SEVEN

Idea Management and Creativity Software

Numerous software programs have been developed to facilitate conducting innovation challenges. The majority of these programs can be described as idea management software and are intended for use by relatively large numbers of participants. Other programs exist to assist with idea generation or more comprehensive creative problem solving. This chapter will present some examples of both types, but it is not intended as a comprehensive review of all existing software programs on the subject. New programs are continually being created, so you may want to do some Internet searches. One excellent resource is www.innovationtools.com.

THE EVOLUTION OF IDEA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

How organizational leaders frame innovation challenges for the rest of the organization is essential for enduring change. Many researchers maintain that management framing creates a social architecture in which people’s views lend validity to the need for change. More recently, the focus in innovation has been on what Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., has referred to as the “architecture of participation.”¹ Collaboration among all organizational stakeholders has emerged as a current focus on how to solicit innovation input from a diversity of sources. Numerous enterprise idea management and Web-based software programs now provide a variety of options for gathering and delivering input on resolving organizational innovation challenges.

However, before these digital devices descended on the corporate world, they were preceded by employee suggestion systems. According to Mark Turrell, the CEO of Imaginatik.com, formal suggestion projects began in the late 1700s in the British navy. About one hundred years later, a Scottish shipbuilder created an actual physical box into which employees could place their ideas. His reward system was supposedly one of the first to reward employees for workable ideas. The first U.S. organization to use company-wide employee suggestion efforts was NCR, whose CEO, John Patterson, promoted what he termed, the “hundred-headed brain.” During the industrial boom years during and after World War II, suggestion boxes spread widely and eventually were integrated within various quality improvement programs. Of course, with the advent of the Internet and e-mail, virtual suggestion boxes now are more prevalent. Unfortunately, most suggestion programs were not implemented properly and failed to contribute significantly to the corporate bottom line.

The precursor to today’s idea management software probably was solicitation and acquisition of ideas using e-mail. An e-mail message is sent to a select group of participants who are asked to reply with ideas to some challenge defined by senior management. Sometimes, participants chat with each other in real time (synchronous communication) and build on each other’s ideas as generated; more commonly, however, participants respond to e-mails according to their own schedules based on when they have time available (asynchronous communication). Although e-mail idea management is an economical and simple way to collect ideas, it also has its downsides. Even if the challenge is framed well, the process lacks the structure needed for productive idea generation. Even worse, there can be an overwhelming amount of data to process and make sense of—suggesting a clear-cut need to manage the idea management process.

One way to manage ideas productively is to use idea management software, either as enterprise software (installed within a company’s existing computer network) or as a Web-based system (hosted via external servers). One unique relative of Web-based software programs is Idea Crossing’s Challenge Accelerator, which is similar to idea management software, but was designed exclusively for conducting scalable idea competitions using different types of participants. In this respect, Challenge Accelerator serves as a turnkey program for idea competitions, much as more conventional idea management programs do for noncompetitive idea-capturing campaigns.

Companies such as Masterfoods USA, Bristol-Myers, Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific, Bayer, Kraft, Hilton Hotels, Merck, and Hallmark all have used such software in different ways to enhance their innovation initiatives. Cingular Wireless, for instance, uses software that captures and routes ideas during monthly online chat sessions. Perhaps most important, idea management software has become known as the savior for knowledge management initiatives that did not always have the support of management without hard, statistically verifiable results. In 2001, Imaginatik.com and the Baroudi Group estimated that global spending on idea management software and related services approached $3 million; that figure was expected to rise to $14 million in 2002.

A lot of the information for this chapter was based on Chuck Frey’s summaries of idea management software programs found on his Web site: http://www.innovationtools.com. In an overview of a number of these programs, Frey notes that most systems can be described as having the following:²

•Singular focus on specific idea campaigns

•Customizable idea capture forms

•Customizable evaluation criteria

•Focus on collaboration and idea sharing

Singular Focus on Specific Idea Campaigns

As a subset of knowledge management, idea management programs can be created to address specific challenges such as new product ideas, cost reductions, and many other types of challenges, such as those detailed in Chapter 4. These single-event projects can be fruitful if structured sufficiently and accompanied by results-driven implementation, including detailed action plans, time frames, and assigned responsibilities.

