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So, you want to harness the ideas of your employees and have been thinking of using idea management software? We love that. After all, we believe employee ideas are the secret to business success.
But how do you know if now is the right time to get the software? How do you differentiate between vendors? And how do you identify which features are most important?
This guide will help you to find your answer. If it turns out that now is the right time, you'll be empowered to identify your perfect software. And if the best approach for you, to begin with, is to bootstrap, we'll point you towards some useful free resources to get your initiative off the ground.
Companies know that their employees have unique insights about the business and that great things can happen by implementing their ideas. After all, the Sony PlayStation, Amazon Prime and even Post-It Notes all started as employee ideas!
The solution? Idea management. It's the process of generating ideas, identifying those with the most potential, and implementing the best ones, all in a way that wouldn't have occurred using the normal processes.
The first idea management tool to emerge was the suggestion box in the early 1900s. The suggestion box was great for generating ideas but lacked a process for identifying and implementing the best ones.
The first idea management tool to emerge was the suggestion box in the early 1900s. The suggestion box was great for generating ideas but lacked a process for identifying and implementing the best ones.
In the late '90s, physical suggestion boxes evolved into electronic ones. This is when idea management software was first introduced.
Definition
Idea management tools
Innovation management tools consist of vendors offering technologies that help organizations to streamline their innovation programs. They include idea generation, continuous evaluation, and enable selection of ideas based on business value and risk. They also manage the process of taking initial ideas to their final realization and commercial exploitation – Gartner
Employees could now submit their ideas using a form or email. And whilst the high level of engagement found with physical suggestion boxes was retained, so was the lack of process in place for companies to carry ideas forward.
Idea management software then matured in the early 2000s as dedicated idea management apps were born.
These apps introduced a shiny front-end for employees to submit ideas on, and a back-end for companies to manage these ideas.
Crucially, for companies running employee idea initiatives, it became possible to filter, manage and identify the ideas with the most potential, all via the use of idea management software.
Whilst these idea management apps are great in principle, they can often fall short when it comes to engagement. Put simply, it's very difficult to get employees to install, login, and learn to use yet another app.
To have a chance at successfully gathering ideas, companies using idea apps need to massively invest in change management, communications, and engagement. That's a lot of effort.
Did you know?
The average app loses 77% of its users within the first 3 days, then 95% within 90 days. Source: CIO
So, what would the perfect idea management software look like? It'd need to combine two things.
Enter: integrated idea management software.
This software is similar to idea management apps, but they integrate directly with the communication channels that employees already use, such as Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Workplace from Facebook and Slack.
Did you know?
Did you know? 80% of collaboration efforts fail due to a lack of engagement – Gartner
These integrated idea management software tick all the boxes for a great idea management tool. Employees submit their ideas where they're already collaborating, so plenty of ideas are gathered.
Those ideas are then fired into the integrated software, where a dedicated team can filter, manage, and identify the ideas with the most potential.
Definition
Integrated idea management
Integrated idea management is an approach to listening to ideas by using pre-existing tools and software, rather than a dedicated idea application. All the ideas collected are then fed into a single software where they can be filtered, reviewed, and managed accordingly.
For many, it can seem cost-effective and straightforward to build an in-house idea management software. After all, how hard can it be?
But as you read above, idea management systems have been through a century-spanning evolution, meaning that today's software has incorporated a plethora of learnings and improvements to ensure ideas can be managed effectively.
By simply not having the time to make software of the same caliber, in-house solutions run the risk of falling short in their ability to gather ideas, manage them, and bring the best ones to life.
Idea management software providers have amassed a wealth of best practice knowledge. So tap into it. Harness it during your onboarding, and with professional services, to set yourself up for success.
At best, skipping out on that knowledge will mean you spend months or years learning the same lessons. At worst, it'll mean your employee ideas initiative will fail.
Pro-Tip
Software providers will likely structure their pricing based on the number of employees you want to engage, how many communication tools you want to integrate with, and how many campaigns you want to run to gather ideas.
So, "Is now the right time to get idea management software?" Seeing as you're reading this article, you're likely considering that exact question!
The decision tree below will help you with the decision. If it turns out that it might be best to wait, we'll point you towards some free resources to help you to bootstrap your employee ideas initiative (linked at the bottom of this article).
If now is the right time, then in the next section we'll help you understand what you'll want to consider to successfully choose between vendors.
So, you're confident that now is the time to get idea management software.
But how do you find the right one? It's a 2 step process:
Let's start with step one and look at those key features.
Great idea management software will have features that enable you to capture ideas, manage them, shortlist the best ones, then implement the selected ideas.
All the while, making it easy for you to engage your audience and analyze your success.
To be successful, you need to make it simple for employees to submit ideas.
That way, when deciding which ideas to take forward, you'll have a greater pool of innovative ideas to choose from. How to get there? Look for these features in software:
You've launched your employee ideas initiative, your audience is engaged, and you've captured a tonne of great ideas. Next, you'll need to qualify, categorize and progress those ideas.
Receiving ideas, but not being able to manage them, is no fun. So look for these software features to help you:
Filtering through a tide of employee ideas to find the best ones can be challenging. Amongst its toolset, an excellent idea management software will help shortlist the best ideas.
Look for the following features to help you spot the ideas for Flamin' Hot Cheetos, the Post-it Note, and the PlayStation. Just like Frito-Lays, 3M and Sony did.
Once you've shortlisted the ideas with the greatest potential, the truly exciting part begins: implementing those ideas and changing the world. You'll be thankful for these software features to help you do it.
Over the past 7 years of helping companies harness employee ideas, we've learned that engaging audiences is a massive determinant of success. If employees feel that their company is invested in their ideas, they'll share them.
The easiest way to do that? Engage them! Celebrate milestones, update your employees along the journey, and demonstrate success stories back to them. Your idea management software should have your back. Here's how.
To report on your employee ideas initiative, you'll need to measure your success. Whether your metrics of success are based on engagement, financial impact, or non-financial impact, software with the following features will help you to analyze performance.
Now that you know all about the most important software features, it's time to compare vendors. Given the number of software to choose from, what's the best way to find the one for you?
Which questions can you ask vendors to gain important information? How do you make the right choice?
Use our Vendor Comparison Tool! It'll help you identify your most important software features, score vendors on each feature, and then output a ranking of vendors. You'll be empowered to objectively choose the vendor most suited to your needs.
Click here to access our Vendor Comparison Tool
Pro-Tip
Have the Tool open during your conversations with vendors. That way, you can spot if two or more vendors' scores on a certain feature are close, and then ask more clarifying questions to better discern between those vendors.
Used the decision tree and it's told you to bootstrap? Maybe you're a small company and/or only want to gather a few ideas. Don't worry! Follow this link for a handy template that will help allow you to get your initiative off the ground.
Once it's taken off and you've had a taste of the success that harnessing employee ideas brings, check back in with the decision tree. Maybe it'll be the right time for you to consider an idea management software... Good luck!
If you found this article useful, be sure to check out our 'Best Practice Guides' to running employee ideas campaigns on Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Yammer, and Workplace from Facebook!
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