Why Companies Are Shifting To Idea Management Software

We live in a world where information is key to any business success. Your business needs to continuously tap into the creativity of your employees in order to compete and innovate.

This has created a need for businesses to gather and evaluate ideas efficiently. Businesses need to quickly identify opportunities that can help their bottom line. Idea management software will help your business gather and find ideas that can help you generate income for your organization.

In the past, many companies used a suggestion box system. You may have seen a box at one of your old jobs, asking you to fill out a form and drop it in the box. That is a suggestion box system.

These boxes were good but they were not perfect. After an employee contributes an idea to the box, they never usually learn what the company did with it. This will normally make employees less trusting when it comes to contributing new ideas in their organizations.

The old school suggestion box systems were never really focused on a specific goal. Thus, they usually attracted low-quality ideas and a small volume of submissions.

Paper box systems make it hard for organizations to evaluate ideas in a timely and consistent fashion.

What Is An Idea Management Software And What Does It Do?  

Idea management software helps companies to gather ideas from their employees. They can now evaluate those ideas and bring them to market faster.

In a nutshell, idea management software is a tool that will allow your organization to work better and faster. Idea management software’s are great tools for streamlining innovation.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it”
– Albert Einstein, physicist and Nobel Prize winner, 1879 – 1955.

Why Managing Your Organization’s Ideas Is Important

Innovation continues to be important for organizations to compete at higher levels than ever before. It is no surprise that idea management systems have become the movers and shakers of business innovation.

Idea management software tools are database driven systems. They let your employees keep track of their contributed ideas. This eliminates potential distrust in your employees towards contributing new ideas in the future.

Idea management system tools are designed to help you focus your employees on specific business issues. Generally, the end result is a high-quality stream of ideas and a much smoother evaluation process. This is mainly because idea management tools are database driven.

Since idea management systems are paperless, they can track ideas better. They make it easier for your company to evaluate key indicators to improve innovation within your organization. For example, you can track the percentage of ideas submitted and those that have been implemented.

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other out, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”

Steve Jobs, pioneer of the microcomputer revolution, 1955 – 2011.

Benefits Of Idea Management

Focus your employee’s creativity around a single goal – Normally when people are focused on one goal, they perform better. They will also get better results. Daniel Goleman is a leading psychologist and believes that focus is important in our personal and professional lives.

Easily collect ideas from every person in your organization – Many companies will make the mistake of only collecting ideas from specialized departments such as R&D and marketing. Idea management software makes it easy for you to collect ideas from every department in your organization.

They will encourage your employees to capture their ideas – Your employees can enter their ideas and come back later to enter some more ideas. Your employees can improve previously entered ideas or add to them. Now that’s what we call effective innovation.

Idea management promotes transparency – Idea management software systems are normally in a shared database. Thus, your employees can add to the ideas of other employees in your organization. This enhances the idea generation process and promotes employee engagement.

Share your ideas and best practices regardless of location – Idea management software allows your organization to share ideas and best practices that have worked in other locations in a cost effective way. You don’t need to fly in your CEO from one location to another in order to share ideas, as well as best practices. He or she can enter it into your idea management software tool.

Ship faster and get to market faster – Idea management software tools will help you capitalize on the best ideas faster because they provide a structured process for evaluating and selecting the best ideas.

Idea management systems can be used in many organizational goals – The opportunities are nearly limitless. With a good idea management system, you can connect your departments, suppliers, and joint venture partners to contribute ideas for your project.

As we move further into the information age, idea management software tools have become a necessary part of every organization. They allow companies to gather, share and evaluate ideas like never before possible. They provide the speed and flexibility necessary for organizations to thrive and compete in the marketplace.

How are you using idea management systems to improve your bottom line?

What are you doing to improve your company’s idea management and innovation?