PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
The intended outcome of putting in place the 10 basic steps contained in our FastTrak Innovation Program ™ is to create an ongoing stream, or a pipeline of quality ideas that can be translated into game-changing innovations. The final component in establishing a twenty-first century innovation program is a system to capture, incubate and commercialize an organization’s new ideas for innovation. The use of a system to manage one’s overall innovation efforts results in what we will call Innovation Pipeline Management.
The use of a systematic and formal idea collection and processing system enables an organization to make innovation an integral part of its operations. Listed below are the components this system needs to include.
The system should be founded on the premise of using a singular tool for collecting ideas from many sources, both inside and outside a company. Using the 360° approach to innovation discussed under 360° Innovation, the system should collect innovations from customers, employees, suppliers and the public.
The ideas then should be screened and evaluated for merit and relevance to an organization’s overall strategy and innovation objectives. Ideas can also be passed to other persons in a company for their input and evaluation.
A preferred method of idea evaluation involves putting personnel in place to evaluate and determine the idea’s next step. This approach insures the proper flow of ideas through an organization.
This role is fulfilled by an individual we call an Innovation Authority (IA). These are people who have been given a charge to develop a portfolio of innovations within a certain area of a company.
Research has established the fact that to be successful with innovation, an organization needs to achieve a level of interconnectedness between itself and its external environment. To effectively accomplish this, the use of innovation management software is a must. Proper innovation management software can also assist with breaking through the boundaries that divide the various departments which need to fully cooperate in the pursuit of innovation.
The goal is to achieve full integration between various internal and external ideation sources and innovation players. This includes connecting business development functions, internal R&D areas, merger and acquisition activities, internal innovation labs, external innovation development centers and foundries and outside innovation research resources.
The final component of an innovation pipeline management system is the monitoring of and overall reporting involving the organization’s innovation initiative. This component is essential to an organization’s Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), the person in charge of its overall innovation effort.
Effective reporting is important because without some objective method to measure innovation results, otherwise known as innovation metrics, there is no way to determine if a company’s innovation program is going forward, standing still or going backwards. Without proper innovation measurements, leadership does not know if it is getting a desirable return on their financial and human investment in innovation.
Therefore, we developed innovation pipeline management software that addresses these issues. We created two software applications, one system, Brite Idea Lab, collects ideas from an organization’s customers and the public and then routes the ideas to a company’s internal idea collectors.
The second system, i-Lab, collects ideas from the enterprise’s employees, suppliers, sales channel, and affiliates and then passes the ideas on to the appropriate personnel within an organization for evaluation. Both systems use keywords and other data in the submitted idea to match and direct ideas to the person within a company in charge of the pertinent innovation area.
These software packages and the matching algorithms inside of them are basically a “match.com” function between anyone with an idea and those organizations and companies looking for ideas with specific attributes. When Brite Idea Lab and i-Lab are paired together they provide a seamless system for collecting innovations from all organization ideation sources, thereby delivering true 360° Innovation.
What we do – Provide the software programs and infrastructure support to enable an organization to properly manage their innovation program and obtain the results they desire.
