Most businesses, thankfully, are starting to understand how important it is that they think about innovation on a strategic level. To do this properly, they need innovation management software and they need to understand its benefits. It is a known fact that all innovation is based on generating ideas. Without ideas, there can be no innovation either. However, the vast majority of companies still don’t have a systematic, strategic method of gathering ideas, evaluating them, and implementing them where necessary. In fact, most of the time, these things are simply left to chance, in the hopes that someone with the authority to make decisions will pick up on it.

The result of this is that, with the majority of companies, all ideas come from a select group of people, who know, thanks to their position in the company, that they will be listened to. This includes senior executives and research and development team members. While this is a problem in and of itself, it actually gets a lot worse as well. The biggest problem of all is that deciding which ideas is implemented is often down to HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), politics, or any other random criteria!

Understanding Innovation Management Software

Innovation management software has been designed to encourage people to share ideas, capturing these ideas, and evaluating them. Once that has been completed, the software can point to which innovative ideas are most likely to become successful, meaning they should be implemented, or at least tested. It is important that this is a systematic process.

Companies like GE, 3M, P&G, and IDEO are all companies that have figured this out. They use innovation management software to capture not just the ideas of their employees, but also suppliers, partners, customers, vendors, and so on. By using software, these companies ensure that they have a systematic, strategic process that identifies which ideas are the best one, in a way that does not look at who actually submitted the idea. This creates a structured way of working, which in turn means businesses can constantly innovate (innovation is not a start and end project), meaning that they can grow and remain competitive. Doing this works not just for huge companies like P&G, it can work for anybody.

How Structured Innovation Management Can Benefit You

Structured innovation management has a number of key benefits:

  • Increased revenue by identifying new services and products, and finding new markets for these and existing products and services.
  • Reduced cost by improving processes and reducing waste.
  • Having a competitive advantage by having a greater understanding of your customers, but also by being able to respond to the needs of your customers before your competition is able to.
  • Enhance the engagement of your employees, which means they improve their morale and feel more respected and needed. You also ensure that people can become proactive about making sure they can do their job properly.
  • Achieve your different strategic goals through measurable actions.