Customizable Idea Capture Forms

One advantage idea management software has over e-mails or the most basic, generic idea capture programs is the ability to tailor response options for a specific project. For instance, some programs allow users to comment on ideas they submit by noting the estimates of potential risks involved or the likelihood of consumer acceptance. This information may not be useful or applicable for other projects, however. Thus, a project to generate ideas for new beverages may request comments about the novelty of ideas in relation to competing projects; a project on how to create brand awareness, in contrast, may ask the submitters to note how their ideas are likely to affect awareness in different market segments.

Customizable Evaluation Criteria

Once all ideas have been generated, participants may be given the opportunity to review all ideas and rate them using numerical scales. Although such scales use subjective perceptions, they possess a degree of objectivity that can be useful for quantifiable, global comparisons. That is, they are better than using purely subjective choices using implicit criteria and relying solely on intuition. Rating scales have the advantage of using at least a set of shared, explicit criteria.

Collaboration and Idea Sharing

As noted previously, systemwide innovation challenges help to involve organizational stakeholders in organizational processes that can impact organizational outcomes directly. Employees are more likely to support ideas they suggest and participating in a collaborative venture creates a sense of identity with the larger organization (given a perception of positive incentives). More important, being able to view others’ ideas can help trigger new ideas and involve people no matter where they are located.

Frey goes on to note the following advantages of idea management systems:³

•They focus employees’ creative efforts around specific organizational goals and objectives.

•They encourage employees to capture all their ideas.

•They collect ideas from all areas of the organization.

•By placing ideas in a shared repository, idea management systems promote greater transparency.

•They help companies share best practices.

•They help companies increase their speed to market.

•They can be used in many types of common corporate applications.

IDEA MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PROGRAMS

A variety of software programs now exist for soliciting and processing ideas—as previously noted, as either enterprise or Web-based services. A number of these idea management programs are discussed next in alphabetical order. They are followed by a brief list of idea generation software programs. The difference between the two is that the former are intended for relatively large-scale idea capturing and can involve several thousand participants. Most idea generation software, in contrast, is designed for individuals or small groups who are presented with a variety of idea stimuli and sometimes—depending on the software—guided through a series of problem-solving steps. Finally, no claim is made that this chapter presents all available idea management or idea generation software programs. In fact, by the time this book is published, there also may be a number of new ones.

BrainBank

BrainBank (www.brainbankinc.com) offers two programs that might be of interest for idea management campaigns: Ideaswarm and Idealink. Ideaswarm is designed to facilitate collaboration with varying degrees of participation. It is designed especially to capture concept input from both internal and external participants who can be organized into ad hoc teams to generate ideas and to build on them progressively. Idealink helps to capture and convert ideas into workable concepts. It contains three integrated modules. The first, Idealink Employee, helps to streamline employee suggestion processes. Idealink Customer Idea Management is for tapping the vast intellectual capital residing within customers. Finally, Idealink Supplier is intended to “enhance your value chain by transforming your vendors into idea team partners.”⁴

So far, BrainBank appears similar to other idea management programs. However, it also has quite a variety of diverse features, including:

•Contextual tutorials

•Voting management

•Online training

•Notification engine

•Motivational quote engine

•Configurable workflow

•Customizable profile

•Single sign-on

•Security management

•Online simulations

•Staging site

•Online survey

•Talent referral

•Video integration

•Light PLM management

•TRIZ integration

•Six Sigma integration

•Telephone submission

•Podcast review

•PDA and mobile integration

Brainline

Creativity consultant Peter Lloyd has created an online idea management program that users access on his Web site. Lloyd notes that brain-lining can help to promote cross-pollination of ideas and provides a jump start for live brainstorming sessions. Unlike some other sites, Brainline provides a variety of stimuli for brainliners to use as idea triggers. A project can be up and running in as little time as two hours and can last from a few hours to several weeks. As with other sites, brainliners can include external creative types from around the world to help spark ideas in others and increase the pool of ideas. Groups of such external contributors are called Brain Gangs. Client users can specify the composition of these gangs such as national origin and professional backgrounds.

