Unlocking Potential with an Innovation Pilot – 6 Reasons for SMEs to use Idea Management Tools

Typically innovation management is seen as the domain of large organisations who can afford to invest a lot of time and effort into pushing forward a company-wide initiative. While previously this may have been the case, smaller organisations are now discovering that they have got just as much to gain from the implementation of this software as the larger corporations.

While innovation tools can offer a plethora of benefits for all organisations, there are some benefits that only apply to companies of a specific size, type, or geography. We released a new product edition last month called “start” which is designed to meet the specific requirements of SMEs. Start is a best-practice turnkey solution that gives SMEs the ability to launch an innovation pilot, where various crowdsourcing initiatives and idea management practices can be experimented with. By launching an innovation pilots, SMEs can gain a clearer picture as to what innovation initiative structure and methodology will best drive value to their organisation.

The following are 6 of the primary ways SMEs can benefit from using idea management software, as well as how they can uncover potential value via an innovation pilot.

Innovation Pilot - Think Outside The Box

Thinking Outside of the Box…

One of the most crucial advantages that smaller companies have over their larger rivals is their ability to be creative. Startups are often the most innovative companies because they can afford to experiment and take risks, however sometimes they don’t possess the tools that are necessary to maximise these initiatives. Innovation management tool allows a company to become proactive in their search for disruptive ideas, and provides the evaluation tools that allow them to highlight and implement the most valuable ones.

While the potential benefits of disruptive innovation are astronomical, truly ‘game-changing’ ideas are unfortunately quite rare. However companies can enjoy just as much success in the long run by targeting incremental innovation and continuous improvement. The Qmarkets solution provides a focused framework which transforms a creative process into a scientific one, allowing any company to produce sustainable results year after year.

Innovation Pilot - Scales

The Scale of Engagement 

At many large organisations the employees are spread out not only across different buildings, but sometimes across different countries or even continents. When there are thousands of users the process can become impersonal and employees might feel like they can avoid meaningful participation without consequence. There are of course many strategies to combat these issues, but these can be time consuming and sometimes expensive.

On the other side of the scale, the smaller a company is the easier it is to engage the whole workforce. Creating and maintaining a culture of innovation becomes a lot less challenging when the whole team is in a single building, and this is one of the most important elements to generating valuable results. People are most happy when they feel like they are making a valuable contribution, and so giving employees an effective way of doing this is a brilliant way of improving the working environment.

Innovation Pilot - Quality

Quality over Quantity

While the concept of crowdsourcing usually revolves around the quantity of contributors, most organisations would undoubtedly prefer to have a few great ideas than a mountain of mediocre ones. Qmarkets provides idea evaluation criteria-assessing tools for any scale of data, so even if there are tens of thousands of submissions you will still be able to unearth the best ones.

However this is not an issue that SMEs have to deal with. With small tight-knit systems the general quality of ideas is a lot higher, and so the process of discovering and selecting the best ones is streamlined for maximum effectiveness.

Innovation Pilot - Flexibility

True Flexibility

At Qmarkets we configure every platform to each customer’s exact needs, whether you purchase a start system or max. However there are inevitably limitations on how creative you can be with the platform if you are involving a large audience. When an idea management platform has thousands of users it primarily needs to be simple and easy to use, however when you involve smaller specialised teams you can easily experiment with different configurations, workflows and processes.

The Qmarkets system is so flexible that its uses are only limited by your creativity, whether you use it for forecasting, problem solving, disruptive innovation, cost savings, or just to suggest new dishes for the cafeteria menu. The possibilities are endless!

Innovation Pilot - Opportunities

Opportunity Comes in all Shapes and Sizes

Few SMEs are aware of all the opportunities for growth and innovation that are available to them, and even fewer take action and manage to capitalise on these. Qmarkets’ innovation management tool facilitates the consistent and effective generation of valuable ideas, to ensure that every possible opportunity for improvement is highlighted and assessed by your company.

To some organisations the concept of innovation is seen as a peripheral concern which should only be addressed once all other problems are solved and the company is successful. However often the most effective way of solving these problems and achieving success is by utilising the power of collective intelligence through innovation software.

Pilots & SandboxesInnovation Pilot - Sandbox

As we mentioned above, we at Qmarkets are happy to provide our prospective customers with a temporary pilot of our software, and even sometimes a free sandbox. These options allows you to explore the many features of our system firsthand before committing to a long term license. This can be especially appealing to SMEs for whom innovation management pricing might be a concern.

We can’t offer as much configuration for these temporary options, however they run on the same engine as our full systems which means they can be used to generate actual benefit for your company by running an unlimited amount of campaigns. A lot of the time, our customers will discover ideas in their innovation pilot which provide enough value to pay for a life-time license of our software. So speak to a member of our team today, and find out how your company could benefit.

To discover more about Qmarkets’ idea management software, or how to launch an effective innovation pilot, contact us to organize a free demo today.

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