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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.