Very responsive staff. Highly rated for SAS.

Lack of ability to have multiple reviewer groups in one phase

IdeaScale worked for us "out of the box'. We launched it and were up and running almost immediately. With zero prior experience, I was able to customize the interface to meet some very specific needs. When I had a question, one-on-one technical support was available on a moment's notice. Our account rep is equally helpful. He stays in touch enough to maintain a great relationship, but has never become a pest like some vendors.

Easy to set up and launch. Very intuitive user interface both from an administrator's perspective and for the people in the field who log on simply to vote on ideas. Technical support is knowledgeable and always available. The system is reliable, too - zero down time the entire time we've used it (2 years+). Good value for the money. We have the least expensive option and it does everything we need.

Nothing major - Some of the customization processes seemed a little 'clunky' at first but once you get in sync with their way of doing things it isn't a problem. As stated above, I believe this is a good value for the money, but if you want to go beyond the basic features there is a pretty steep jump in price. Might be nice to have a 'mid-range' option as well.

Working for the Social Security Administration we use IdeaScale to engage discussion with advocacy groups in the vast Disability area. Understanding that some are hesitant to try “new things,” my team had to be diligent in our quest to use this platform for ideation. Now, after the initial angst and the anonymity feature, we run 3 to 4 concurrent campaigns a month. This product is awesome

Export to Microsoft Excel Feature Privacy settings Assign Moderator Settings Easy to code

Ideascale has one of the most solid platforms on in the marketplace AND they are well advanced from anyone out there in system integrations. They are constantly improving their site with input from real customers that are using it. They actually- eat their own dog food -by asking clients to use their community site to post feature requests AND take action on ideas regularly. I have used other software and done a thorough review of competitors, there are none that compete at this level.

solid, secure and flexible (enough).

we don't have the power to do everything ourselves for some things.

Great

The staff including sales, support and others we responsive, talented and passionate about the product, their individual craft and providing great customer service. The technology is feature rich, easy to use and reliable.

Although it is easy to configure, I 'd say more use of preconfigured templates could make it even easier.

Working as a Federal Employee for decades, I have had the opportunity to participate in a host of application development. Consequently, you would think that I wouldn't be impressed by IdeaScale's offerings, but I was in for a very pleasant experience. I was tasked by my Agency's Leadership to develop a Leading Practices Community for the purpose of sharing efficient and effective ideas organizational wide. I thought, I have no experience with this new software, how can I pull this off? Well all that stress could have been avoided had I talked to my IdeaScale SME, Mr. Matt Paulson, prior to my assignment. To make a long story short, Matt showed incredible product knowledge and was essential in having a fully, functional community available in a matter of weeks. Additionally, Matt was readily accessible and eager to provide his expert knowledge in the event of requested changes. As a result we have a great tool, which I see as providing an outstanding ROI. The Leading Practices Community will serve 30,000 employees and has the capacity to serve far more. How better could we share effectiveness and efficiency than through this tool? In my opinion IdeaScale offers unequaled product value and impressive customer support. If there are any cons to this program, they haven't surfaced so I have nothing to report.

The scalability of this product is immense and we are just scratching the service on how it can impact our organization. It’s been an awesome team to work with so far!

I love that Ideascale is so passionate about helping companies reach their innovation potential. Understanding that even small ideas can have a big impact. Their network of users is amazing for collaborating and helping each other. Great community all around.

I do wish the analytics was more customizable for our organization.

Our library system has used IdeaScale to source feedback from both staff and the public on renovation projects, and it's proved to be a useful and easy-to-manage system for gathering and organizing that input.

Very easy and intuitive to use, even for non-tech-savvy users, and allows for input to be built through conversations rather than just filling in forms. Wonderful, attentive support from IdeaScale staff. Helpful, easy-to-use metrics and a very cool, customizable infographic generator.

The number of options for community moderation can be a bit overwhelming, and the function of each isn't always clear. Attached images show up very small, and attached links or documents could be placed or shown more prominently.

Its been more than a year and it has really helped all staff feel that they have a voice.

It is collaborative and staff from across the organisation can interact wit each other and their ideas.

The registration process could be more seemless.

Within our center, we use IdeaScale as a way to engage staff in brainstorming like discussions that they otherwise would not be able to participate in. Topics range from internal office improvements to new policy implementation and the tool has been incredibly valuable for both senior leadership and the rest of the staff! Service with the IdeaScale time has always been top notch from getting quick responses to technical questions, discussions on campaign strategy, all the way to full program discussion within the office, IdeaScale has been great to work with every step of the way.

Love

I like the ease of use for myself as a moderator and the end uaers

Sometimes there are bugs in the system.

Looking forward to knowing more. We have been using ideascale for almost two years. It will be great to know and learn about flexible features like the new funnels. I'm excited.

It seems more customizable than we are taking advantage of.