Brainline contains three linked Web pages titled Challenge, Ideas, and Stimulation. The Challenge page details the Brainline’s objectives, scope, and any general background information. The Ideas page is used to capture ideas and to browse those submitted by others. Every time users enter the Ideas page, add a new idea, or refresh the page, they are provided with a new prompt for sparking ideas. The bottom of the Ideas window contains a HINT button that, when clicked on, triggers a random combination of specially chosen stimulus words. Finally, the Stimulation page consists of links to other Web pages chosen specifically for a project. The pages with these links provide a suite of online reference tools for providing additional stimulation. For a sample Brainline, go to http://www.gocreate.com/Brainline/samplename/chal.htm. There you will find a sample challenge involving ideas for naming a new coffee. It contains links to coffee-related Web sites plus other sites containing varied stimuli, such as inspiration from advertising slogans (www.sloganeeze.com) and word resources such as www.onelook.com and www.wordgizmo.com. It also provides some sample ideas.

Brainline is an extremely easy-to-use, cost-effective approach to generating numerous ideas in a relatively short time. It may not have all the bells and whistles of some higher-end programs, but you don’t have to buy and administer any software. As described previously, it can be implemented literally within a few hours and produce ideas a few hours after that. Finally, one advantage it may have over competing approaches is the database of Brain Gangs available for generating diverse ideas with little advanced notice. Too many projects are limited by working with the same people on the same challenges. The result often is the same old ideas.

BrightIdea.com

This program was designed for small- and medium-size companies that do not want to deal with a relatively expensive system cobbled into their own internal network. There are six modules provided as a Web service approach:

1.Research. This module provides an opportunity for internal collaborative communications regarding a variety of topics such as progress on a particular project, what the competition has been doing, new technological developments, and any comments and perspectives that participants might want to share with others. Such postings can serve as a fertile ground for seed ideas to germinate later as innovative concepts or projects. One important feature of this module is the ability to rate the importance of all the postings. This way, new participants can become informed quickly about a project or spend time learning just about the projects rated as most significant by others.

2.Ideas. Any authorized user can initiate an ideation project based on needs such as specific work-flow elements. Participants submit ideas into a window that others can access for review and comments. Users also can search for ideas, review research, view the most recent entries, and consult ideas from monthly archives.

3.Projects. Customer feedback led to the inclusion of this module because users indicated a need to track projects at high levels of an organization and to note achievement of milestones. It is not intended to compete with conventional, more complex project management software. Instead, it can help managers track overall progress. Thus, it can be especially useful for managing strategic innovation projects.

4.Experts. Most idea management projects involve idea review teams that assess the value of ideas generated. Sometimes these teams are not available when needed. To overcome this obstacle, BrightIdea.com provides a search function that allows organizations to locate other resource personnel who might help provide input. Users can screen these experts based on their skills, comments they have made in the past, and previous ideas they might have generated. External participants also can be involved. Frey notes that bringing in outside experts can be an advantage of externally hosted Web sites because no access is needed to a corporate network.

5.Rewards and Recognition. This set of tools allows the host to provide incentives to those generating and evaluating ideas by making it possible to see who is submitting specific ideas. Team leaders then can provide points or other incentives to those who are judged as having submitted the best ideas.

6.Analytics/Financial Tracking. One of the most useful features of any idea management program is the ability to provide metrics with respect to project outcomes. BrightIdea.com is not an exception. Managers can use an extensive array of utilities to assess progress and detect any bottlenecks in the process. It even uses a financial engine to monitor financial savings assumed to have resulted from submitted ideas. These metrics can be geared toward time, labor, materials, and many other resources. The “bottom line” on this module, then, is that managers can use it to help track their bottom lines!

Challenge Accelerator

Challenge Accelerator is Idea Crossing’s Web-based program for facilitating large-scale idea competitions among employees, external partners, customers, or any other group. It started out as the software engine for The Global Innovation Challenge, an international innovation competition for teams of MBA students and now has been used more broadly for internal, corporate competitions as well as several statewide competitions. Competition participants typically include the contestants (idea generators), judges, administrators, and sponsors (internal or external). One advantage of a streamlined interface for competitions is having more engaged and energized participants.

As noted previously, Challenge Accelerator represents a separate class of idea management software in that it is designed solely for idea competitions and not just capturing and processing ideas. Many idea campaigns can be relatively labor intensive in that considerable resources are needed to collect registrations, answer support questions, deal with submissions from different media, distribute judging assignments, and aggregate and tabulate results. Some webmasters can introduce constraints by creating a nontransparent communication bottleneck. Challenge Accelerator can automate these and many other tasks involved in competitions and thus eliminate most communication obstacles.

