Virginia Bush, Author at Ezassi

21 Apr

Essential Steps Toward Open Innovation Success

The goal of open innovation is to allow organizations to collaborate with external resources to advance their technologies. Through OI, companies can efficiently address product or system needs and increase responsiveness to marketplace demands. Successful utilization of OI includes four essential steps and the right tool to manage them. Crowdsourcing The first step is connecting with external resources to gather and evaluate ideas. You need a strong cyber scouting tool that challenges and engage your target collaborators as well as filters ideas to assure the best concepts are captured. This system should also provide intellectual property protection for both the organizations and the external collaborators. Innovation Integration Organizations must have a system to take select ideas and integrate them into their system. This step is critical to achieving the full benefit of OI, and is one that is the most likely stumbling block. While some companies embrace the concept of OI, they are hesitant...

29 Mar

Gamification and Open Innovation

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation, Uncategorized

Comments

Open innovation injects new ideas into an organization by providing the ability for non-employees to submit concepts for consideration. The process relies on a pool of involved and enthusiastic contributors who want to participate in the process. The challenge is how to attract and engage these innovators in a way that sustains their interest and increases the quality of their submissions. Gamification is an excellent tool to achieve this goal. Gamification is the process of transforming tasks or processes into a competitive process to engage users, solve problems, increase productivity, and drive innovation. It encourages ongoing participation, which keeps the open innovation ideas flowing. Gamification Systems The concept of gamification is part of our everyday lives, in that certain systems encourage our active participation. Examples include: Airline Frequent Flyer Programs Real-time Fuel Usage Tracker Apps One Day Sales Crosswalk Countdowns Credit Card Rewards Store Savings Apps Each of these systems gives rewards for participation,...

22 Mar

Workflows Address Open Innovation and Product Lifecycle Management

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation

Comments

Ezassi Provides Practical Workflow Capabilities Have you ever shifted files or cleaned out your inbox files only to discover a great project that has languished, forgotten in the sea of other information? This situation is both common and avoidable. When it occurs on an organizational level, it hinders both innovation and market responsiveness. There is a better way. Open Innovation and Workflow Ezassi is globally recognized for delivering the best OI management tools on the market. We have combined this innovative software with an intuitive, customizable workflow system that: Integrates all project functions on one dashboard; Allows you to track projects from concept submission to product marketing; Establishes and assigns tasks for every phase of concept to product efforts; Includes graphics that lets you see the workflow status with a simple click of a mouse; Gives you the power to customize the workflow to match your systems, and modify them further to address the needs...

02 Mar

5 Guiding Principles for Your Next Innovation Challenge

by Virginia Bush

in Innovation Challenge, Open Innovation

Comments

Holding an open innovation challenge is an excellent way to ensure a continuous flow of fresh ideas to your organization. When launching your next challenge, consider these five guiding principles. 1. Cast a Wide Net to Find Unexpected Innovators Let everyone know that you're on the hunt for ideas. You never know who is capable of coming up with a great innovation. Make the deadline and incentive for making submissions clear. Let the participants know what they will get for entering a winning innovation. GE's CEO Jeff Immelt went all out when he launched the massive "Ecomagination Challenge," using a press conference, VC firms, and marketing to garner participation. This innovation challenge resulted in the largest public participation ever run with 100,000s of participants. 2. Make the Innovation Challenge Specific The best ideas come from specific challenges. Make sure the contestants know the specific problems you're trying to solve. Set guidelines for any desired innovations...

27 Feb

Ezassi Names Jennifer Creech as Chief Executive Officer

by Virginia Bush

in Press Release

Comments

Proven software leader joins company to enable next level of growth. Jacksonville Beach, Florida, January 8, 2017 — Ezassi announces that Jennifer Creech has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 4th. In her new role, Jennifer will be responsible for the launch of the next iteration of the Company’s innovation management software platform, as well as overseeing all aspects of the Company’s global expansion effort. Ms. Creech brings to eZassi more than 15 years of C-Level management experience with expertise in: SaaS and cloud technology solutions, data mining and driving year-over-year double digit revenue growth at the companies she has helped to build. Prior to joining eZassi, Creech was the CEO and President of InHouse, Inc., where she conceptualized and led the development of an award winning, cloud-based appraisal management software platform. Based on her leadership skills, the growth of the business and market success of In House’s commercial...

