System Specialist

We use this tool for a few different reasons: 1) collecting ideas for collaboration - great for allowing threaded discussions with other users. 2) using the flash form has enabled users to use this tool for collecting ideas during various meetings and gives the opportunity for commenting on the ideas submitted. 3) Results Engine has proven useful for a few groups by putting their spreadsheets into this tool they can now run reports and see the information at a glance instead of scrolling through spreadsheet columns.

Pros

I like the fact that it is user friendly, it doesn't scare users to come in and submit ideas/comments or search for ideas. I also like the Results Engine module for the same user friendly experience, but with this it's so easy for the users to run reports that they can get their information how/when they need it. Also, the support team is quick to answer questions or problems.

Cons

I do not have any "cons" I've basically been able to manipulate Innovation Central and Results Engine to meet my companies needs and make it easy for the users. It would be very nice if there could be standardized reports created, that would contain a company logo and updated information monthly, instead of having to export a spreadsheet monthly and manipulating it to run graphs.

Crowdsourcing with Analytics

Pros

Innovation Central does exactly what it's supposed to do, and it does it well. If you're looking to solicit ideas from across your organization easily, manage the funnel of the best of those ideas (as picked by experts), and have people collaborate on those ideas, then you definitely should include Imaginatik's portal in your short list. The analytics and features for evaluating ideas are excellent. Licensing really varies in this space: Innovation Central is licensed by "instance," or how many concurrent challenges you can run, and is independent of the number of users. This works for some and not for others, and Imaginatik will likely work with you to help you find the model that works best for your organization. Customization of what it does -- as a crowdsourcing tool -- is good. It's not amazing but it doesn't pretend to be, either. There's only so much you can, or even *should* do with a SaaS tool; keep this in mind!

Cons

Expanding its use beyond what it is intended to do is very difficult. For example, if you'd also want to manage the running of a hackathon within the tool, that's not going to be an easy thing to do. You can manage portfolios of work, there is some blogging, and other features as well, which it does an 'adequate job' doing but nothing like the outstanding work and effort they've put into the crowdsourcing and analysis. In other words: don't try to fit round pegs into the square hole.

Outstanding Tool With Excellent Customer Support

Pros

We have been using Planbox for several years now and I am extremely impressed with the platform. It has provided our organization with a central location to capture, track, and evaluate new ideas, making it easier for us to stay organized and focused on innovation. The ability to collaborate in different ways and gather feedback has also been extremely helpful for improving the quality and feasibility of our ideas.

Cons

A rich tool comes with some learning but the training provided to our team has been very effective.

Flexible tool. Supportive company.

Pros

Planbox's tool is self-explanatory and easy to use. It also brings quite some flexibility and possibilities for customization. The fact that is white-labeled is great as well.

Cons

Planbox's tool features only limited built-in scoring and funneling features. As a result, scoring according to a matrix that reflects the company's overall strategy and focus areas is difficult.

Comprehensive ideation platform

Good experience overall - responsive team to our needs. Quick to action when thing do not work, and always introducing new features

Pros

The flexibility of being able to manage our program the way we see fit. The workflow is in the eye of the beholder, allowing you to configure it to what works best to your needs. The data collection throughout the process with a wide range of data points is also a huge plus

Cons

With the flexibility comes with it having to learn and manage more about the platform. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just the nature of any platform that gives this more flexibility to do what you want

Planbox allows us to really manage our innovation pipeline and keep track of our innovation concepts

We have the ability to accelerate our innovation concept development process Recognize our employees in the process Help build a culture of innovation Centralized innovation tool that is easy to manage new ideas and concepts

Pros

We love the flexibility of the solution along with capability of building a reward store within it to help recognize the innovation efforts our employees provide to improve the long term view of the company. We love its simplicity and the fact that we can operate Planbox in two languages, spanish and english. The team we work with provides great service and expertise, and helps us really get the best value out of our program. We have a very detailed process and one that is quite elaborate and Planbox was the only solution that would allow us to manage this effectively. The support team always provides us with great help and advice to make sure we are optimal

Cons

We like a lot of what the solution has to offer, sometimes configuration changes may be a little more detailed to complete, but we have a very rigid process that requires a lot of touch points.

A customizable, robust platform boasting an user-friendly intuitive design.

Pros

What sets Planbox apart from others is: Focus on collaboration (offering a multitude of customizable features/tools) Automatic workflow (promotes collaboration, advocates transparency, minimizes administrative burden). Idea evaluation (efficiently view/communicate the stacking and ranking of ideas. Extensive reporting engine (customizable reporting, analytics, dashboards)

Cons

There is no perfect platform/software on the market that optimally performs 100% of the time . When performance issues occur, Planbox has a dedicated support team that provides immediate support to effectively and efficiently resolve the issue. Additionally, Planbox provides a method to submit suggestions/ideas for features, enhancements, and/or tools, which are reviewed on a consistent basis for consideration. You couldn't ask more of company who is willing to listen to ("hear") its customer's voice; and take actionable measures to improve their product/offering.

