Innovation Basics: 5 key benefits of using an Idea Management Platform

Changing the world, one idea at a time has to start somewhere. Even the organizations that regularly bring about revolutionary change had to take a first step on their journey. In the Innovation Basics series, we focus exclusively on what that first step could look like for newcomers to the innovation world. Follow this guidance to achieve faster, better innovation.

When starting to innovate as an organization, the task of establishing a program is a mighty one. All sorts of hurdles stand between a business that doesn’t actively innovate at all and successfully innovating at scale. Buy-in from colleagues, strategic alignment, and being properly resourced are all significant barriers to entry when it comes to innovating effectively.

While there is no catch all solution to this, an idea management platform is a way of organizing what could otherwise be complete chaos. Purpose-built idea management platforms like Wazoku provide the tools, the processes, the visibility, and the analytics to move companies closer to innovation success.

Without an idea management platform, companies can get trapped in disparate, disconnected practices. People in different areas of the business could be trying to solve the same issue, duplicating solutions when only one is needed. The solutions to problems that people are working on may not be aligned to the overall company goals and targets. Where these issues – and others like them – arise, an idea management platform forms part of the solution.

5 key benefits of using an idea management platform are:

• Configurability: an idea management platform facilitates the monitoring of internal projects, providing key visibility to the rest of the business. It allows organizations to host competitions around key themes, such as sustainability and accelerating digital transformation.

• Scalability: we always advise starting with a small network of innovators within the organization before branching out to include absolutely everyone. An idea management platform like Wazoku grows and scales with a business as innovation maturity increases.

• Access to Networks: it’s impossible to have all of the best and brightest people inside your organization. An idea management platform connects you with different audiences throughout your supply chain and beyond, any of whom could have the best solution to your company’s big issues.

• Culture of Innovation: when adding something new for members of an organization to consider as part of their daily tasks, incentives are key. Gamification and recognition programs, which are key elements of an idea management platform, allow any business to establish these rewards from the start.

• Tracking and Reporting: a key reason why innovation without a management platform fails is the inability to identify and report on its impact. An idea management platform like Wazoku has this capability built-in, allowing any program leader to tell the story of their innovation program to whoever wants to hear it.

In this blog, we’ve outlined some of the hurdles that are faced by organizations looking to innovate successfully for the first time. We’ve shown how an idea management platform can be the answer to some of these issues and illustrated 5 key benefits of using such a platform for innovation success.