Major features include:

•Customizable formats to accommodate differing submission formats, judging phases, and scoring methodologies

•Streamlined administration to oversee reporting, manage contestants, validate and assign judges, assign challenge questions to teams, assign judges to submissions, and manage scoring and results

•A user-friendly work space for both contestants and judges

•A transparent competitive environment in which it is easy to anticipate and respond to user needs and to accommodate realtime information flow and content management

•The ability to involve thousands of contestants

•The ability to quickly set up and administer subsequent competitions due to a flatter learning curve

Goldfire Innovator

There are three modules for this program developed by Invention Machines: The Optimizer, The Researcher, and Innovation Trend Analysis. All of these modules were designed to help facilitate new product and process innovation and to help maintain a full pipeline of new ideas. The program should be especially useful for R&D and engineering professionals because of its ability to evaluate, research, generate and validate new and existing products and production processes.

1.The Optimizer. This module has a foundation based in value engineering and TRIZ problem-solving methods. Thus, a heavy emphasis is placed on both defining and evaluating challenges. It provides a set of templates useful for improving work flows involving new systems or technologies, benchmarking utilities, and guidance on how to integrate them into existing company systems. It also can be used without the templates if users want to create their own approaches. One notable feature of The Evaluator is its ability to create visual representations of system processes, including indicators of functions and effects. The user also can enter multiple values for more detailed analyses. The result should be a better understanding of how to improve system efficiency and cost savings. Thus, the program can help to identify the best opportunities for targeting R&D resources.

2.The Researcher. When the problem is defined satisfactorily, the next activity involves conducting semantic searches to explore potential solutions that can be converted into new product concepts. The program provides the ability to search:

a.General knowledge bases (in addition to corporate ones)

b.International patents

c.Invention Machine’s proprietary database of thousands of scientific effects from multiple disciplines

d.A pictorial database of TRIZ principles and rules for resolving design problems and how they might be applied to the target problem

The Researcher also helps the user access a variety of cross-disciplinary scientific and technical Web sites, many of which are not available via traditional search engines. One key feature is the ability to extract key concepts from lengthy, complicated patents and present summaries within limited time.

3.Innovation Trend Analysis. The third module can help perform competitive and intellectual property analyses. It does this by providing the following:

a.Detailed innovation profiles of other companies (including their patented technologies)

b.Side-by-side comparison of the innovation profiles of up to five companies (including the ability to detect possible patent infringements)

c.Ability to anticipate significant technology trends

d.Simultaneous assessment of groups of related patents

Although Goldfire Innovator obviously is geared toward the technical aspects of new product development, it still has the ability to be used as a more generic tool, especially in collaborative problem-solving knowledge sharing. Nevertheless, it may be more complicated and provide more tools than are necessary for broader, more traditional innovation challenges.

i-Bank

Idea Champions (www.ideachampions.com) and e-Change (www.e-change.com) developed i-Bank (not to be confused with “iBank” financial software) as a full-service enterprise idea management software program for generating, capturing, developing, and evaluating ideas. One feature not present in other applications is a variety of ways to help prompt ideas. Major parts include The Idea Greenhouse, The iBank Depository (of course!), The My Idea Status Page, and a variety of idea generation tools.

•The Idea Greenhouse. This component is used for entering ideas using a set of forty questions to help participants think through ideas more deliberately and to build a business case for each idea. Sample questions include “How will this concept save costs?” and “What problems do you see that could block this idea?” Answering these types of questions presumably will result in more refined ideas. Ideas also are more likely to receive a fair evaluation by the review team if they are more fine-tuned. Others also can be invited to refine any idea, although specific individuals can be denied access if desired. Highly detailed or complex ideas can be saved as drafts for later embellishments or other revisions. Finally, The Idea Greenhouse allows the ability to attach files and documents to each idea as it is submitted.

•The iBank Depository. Just as money is stored in a bank, submitted ideas are stored in a database known as the iBank Depository. As each idea is submitted, an e-mail automatically is mailed to the review team so its members will know it is available for evaluation. Every idea reviewed is followed by notification to the submitter. This communication helps to maintain employee involvement and can enhance collaboration since multiple employees then can work together to improve already improved ideas. There is a discussion thread tool to facilitate this type of collaboration.

•The My Idea Status Page. It sometimes can be challenging to keep employees focused on and involved with idea campaigns. To overcome this concern, i-Bank provides an area where participants can review their submitted ideas, make changes, consider comments made by others, and see how well their ideas scored.