Planbox allows us to help centralize our innovation intelligence to make the best decisions

Managing innovation, grouping innovation categories, centralizing innovation, managing collaboration and developing Innovation Pipeline and portfolio reports. To trigger innovation, we have to look outside of the company. Already there are cunning startups that have looked at each part of the supply chain of the insurance industry and disrupted them. The way they are changing the game is transformational. We, as an industry, can no longer ignore these active threats

Pros

We leverage Planbox which brings innovation management to the next level by putting intelligence right at the decision points that are critical to developing breakthrough ideas. We have a very positive experience using Planbox and we have achieved tremendous ROI. We needed a highly structured process of innovation to succeed and Planbox allowed us to do this inside the solution and deliver on our needs.

Cons

We go out to the business units, discern their needs, validate their needs and work to provide solutions to them that are innovative, Planbox allows us to work with specific experts and improve our ability to make better business decisions aligned with our strategy.

A Versatile Solution

Pros

Planbox offers automation of complex and custom workflows. This is especially important to our organization as we have various business units use the tool, all with different workflows and approval processes. Not only does the tool accommodate each one of them, we never have to interfere to do something manually. Everything gets done for us which gives us the time to focus on the next project.

Cons

Like with all software that receive frequent updates, there will be the occasional bug but Planbox is quick to react and push the fix to our production environment.

Great support and very customizable software

Pros

Workflow customization, easy of deployment/maintenance, user friendliness

Cons

UI customization is limited for some features, reporting could be improved

PlanBox has been an easy to use and effective tool to solicit, gather and track ideas.

Pros

1. The PlanBox software is easy to use from both an end-user perspective and an administrator's perspective. 2. Excellent value proposition.

Cons

1. Time consuming process to score challenge ideas. On average each idea took our users 2-3 minutes to score. When coupled with 75-100 submitted ideas, each person responsible for scoring a challenge idea can take between 2-4 hours of time on top of their day jobs. Solution: A user interface listing each of the ideas and the respective scoring criteria along with a link to the idea to be scored would be most helpful in tabular format. Enhancing the Idea Manager feature to include more fields for selection, filtering and managing ideas would go a long way as a list view with links reduces the amount of user interface clicks/navigation. 2. Enhanced data visualization (e.g. control charts, sliders, etc.)

An easy-to-use innovation tool with a responsive and helpful support team

We are solving innovation problems. We were trying to figure out a tool where everyone can present innovative ideas in one space and communicate amongst each other to figure out the best solution to implement. All ideas are crowdsourced and collaborated upon so the best ideas can ride to the top. For many groups the system is utilized well, but some groups begin the effort and then abandon it. This relays more on how we are applying it than the system itself.

Pros

This tool is very easy to use. I don’t need much help when using the system but if I do, help is an email away and support gets everything done very quickly. The support team is very helpful.

Cons

The guides on the Helpdesk can be updated with new settings such as Cobalt. Many of my questions could be answered with these guides so I wouldn’t have to rely on support. The documents define the purpose of the features but they don’t explain how an administrator would use it.

Impressed by the highly configurable system. Black Box workflows are all done without customization.

Planbox is our system of record for IT innovation management.

Pros

- Flexible workflows can be tailored to match unique Black Box business processes - Cloud-based availability anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection - Improved communication of idea progress for both the idea submitter as well as product line owners - Simple yet effective dashboard with graphs, progress assets, and scoreboards which allow any user to quickly see the latest activity - A Challenges concept to focus idea generation around predefined issues

Cons

Business rule, form designer, gamification and reporting engines have a lot of power under the hood. A lot of effort has to go into user experience, reward and challenge design in order to stay away from unnecessary complexity and ensure a consistent high user engagement in the innovation program.

Great innovation results delivered with Planbox

Defining an Innovation Process for our company Employee engagement Innovation ROI

Pros

Planbox software met our criteria of capturing and managing idea submission, automatically generating reports to monitor the innovation process, and the flexibility to customize business rules and automate communications. This has been a huge advantage for us to manage our innovation process and become really efficient at developing new concepts. We believe that Innovation cannot come from a single voice and using Planbox software invites many perspectives and input into each idea. As such, ERT will first release the software to its global employees, and in a second phase it will release custom communities for ERT clients to submit their ideas.

Cons

Understanding which concepts should receive funding has been a challenge, but the solution helps us identify the best ones which is great. Building a higher level of engagement requires focus and a lot of marketing.