Generating and evaluating innovative ideas using innovation software can sometime be quite difficult as there are multiple phases an idea must go through before fully being accepted and pushed forward to reality. A more organized method for capturing, managing and advancing innovative ideas is required, but is very simple to implement.

 

External or Internal Innovation Software?

 

There are two ways for capturing ideas: internal and external. Internal idea capturing/generation is down within the organization and is held privately whereas an external method will rely more on the public or your customers for ideas. Each method has its own pros and cons, but it’s important to be fully aware of each.

 

Innovative ideas can come from a countless number of places. From internal sources you’ll mostly see ideas coming from Human Resources, your supply chain, manufacturing, engineering and Research and Development. And from External, business partners, customers, consultants, academia, experts, patent holders and industry associations. Although it may seem like a great deal to manage, and it is, using an innovation software makes it quite effortless. Having an easy to manage system ensures your innovation success.

 

 

 

How To Capture Ideas Using Innovation Software

 

 

With internal idea capturing an organization can have more collaboration on ideas and can iterate more freely. You can also group teams or departments together to better organize your ideas and place specific ideas in front of the people who could have the most impact on the idea.

 

Using external methods for your idea generation efforts better allows you to expand your capturing net into a global pool of experts and individuals, rather than limiting your efforts to just your employees. Instead, you’ll focus your efforts on a curated network of experts, from academics to engineers and companies best suited to submit high quality submissions and drive your innovation efforts forward.

 

Managing Your Innovation Ideas

 

Once you have decided upon your idea capturing/generation strategy, you’ll want an effective way to manage these ideas as they go through the varied phases that your organization has decided upon. Each idea needs to be reviewed and evaluated by a team member and that team member will be responsible for deciding how far the idea should move forward. Perhaps the idea is great, but you can’t take action or execute on it within your organization. You wouldn’t want to simply discard the idea, but rather “shelve” it. This is where an innovation software helps you stay organized with all your ideas within an easy to manage system.

 

 

 

By transitioning to an innovation software, the organizational strategy is implemented from the start and includes a work-flow best suited for the reviewing team or individual to easily evaluate, manage and more forward with each innovative idea that comes through your efforts. This is the key to effective innovation: having a clearly laid out process in place so you avoid having a large stack of ideas and unable to prioritize each idea into manageable buckets.

 

Properly Advancing the Best Ideas

 

For the ideas that help you solve your specific problem or you believe can assist in pushing your organization forward, you’ll want to advance those ideas. How you advance each idea is ultimately up to your organizations procedures, but typically some form of agreement such as an NDA may be issued to further pursue the idea and execute on it.