Innovation Platform – Definition, Types, Benefits, and Examples

The world is rapidly changing and those that are going to survive are companies and businesses that have been set up to change with it. This is one of the reasons why an innovation platform is so important. 

Growing your business through innovation is a good idea, but, you should know about the platforms that can help you. Innovation. It’s on everyone’s minds these days.

So, innovation means looking at reality and rearrange the constituent elements in new value-enhancing configurations.

So, numerous innovative digital platforms change the way ideas are discussed in multiple industries. 

For example, the automotive industry with Groupe PSA, or in engineering with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). 

Now you must be wondering what are the 4 types of innovation are important for defining the innovation platforms. 

So, you can gain a deep insight through innovation management that will help you in selecting a tool available to facilitate the formation and curation of ideas.

What is an innovation platform?

An innovation platform is a tool for building and growing ideas. However, an innovation platform also refers to a technical solution where you can build things fast and prototype tools.

Furthermore, for a business, an innovator’s growth platform means using products, services, and technology in a new way to reach your goals—preferably more efficient than before. 

Let’s discuss the insights about the innovation platform by explaining its types, examples, benefits, and how to choose the right platform for your workplace.

Types of Innovation Platforms

Technical Open Innovation Platforms

One of the biggest changes in the way in which companies approach innovation has been the growth of a technology-based open innovation platform. Let’s go through an example to understand what is an open innovation platform? 

Moreover, one of the biggest open innovation examples is Linux, an operating software that competes with Microsoft and Apple, which are developed in the closed innovation policy platform. 

Therefore, the biggest benefit of open-source software is that the software is continuously tested by programmers with 100 percent transparency.

Idea Management Platform

This is an idea-sharing platform where people can come together and share their thoughts on the idea management process.

So, the goal of an innovation management platform is to help companies come together, gather ideas from their employees, and evaluate each idea individually. 

Then, developing good ideas for the market more quickly will allow them to increase productivity.

Examples of Platform Innovation

Ennomotive – The hub for engineering innovation

Ennomotive is an open innovation platform that specializes in experts and connecting companies of various projects and win-win partnerships.

So, this platform is perfect for organizations that are looking to solve technical challenges and need fresh ideas from creative and talented individuals.

Crowdspring – Design has done better

Crowdspring is a platform that facilitates various design projects, such as website logos or a book cover, for organizations and private individuals.

Hence, this platform is perfect for organizations that need a reimagined or new design and want a very broad spectrum of ideas that can be molded and discussed in an effortless iterative manner.

Viima – The best way to develop and collect ideas

Viima is an idea management platform that can be used for developing and gathering ideas into innovations within an open or chosen group of stakeholders.

Therefore, this platform is perfect for organizations that are looking for an effortless way of gathering ideas or thoughts. This is for smaller to larger groups. Furthermore, then to develop them into something that can be implemented.

Kaggle – The place for data science projects

Kaggle is a platform that hosts a community of data scientists and machine learning engineers who together process raw data gathered and submitted by organizations. 

Furthermore, large organizations use this platform without existing data science environments and access to raw data.

Choosing the Right Workplace Innovation platform

Let’s discuss some tips and tricks to help you understand the many other aspects of which tool you should end up with.

Start with your goals

Always remember to start by addressing your goals. If you understand your destination, it’s much easier to choose a platform that will help you get there.

For example, if a company needs fresh business ideas to solve a technical problem, such as making a manufacturing process more cost-efficient, Ennomotive is a great candidate for the list. A platform like Maestro is not.

Check characteristics

Different platforms have different characteristics. For example, if you compare Android with Apple. It includes the idea that “people know their own needs best”. The other includes a unique package with the idea: “We know what people want.”

Hence, if a platform has been designed based on a philosophy similar to your own, it’s a good indication that it could support your ways of working.

Custom or off-the-shelf?

Custom platforms for enterprise customers have the specific features requested by the customer. However, they are complicated to use, slow, and costly to initiate.

So, off-the-shelf platforms are aimed towards organizations of a more general size. Moreover, many off-the-shelf platforms are customizable, easy to use, and scalable.

Benefits of Innovation Management Platform

• They facilitate understanding and dialogue among stakeholders and provide a space for them to create a common mutual trust and vision. 

• They enable partners to identify the bottlenecks hindering innovation, and develop solutions beyond what individuals can achieve.

• Innovation advertising platforms create motivation and a feeling of ownership of the solutions that they develop.

• Innovation platforms create opportunities for research to be demand-driven, to disseminate research outputs, and to find critical issues for investigation.  

• By improving ideas, communication, learning, and exposure to new people, innovation platforms help members to clarify their roles, adapt to unforeseen changes, and organize themselves.

• A Crowd-sourcing innovation platform is the best way to gather, surface ideas, and solutions from your employees, customers, and partners.

• Social innovation platforms provide new ideas that meet social needs, create social relationships, and form new collaborations.

Sum Up

Are you sure you have the right goals? Can one platform do what you’re out to achieve? Hence, innovation has allowed startups to compete effectively with some of the biggest corporate companies in the world.

So, sometimes you may need multiple platforms for the wide range of activities you wish. Think about it. 

Have a breakthrough business idea? Validate your idea on 40 parameters and prepare yourself for your next funding round.