While all organizations realize the power of digital transformation, it is necessary to realize that the first step of digitalization lies in ideation & innovation, also known as ‘Ibtikar’.
Developing digital business models requires developing ideas and bringing them to life by identifying hidden challenges, approaching them from different angles, and developing detailed solutions for them that could result in business opportunities. This requires a special one-stop-shop portal that can handle hosting content, submission of ideas, assessment of ideas by a panel based on specific criteria, and putting those ideas into execution.
While that may sound appealing in theory, the execution of this entire process presents a number of challenges. Apart from the fact that literally the entire world has come to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, here are some challenges that may interrupt organizations that want to implement an Ideation & Innovation initiative:
With everything going on in the world right now, every organization is worried about matching expenses with their circumstance-generated revenues that have fallen way below their normal. This means that they cannot afford recruiting IT service providers to create a full platform to host their ideation initiatives. Creating new platforms will be time consuming, costly, and may require a huge investment in resources to manage it and provide upkeep services.
As a response to the huge investment that they THINK is required to host an ideation initiative, organizations may opt to implement ideation using ‘traditional’ methods. This means encouraging their employees to submit their ideas via email, WhatsApp, Facebook groups, etc. Where’s the problem in that? For starters, those platforms do not have specific purposes, meaning they are used for a multitude of reasons, including personal ones. This most definitely will make the process of keeping up very difficult as ideas get lost in the traffic of other unrelated messages. This will also lead to major distraction as employees are bombarded with messages for other items that may lead to a disruption in their ideation processes. The lack of a centralized announcement channel to reach intended audiences will lead to confusion, uncertainty, and disruption in ideation.
This challenge goes hand in hand with the one above. If your employees are not using a specific platform for their ideation & innovation submission process, there will be lack of clarity when it comes to how to submit ideas, what topics of ideas are required, how to list them, how to submit them, the status of their approval, and the execution of approved ideas.
So, what’s the solution?
Keeping all of the above in mind, we knew we had to move fast and create a platform that will cater to these organizations’ needs. StemeXe for Ibtikar harbors employee collaboration and gives employees the chance to engage with the company to uncover new opportunities for the business and co-create ideas to bring them to life.
With StemeXe for Ibtikar, we've brought together all the elements required for a successful ideation process that accompanies an idea from document to real life in one app:
Announcements to direct attention to intended audience about ideas through one centralized announcement channel within the platform.
Submission and tracking of ideas through the app. The platform has an automated requests section that allows employees to follow step by step processes to submit their ideas while tracking the status of their approval/rejection process & uncovering the reasons of the same.
Access to digital library and content regarding guidelines and acceptance criteria for different categories of ideas & innovation through a digital library within the platform with unlimited number of topics.
Timely support through chat
Does this sound like something you’ve been looking for and you want to know more about it? Let us help you Innovate in your Innovation.
Let the brainstorming begin!