•Idea Generation Tools. One such tool is The Idea Lottery. It is based on matrix analysis (aka morphological analysis) and helps to trigger ideas by dividing a challenge into its parts and arranging them in a grid. Different combinations of challenge parts then are combined and used to stimulate novel ideas. Another tool is Jump Start, which is used when there may be a lull in idea generation and the participants could use a boost. Free the Genie is designed as a set of four fun brainstorming exercises to use for creative inspiration. The idea generation tools area also contains an extensive library of articles on a variety of topics. They can function as an e-learning resource or be used to trigger new perspectives for a project.

In addition to facilitating an idea campaign, i-Bank can be used at the fuzzy front end of the innovation process by providing a means to solicit questions concerning an organization’s vision or competitive strategy. Such insights then can be used for background research with future idea campaigns.

As with similar programs, i-Bank is a powerful tool that can greatly improve the odds of creating successful idea management projects and help to create a collaborative organizational atmosphere. It also contains some features not available in similar programs (although Idea-Central4.0 also contains resource papers) and could be useful depending on the features an organization might find worth purchasing.

Ideabox

Free! Free! Free! Yes, that’s right, at the time of this writing, PhpOut sourcing.com’s Ideabox software program can be downloaded for free from the company’s Web site and used as is or modified (features can be added for a fee), or on a company intranet. It is a relatively simple program that functions as a virtual suggestion box for collecting and posting employee ideas. Although it has few major features, those it does have can be quite useful. For instance, Ideabox:

•Is easy to install and maintain

•Has fast administrative functions as well as page generation

•Can notify a project coordinator via e-mail when an idea has been submitted

•Creates different lists of ideas

•Controls access to ideas based on status, creator, deadlines, responsible parties, and so forth

•Indicates ideas with missed deadlines

•Allows any user to add comments to ideas accessible to them

•Provides user profiles

The lack of certain features, however, might render Ideabox as less cost-effective than more fully featured programs that typically involve more participants working on more complex challenges.

IdeaCentral4.0

Imaginatik.com’s enterprise idea management software program is a highly robust application that can be configured in multiple ways to meet the needs of almost any single-event idea campaign. Unlike idea management projects without deadlines, single-event campaigns are more likely to result in higher participation rates as well as produce larger quantities of higher-quality ideas. Moreover, IdeaCentral4.0 helps facilitate collaboration for the entire innovation process, in contrast to suggestion box systems that primarily collect and track ideas. (In 2003, it won the Basex Excellence Award for Collaborative Systems.) Space does not permit an adequate description here of all the features available, but more information can be found on Imaginatik’s Web site, which also has numerous white papers by Imaginatik CEO Mark Turrell and his associates, Boris Pluskowski and Matt Chapman.

To use IdeaCentral4.0, users log on and read a definition of the challenge, which includes a link to more background information. It is important to note, especially for this book, that Imaginatik recognizes the importance of correctly framing the challenge. Input fields for ideas are self-explanatory and involve no training to use. The fields can be used to input different types of ideas and there are separate boxes for users to comment on such topics as an idea’s risk, likely return on investment, areas of applicability, or marketability obstacles. (Answers to these questions can help review teams evaluate the ideas at a later time.) Icons provide links to additional information for each field and often involve drawings and spreadsheets as well as text files. Users can comment on the ideas of others as well as build on them to suggest modifications or variations.

One strength of IdeaCentral4.0 is that most of its features are based on metrics collected and analyzed by Imaginatik’s research arm. Special attention has been given to how people naturally tend to interact with software programs. For instance, users have options such as showing or hiding their names to avoid political or sensitive situations. There even is an option to begin submitting ideas anonymously and then identify yourself later on during the review process. Research Imaginatik has collected suggestions that anonymous ideas are 67 percent more likely to be implemented; higher-quality ideas also are more likely to result when anonymity exists.

Features specific to IdeaCentral4.0 include the following:

•Idea Minder. When someone submits an idea, he or she receives an e-mail if someone comments on it. This eliminates the need to log on to check on comments and can be used to browse through ideas.

•Draft Saver. Users have the choice of saving ideas as drafts before they submit them formally. A major advantage of this feature is that it encourages spontaneous idea generation. You may not be completely satisfied with an idea as you first thought of it, so you have the chance to revise it and add detail before others can see it. The program also scans the idea database near the end of an idea project and reminds submitters that they have one or more draft ideas.