30 Jan

The Era of Open Innovation

by Virginia Bush

in Innovation, Open Innovation, Uncategorized

Comments

The shift from closed innovation to open innovation is the defining characteristic of this decade. Startups are able to compete with billionaires, disrupting entire industries from cheaply assembled DIY workspaces. Even large companies like Microsoft are replacing private R&D with open source methods. All entrepreneurs, freelancers, and members of technology-focused industries should study this change. Open Innovation is a Revolution Many of the biggest innovations of the last few decades were built upon pre-existing infrastructure. Jeff Bezos, the founder, and CEO of Amazon, spoke about this concept at the Code Conference in 2016. He explained that the internet was only made possible by the existence of telephone lines. As the infrastructure grows, so does the possibility for innovation. Manufacturers are already starting to build products on the newly emerging infrastructures of 3-D printing and artificial intelligence. This is exactly what open innovation is about. How To Embrace Open Innovation The notion of building products upon public...

07 Jan

Idea Management Software Streamlines Open Innovation

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation, Technology

Comments

Idea Management Software Streamlines Open Innovation "Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology." //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_innovation R&D Is No Longer a Barrier to Entry or Strong Strategic Advantage Traditionally, innovation was a closely guarded secret. R&D teams hid away in secrecy innovating, discovering, and releasing the next generation of products. Think of IBM, Bell Labs, DuPont and other companies where R&D was a valuable strategic asset. Traditional Companies Are Moving Toward Open Innovation According to the MIT Sloan Management review "Companies are increasingly rethinking the fundamental ways in which they generate ideas and bring them to market — harnessing external ideas while leveraging their in-house R&D outside their current operations." //sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-era-of-open-innovation/ Harvesting, managing and sorting through 1,000s of ideas to find the diamonds in the rough is a daunting process. Large organizations...

23 Dec

Social Media Integration and Open Innovation Software

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation, Technology

Comments

eZassi Uses Social Sites like Linkedin to Sign-In and Auto Profile Users How many times have you been interested in something online, only to abandon moving forward when you see a cumbersome sign in process, replete with password entry a confirmation email in the way? A 2012 study by Blue Research found 86% of people are bothered by the need to create new accounts, 54% consider leaving the site, and 88% say they have given inaccurate information. What is Social Sign-in? eZassi integrates with Linkedin, Facebook, and other popular platforms so that with the click of a button, the visitor can “sign-in” and start participating in the open innovation process without creating a username and password and verification email. Benefits of Social Sign-in Higher conversion of visitors into users Increase the amount of people that join your innovation community by making it easier to begin. Higher participation once a user joins your innovation community. Users can go back...

12 Dec

Technology Scouting Software for Open Innovation

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation, Technology

Comments

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Business is evolving faster than ever. Consumer demands have never been higher, and large organizations who don’t innovate will eventually die. Large organizations like these can no longer exclusively rely on the internal R&D team or employee base to produce the product innovation and insights that will keep them in the game. This is where proven technology scouting software plays a critical role with innovation success. Enterprises are increasingly turning to open innovation for their product development strategy. Alan G. Lafley, CEO of Proctor & Gamble believes “half the company’s ideas must come from the outside.” Technology Scouting Software Allows Organizations to Find Innovators and Solvers To do this, you need to find and engage innovators outside of your organization. This is called “technology scouting,” and it’s a critical aspect of open innovation. Scouting allows organizations to identify intellectual property and key influencers and engage them to become part of their innovation. Whether you’re scouting “internally”...

02 Dec

3 Powerful Innovation Management Software Features – eZassi 3.0

by Virginia Bush

in Open Innovation, Uncategorized

Comments

Ezassi's Innovation Management Software v3.0 makes it easy for companies, large and small, to manage their open innovation process from idea capture to creating winning products and services. Today, we'll cover three key features from this version 3.0 including: 1. Innovation Portal 2. Easy Registration and Single-Sign-On 3. Customized Content for All Audience Types One of the key features of version 3.0 is the innovation portal. 1. Version 3.0 Includes a Uniquely Branded, Public Facing Innovation Portal This easy to find, uniquely branded, public facing innovation portal website can run off a custom URL or your corporate domain. 2. Easy Registration and Single Sign On From one single point of entry, employees, external users, and administrators can log in to participate in and manage all aspects of the innovation process. One-click registration and auto-profiling make it easy for users to instantly auto-populate profile information from social networks such as LinkedIn and others. Single Sign On (SSO) allows employees...

Author: Virginia Bush

Essential Steps Toward Open Innovation Success

Gamification and Open Innovation

Workflows Address Open Innovation and Product Lifecycle Management

5 Guiding Principles for Your Next Innovation Challenge

Ezassi Names Jennifer Creech as Chief Executive Officer

The Era of Open Innovation

Idea Management Software Streamlines Open Innovation

Social Media Integration and Open Innovation Software

Technology Scouting Software for Open Innovation

3 Powerful Innovation Management Software Features – eZassi 3.0

Product Lifecycle Management

What is Social Innovation? Definition, Examples and Best Practices

Innovation Analyst for Technology Research

Technology Trends – Sensors

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Author: Virginia Bush

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