More and more, the CIO is becoming a crucial player in the future of your organization.
While still more often present in larger organizations, the Chief Innovation/Idea/Improvement Officer has a potentially large and diverse collection of responsibilities. Most are on the front-lines of improvement, constantly looking for ways to –
- Gather insights and research
- Formulate and Introduce new ideas
- Lead and monitor development
- Track implementation and results
They rely on a gentle balance of creativity and proven methodologies to move the organization forward towards a brighter future. While a number of tools exist for these responsibilities, one rules them all – idea management software.
For those new to innovation, idea management software is a means to better manage the collection, review, and implementation process of new ideas within an organization.
Think a suggestion box with the ability to reach everyone in your organization, your customers, your partners, and the public at all times. But instead of coming up with a collection of random thoughts and problems, ideas are linked to challenges that you really want solutions to.
From there, assign review teams, create project management plans, and track development, all while having the ability for multiple teams, employees, and more to stay involved.
Sound great? Here are the areas where idea management software really shines for a CIO.
Engagement – Target employee departments, locations, customer segments, partner networks, and more for solving specific challenges inside your organization.
Speed – Gather ideas, validate concepts, and assign tasks in minutes vs. bringing people together for brainstorming meetings or waiting for the suggestion box to fill up.
Insights – Hear unique ideas from employees at the front-lines of your organization, or customers that handle and experience your offering every day.
Accessibility – Level the playing field by opening up idea submissions to everyone, not just those that fit into a conference room.
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Collaboration – Allow for crowdsourcing, live employee-to-employee feedback, Q&As, and idea improvements without needing to physically bring them together.
Organization – Collect and store ideas in an easy to manage and access platform, and track their progress whether they’re moving forward or being stored for later.
Standardization – Remove bias by approaching idea collection and reviews in a uniform and repeatable manner through one channel.
Control – Move and track ideas through stages of review and development to implementation and results testing with the click of a button.
Transparency – Share information about your challenges and give employees a chance to see the ideas that others have submitted for further insight and inspiration.
Efficiency – Combine brainstorming initiatives, multiple stages of collection and review, and departments onto one platform to reduce the waste of time and resources.
Culture – Promote continuous improvement and innovation with employees company-wide, giving them a voice to share their ideas and move the organization forward.
With these benefits and more, idea management software can make the life of a CIO not only easier, but take them to the next level for promoting organizational improvements.