•Idea Forwarding. After each idea is submitted, the user receives a thank-you screen, which provides the ability to e-mail the idea link to others using the program. This is a useful feature since it alerts others as to when an idea has been submitted so they can add comments or suggest improvements. Thus, it serves as another way to enhance collaboration.

•Controlled Access. The system administrator can specify who can view and comment on ideas so that highly proprietary or sensitive ideas will not be divulged without intent. Idea embargos also are possible whereby recently submitted ideas are concealed for a specified length of time. This can be especially useful for situations involving invention disclosure and trade secrets.

•Automated Expert Reviews. Organizations often are interested in the opinions of internal and external experts. If a reviewer decides that additional input is needed to assess adequately an idea, he or she can fill out a form with relevant information and IdeaCentral4.0 will generate an e-mail request automatically and send response reminders at set intervals. Reviewers also receive automatic e-mails notifying them when an expert has responded.

•Systematic Review Tools. One of the most indispensable elements of any decision process is the use of weighted, decision criteria—standards of varying degrees of importance used to help select from multiple alternatives. IdeaCentral4.0 includes this capability in offering the use of up to ten weighted criteria. A review form incorporates pop-up explanations of the numerical values of different criteria. The idea-screening process also can be staggered so that one group of reviewers conducts a more superficial review followed by more in-depth assessments. Statistical reports can be generated as well as paper forms for users who prefer to review ideas using hard-copy versions.

IdeaCentral4.0 is a well-seasoned and tested idea management system with a lot of built-in functionality and customizability for almost any type of innovation challenge. Different configurations can be created easily so that different phases of the innovation process can be accommodated. There also is an impressive research base on the efficacy and utility of idea management campaigns using IdeaCentral4.0.

Innovator

With Innovator (www.us-mindmatters.com), MindMatters Technologies, Inc., has developed an enterprise idea management program that also is as rich in features as some of its competition. Innovator contains four major components: Analyze Report; Manage Project; Collaborate, Review, Validate; and Capture Stimulate. It was designed with new product innovation in mind, but the program can be adapted for more general purposes as well. It contains discrete modules that can be incorporated as needed and is scalable to accommodate differing numbers of participants. Major features include the following:

•Idea Capture. The Web forms used to collect ideas can be customized for different types of ideas and users. Idea submitters are provided with information about the overall process and receive feedback on the process as needed. The program also can be set up to include only one segment or department of an organization. This can be helpful when it is important to maintain confidentiality.

•Challenges. Users can define the type of idea campaign they want to have, including the need to include specific features or how much time to allow for the campaign. There are Web-based modules that make it easy to set up ideation portals based on departments, foreign languages, types of ideas, and customer profiles. Such portals then can be adjusted to align with varying work-flow processes, security requirements, and types of input. All of these functions and features can be performed and monitored by a single administrator.

•Review and Work Flow. One key to successful idea campaigns is the ability to conduct reviews in a timely way. Innovator provides a number of functions for idea review committees. A special work-flow engine allows administrators to manage multiple processes such as linear, hierarchical, or combinations. Rules can be applied to expedite moving ideas between committees. A dashboard provides reviewers with an easy way to monitor task progress, comments, attachments, and results of evaluations. All of this information can be viewed on a single page, which helps streamline the process as well as allow for virtual reviews.

•Intellectual Property (IP) Management. Capable management of IP is especially important for new product development professionals. Innovator has built-in capabilities for monitoring all patent-pending projects. The IP module makes it easier to manage new product portfolios by providing access to experts, incorporating external information research, and maintaining confidentiality throughout the process. As a result, corporate risk liability can be reduced. MindMatters even retains attorneys who are available for consultations. The functionality of this module is evidenced by Innovator’s ability to safeguard snapshots of ideas as they move toward patent status, providing certified records of a project’s products, patent searches, and defensive publication to automatically and proactively block competitors from IP overreaching.

•Portfolio Management. Organizations involved in creating sustainable innovation processes ultimately have to face the reality of deciding how many resources to invest in a project. They must assess the costs and benefits of one project relative to another. The portfolio management module makes it easier to conduct such evaluations by providing the ability to compare, visually, one project to another with respect to technical, marketing, and financial constraints, just to name a few.

