bombardier, CSC, and others show that many aspects of innovation also have robust “long tail” or scale-free properties.
Rob Spencer’s presentations introduce these concepts, share primary data from multiple corporations, and then explore the consequences as they apply to questions of scale, cost, infrastructure, expectations, and behavior.
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has compiled a comprehensive list of business problems that lend themselves to being addressed using Imaginatik's collective intelligence software platform, Idea Central. It is "based on case studies and the successful completion of many hundreds of Ideation campaigns supported by the tool".
The Baroudi Group is a specialized strategic analyst in the field of transforming and emerging technologies, who has worked extensively on the field of Knowledge Management and collaboration technologies.
Idea Management Briefing - Capturing the Spark that Ignites Innovation
(The Baroudi Group; April 2002)
This comprehensive study collects valuable insight from real life Idea Management implementations in a number of Industries. The report analyzes deployment best practices, and critical features in successful in Idea Management solutions.
Idea Management is a disciplined approach to generating, capturing, and analyzing ideas within an organization. Provided a company creates a culture that values creativity and encourages employee participation, a formal Idea Management process should improve a company’s ability to innovate, and especially to maintain a steady flow of innovation:
"Leading-edge innovators have learned that, rather than generating lots of ideas, they can derive more benefit from a targeted event driven process that will enable them to capture the best ideas related to an specific issue"
"Targeted and bounded programs produce better results than open-ended idea collection systems"
"A seeming paradox of innovation is that most useful ideas originate from a structured process rather than random occurrences of creativity"
Idea Management technologies can simplify workflows and drastically reduce administrative headaches by:
- providing a universally accessible forum for employees to submit ideas
- reminding people of deadlines and individual responsibilities, such as reviewing idea submissions
- ensuring reliable feedback for participants in the form of automated email updates
- permitting analysis of the organization’s idea pool by integrating with key enterprise systems (e.g., ERP, new product development, HR, payroll)
The Baroudi Group has researched Idea Management software vendors and their customer implementations, interviewing innovation teams at several large companies. This analyst brief covers the following topics:
- ideas and innovation in the enterprise
- the emergence of Enterprise Idea Management
- key benefits identified by innovation teams
- best practices in Idea Management
- Imaginatik’s Idea Central application, as a leader in this space
Forrester analysts have been covering Innovation Management for a while. The following report is particularly interesting and can be purchased from Forrester:
The Rise Of Innovation Management Tools - Diverse Vendors Converge To Help Firms Drive Continuous Innovation (C. Townsend; 14 July 2008)
"In a recent global study, 93% of senior business executives cited innovation as a top strategic priority. Why? A globalized economy and the pervasive Internet are accelerating the winds of change buffeting today's enterprises. To stay ahead of constant change, CEOs are clamoring for continuous — not ad hoc — innovation. In response, a new market for "innovation management tools" is emerging. The providers in this space share a vision of continuous innovation as a core business discipline to be actively managed — not a technical problem to be solved. Therefore, this new market's key offerings are the tools — software backed by domain expertise — that provide leverage in executing on this vision of continuous innovation. "
Key points that are covered in this report:
- Deepening innovation needs drive marketplace changes
- Top execs prioritize an innovation strategy but are still searching for an execution lever
- Innovation management tools provide the leverage to deal with rapid change
- Providers show an early-stage distinction from adjacent markets
- Successful providers will help clients manage the paradoxes of innovation
Since January 2002, Gartner Group analysts have been following closely the area of Idea and Innovation Management. The following reports cover relevant aspects of Idea Management and can be purchased from Gartner Group:
Five Pitfalls of Ideation and Best Practices for Avoiding Them (C. Rozwell; 18 March 2008)
Idea generation, or 'ideation,' can help harness the creativity of employees, customers and partners that drives innovation. Gartner has identified five pitfalls and developed five best practices that organizations should follow to launch successful ideation projects.
Focusing the Innovation Process (C. Rozwell; 23 January 2002)
This report analyzes some of the critical issues involved in managing innovation through Idea Management processes. Based on research done on real life deployments of Idea Management, the report dwells mainly on the aspect of focusing innovation initiatives on the different value areas of the enterprise.
Survey of Innovation Management Technology (C. Rozwell, K. Harris, F. Caldwell; 21 January 2002)
This report analyzes the different types of Innovation Management solutions that currently exist in the market. It predicts that Idea Management and NPD type solutions will lead this growing market space.
As an active researcher in the field of innovation, PwC was one of the first companies that have identified the relevance of Idea Management as the most critical success factor of innovative companies.
Innovation Survey (PwC Consulting; November 2000)
An in-depth research on the Innovation capacity of Top Times 1000 companies, this 70 page report analyzes the critical capabilities of innovators. The research is based on interviews conducted with top executives across different industries. From the conclusions and statistical reports obtained, it is worth highlighting the relevance of Idea Management as the most critical capability of innovative companies. The other two capabilities found to be critical are: corporate climate, and leadership/ followership.