Aside from the cloud-based application that can be accessed anywhere, you also get access to many popular features. This includes having custom user fields, single sign-on, CSS customization, Facebook application, private communities, Ideascale app, 99.99% availability, campaigns, forums, comment voting, contract, community forums, custom URLs, custom development, email based access restrictions, file attachment, polling tool, profanity filter, and more.

You get a cloud-based system making the idea creation and feedback method easier than ever. It also includes: widgets, IP-based access restrictions, customizing status tabs, badges, leaderboard, Google Analytics and being mobile optimize

The disadvantage is that for access to more features, you need to choose a membership plan for a higher cost each month. In other-words, some features are not available in the less expensive memberships.

After a thorough review of all crowdsourcing challenge platforms (and contemplating building our own) we selected IdeaScale to run the Fix California Challenge (http://www.innovateyourstate.org/final_fix_california_challenge_winners_announced) which resulted in over 450 ideas submitted through the online platform and privately as well as thousands of votes and comments. We set a low bar to entry since the design of the project was to encourage public participation and were overwhelmed by the quality, quantity and nature of the discourse of the community. IdeaScale staff were instrumental in the success of the Challenge - working with us closely prior to the launch, during the Challenge to advance stages and address any issues we had, and even after close of the Challenge listening to our experience in order to continue to improve their product. We heartily recommend them to work with!

If executed thoughtfully, crowdsourcing can be a great way for leaders of a bureacratic organization (or any organization) to hear (interactively) from the people doing the actual work, whether they are seeking new ideas or specific information. Ideascale is a great first step to building a strong crowdsourcing program. It's incredibly user-friendly, the site is easy to design, and it's a one-step process for new members to join. The best feature, however, is the customer service. Everyone is incredibly friendly, responsive and helpful (and IT help is literally 24/7!). Our IdeaScale reps went above and well beyond to help us get our program off the ground - they became true partners. IdeaScale is also constantly evolving to provide an even better user experience. You can't go wrong!

We were on this platform in minutes and we started populating our ideas instantly. Addition of members in free version is child's play. We have voting, comments, sharing of links, editing the Landing page, logo addition, moderation, reports, automatic mail alerts etc. (Attachment of files is not possible in Free Version, but this is still OK for us at this stage of evaluation) We are able to test fully all the features like Leaderboard, We can run multiple campaigns, we have still to start using the other features, but we hope to mature soon and start using these and many other features. This platform is already a big hit within our core team of Innovation. So far amongst all the platforms that we have seen adopting this seemed to be a cake walk!

The IdeaScale team has awesome customer service and support, it is always timely, accurate and courteous! IdeaScale continues to be a great supplement to our continuous improvement program allowing us to really capture the VOA (Voice of the Associate) it is such an engaging tool for us. Customers love it to, they say that IdeaScale differentiates us from our competitors. They have some nice reporting tools, and an excel data export which allows me to manipulate the data any way i need to. Would be nice to have more options to run the data export already manipulated. Have already discussed with the IdeaScale team and as always, they are looking into satisfying my needs.

IdeaScale meets all my agency needs in fostering a culture of innovation. We enjoy the ease of use, features, and the wonderful customer service!

Not applicable. We love the product!! The team was great in helping the implementation and launch at our agency!

As an organization that has team members that don't sit in front of a computer all day, IdeaScale has been great. Team members can access the site from their home computer or mobile device and send us ideas any time of the day. It is easy for us to interact with members on the site and let them know the status of their suggestions. Reporting on this site could be more robust, but the data is available in raw form. All the folks that work for IdeaScale are great; they are always available to help and are open to suggestions. I highly recommend IdeaScale as an innovation management and team member engagement platform.

Within our center, we use IdeaScale as a way to engage staff in brainstorming like discussions that they otherwise would not be able to participate in. Topics range from internal office improvements to new policy implementation and the tool has been incredibly valuable for both senior leadership and the rest of the staff! Service with the IdeaScale time has always been top notch from getting quick responses to technical questions, discussions on campaign strategy, all the way to full program discussion within the office, IdeaScale has been great to work with every step of the way.

Fedramp certification , features, government experience

Nothing to report thus far . Just getting started

IdeaScale is easy to use and intuitive for users even if they have not used it before so caters to all levels of ability to use technology. The web based platform enables staff to use it pretty much anywhere, anytime and different devices. The IdeaScale team are very helpful and assist with queries and suggestions for enhancement or improvement. You do need IT staff to code different aspects of the look and feel but the IdeaScale team can also assist if required.

I have attended a promising demo from [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] who did a comprehensive job. My goal is to imagine our organizational rollout.

Metrics for ideation process to commitment

Another platform is hard to get users to embrace... the government buys a lot of them. They die ignoble deaths.

This tool is fantastic for fostering internal and external innovation. I think that the top down innovation model is outmoded and Ideascale is the best way to shatter it.

Looks like it’s very customizable! Looking forward to use the appropriate features for our organization!

This is a great resource to manage all innovation approaches in our organization.

I feel I haven’t used this software enough to give a fair answer on what I like the least about it.