•Decision Support. Innovation processes require that different questions be asked for different projects. The same decisions typically will not be made consistently and different people often must be questioned, based on their expertise. Innovator makes it relatively easy to question experts by setting up specific rules built around user-specified parameters such as the type of innovation, departmental affiliation, and explicit criteria. This attention to detail ensures that the right people use the right criteria for a given project. Over time, such processes will become more streamlined with experience as a knowledge base is created to help gauge the relative impact of different variables.

•Collaboration and Language Support. With the increasing globalization of business, it is important that enterprise idea management software be able to adapt to an international environment. Although it gets a lot of lip service, collaboration is not executed as well as it might be, especially across political and trade barriers. Different forms of collaboration and collaboration-enhancing features are built into Innovator’s features throughout the innovation process. Users are provided home pages on which they are reminded of “hot” innovations and asked to comment on those submitted by others. One unique feature is the use of search agents to minimize submissions of duplicate ideas. Users can view departments with the most frequently implemented innovations and provide feedback. Special collaboration agents also can be set up to remind users of new innovations and people with expertise in their interest areas. To further enable international collaboration, current versions of the software include language support for Asia and Europe.

•Incentive and Recognition. It is important to maintain a high level of employee motivation and morale during innovation campaigns. One way to do this is to use Innovator’s capabilities that make it possible to customize point systems, offer prizes and gifts, administer employee point programs in which points can be exchanged for prizes, and maintain detailed records of incentive results. MindMatters, Inc. touts the ability of Innovator to manage point totals and rewards just as frequent flyer programs operate. It even notifies managers when incentive milestones are reached.

•Profiles. It is widely accepted that employees are an organization’s most valuable resource. Acknowledging this is not sufficient, however. There has to be some way to tap these resources. For example, it might be useful to know who has been rewarded the most for innovation, won the most incentives, or has the most expertise in a field. The answers to these and similar questions can be obtained easily by using the Profiles module. Innovator tries to document as much user information as possible and keep it up-to-date as well. Employee turnover can make such accounting a difficult task, not to mention the frustration of knowing how the expertise level in other departments may have changed over time. To keep abreast of such changes, there is a “find expert” search capability designed around a set of tools intended to keep the process user friendly.

Jenni

Jenni (www.jpb.com) is the brainchild of Belgian creativity and innovation consultant Jeffrey Baumgartner. It is a quite serviceable idea management program for externally hosted, Internet idea collection campaigns that can be used without installing a system on a corporate intranet. Instead, it is hosted on jpb.com’s internal servers. It can be customized to feature corporate logos and colors as well as configured for a variety of idea collection projects.

There are three levels of access: “idea masters,” managers, and participants. Idea masters have full access to all settings and features; managers can initiate and supervise idea collection campaigns; and regular users can submit, browse, and collaborate on ideas. As with similar programs, Jenni is designed to be used for single-event innovation challenges involving limited time frames. Major features are organized around basic problem-solving steps and include the following:

•Submitting Ideas. Ideas are submitted online and users are notified if others build on their ideas. A useful feature (as with other programs) is the ability to enter ideas anonymously and then reveal the originator after implementation. This can be valuable when sensitive ideas are involved and participants wish a greater level of comfort. It also is possible to attach to each idea up to three documents along with captioned pictures, if desired.

•Browsing Ideas. This is a separate screen that displays all submitted ideas in a variety of ways including order submitted, most recently submitted ideas, or by rating scores. (Such open viewing can also help to avoid duplication.) Users can build on other ideas, add their own, assign a peer-rating symbol, or subscribe to any idea by requesting e-mail notification of any future additions. Offline viewing of ideas also is possible. Finally, there is a Genius Directory, which is a directory of all users of Jenni. It contains contact information, personal descriptions, photos, and all ideas submitted by each user. This makes it easy to construct informal innovation networks.

•Evaluating Ideas. To evaluate submitted ideas, managers can select a default set of five criteria or create their own criteria sets. As with some other programs, the criteria also can be weighted—a vital feature for any important decision making. Once idea evaluators are selected, they receive automatically generated e-mails containing links to the evaluation Web page. Criteria can be saved and reused to avoid generating new ones for each idea project. Once all ideas have been evaluated, Jenni generates a report for later review.

•Testing Ideas. Users can choose from among a number of types such as business cases, market research, or prototyping. The implementation tool also can track project dates and their frequency as well as generate e-mail reminders about due dates. This ability makes it easy for senior managers to track projects and provides an archive for research at a later time.

Jenni is a feature-rich application that can be customized easily for a number of idea campaign situations. It can be hosted for both internal and external participants and provides an intuitive interface with a relatively small learning curve.

NextNet 3.0

Brightidea.com’s idea management program is similar to several of the others previously described. It is a relatively cost-effective, easy-to-use application designed to streamline the process of collecting and evaluating ideas. Three types of users form the program’s structure: submitters, evaluators, and coordinators. The program presents different screen views for each type.

•Submitter’s View. People who submit ideas see several boxes for submitting ideas plus various links. The links allow users to enter new ideas, review previously submitted and draft ideas (viewable only by the submitter), plus edit personal profiles. The main page contains a number of features such as a promotion center that includes messages from project coordinators, a “goal thermometer” displaying progress toward the project’s goal in terms of ideas submitted, and an employee spotlight featuring individuals currently supporting the project or contributing in other important ways. In addition to the ability to submit draft ideas, this view allows users to attach files (e.g., documents, photos, spreadsheets) that can help idea reviewers make decisions.

•Evaluator’s Views. This page also contains links relevant to idea assessment, such as “my action items,” that show ideas assigned to a submitter that will be evaluated soon. To facilitate idea evaluation, NextNet 3.0 provides color-coded icons pertaining to the status of an idea. When using this view, participants can evaluate an idea, edit it (the original and edited versions are saved), or request opinions or information from experts, all by sending an e-mail with a link to the idea involved. To speed up the evaluation process, distributed evaluations provide idea descriptions in HTML e-mails to which multiple evaluators can reply without the need to log in to judge ideas. This also makes it relatively easy to evaluate large numbers of ideas. The software then automatically collects all responses and can send to a review team, all participants, or just those receiving threshold scores, as well as schedule meeting times.

•Coordinator’s Views. NextNet 3.0 includes a number of administrative tools to smooth the monitoring process for different types of idea campaigns. For instance, managers can configure projects to provide information on the number of ideas submitted at different times, change the types of evaluation criteria used, set goals for idea quantities, limit the time available for evaluation, and send e-mail reminders regarding pending deadlines for submissions and evaluations.

As with several other programs, NextNet 3.0 can be a cost-effective time-saver for most idea campaigns. The evaluation feature is especially useful for processing large numbers of ideas in a relatively short time.

Spark and Incubator

These two programs by OVO Innovation are designed to be used together as an integrated approach to large-scale idea management initiatives involving geographically dispersed participants. It uses state-of-the-art technology and provides unique features to manage even the most complex innovation challenges. OVO Innovation’s creators plan to extend the capabilities of their software to encompass all phases of a product’s life cycle.

Spark was designed for distributed brainstorming, much as were other idea management programs. For setting up a brainstorming session, it can incorporate user lists from Exchange Server’s active directory or any LDAP-compliant server. Thus, it is easy to set up an online ideation session from employee e-mail servers. Users can be invited to participate automatically by using electronic calendars and can be provided with background information as e-mail attachments.

To generate ideas, Spark provides a tabbed interface to make its many features more convenient and less confusing. Tabs can be set to add, connect, remove, vote on, and display ideas. The ability to connect ideas is especially useful for eliminating ideas and evaluating clusters of ideas with some commonality.

The voting feature is quite flexible and provides a number of options such as regular voting (one vote per idea), preset voting in which each voter is given a number of votes or points to distribute as he or she wishes, and priority voting in which the project director assigns one or more priority votes to each participant. These votes are weighted as being more important than regular votes. Results of voting can be screened prior to sharing them with participants so that, for example, only a certain number of votes are shown. Finally, voting can be set up for multiple rounds.

In addition to the idea management software discussed in this chapter, there are a number of programs designed for general creative thinking and problem solving. Many were created for individuals, but most can be adapted for group use. Among these programs are Creator Studio 2002, eXpertSystem (formerly Idea Fisher), FlashBrainer, IdeaCue, Idea Manager (Accolade), Innovation Toolbox, MindLink Problem Solver, and ThoughtPath.

NOTES

1.Tim O’Reilly, “The Architecture of Participation.” Retrieved January 17, 2007, from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/articles/architecture_of_participation.html.

2.Chuck Frey, “An Overview of Idea Management Systems.” Retrieved January 19, 2007, from http://www.innovationtools.com/Resources/ideamgmt-details.asp?a=80.

3.Ibid.

4.Retrieved January 19, 2007, from http://www.brainbankinc.com/productservice.html.