Innovation in an organization increases performance and growth through improvements. Innovation is not just about having good ideas. Innovation is a team effort where all areas of an organization contribute. Microsoft is attempting to address this with its Innovation Process Management Solution.
The Microsoft Innovation Process Management (IPM) Solution is built on the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, and the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. It facilitates the following three aspects of innovation process management.
Ideation and Knowledge Capture
The ability to capture and share ideas easily and rapidly to promote a culture of innovation by increasing first the quantity and then the quality of ideas contributed
The capability to collaborate to solve problems, gain incremental benefit or break new ground in a product, service or process by garnering feedback, gauging interest, forming teams and further developing concepts to transform them into well-thought-out ideas
Process and Knowledge Management
The processes to facilitate, investigate, formulate, evaluate, develop and promote an idea from concept to sanctioned project, involving key stakeholders internal and external to an organization.
The capability to enforce process structure and discipline without stifling innovation
The ability to manage the life cycle of all digital content flowing into and out of the solution
Project and Portfolio Management
The ability to evaluate ideas according to the following specifics:
Governing strategic objectives such as growth, globalization, innovation and customer loyalty
Operational parameters such as work-force resource constraints, capital expenditure, project funds and competing investments
Performance metrics such as sales, forecasts, inventory and spending
Macro environmental factors such as market dynamics, market size and industry trends
The capability to track real-time progress against forecast metrics and make informed decisions to optimize budget, resources and time constraints to meet market demands, such as windows of opportunity to gain first-mover advantages
Microsoft IPM is Bridges the Gaps
Microsoft IPM aligns the people, processes and supporting infrastructure in an organization into a centralized collaborative portal. Knowledge capture, knowledge management, project management and portfolio management are all synchronized.
This allows anyone within the organization to actively and easily participate in the innovation process. Anyone can capture, investigate, formulate and evaluate ideas. The process is facilitated by Microsoft’s integrated EPM and business productivity infrastructure, which includes collaboration, unified communications, business intelligence, enterprise content management and enterprise search.
“Innovation really is a team sport, requiring close collaboration and the alignment of people, processes and supporting infrastructure throughout an organization,” said Don Richardson, director of Worldwide Innovation Management Sales Strategy at Microsoft. “Ideation, knowledge capture, knowledge management, project management and portfolio management all must be synchronized through a formal process to ensure that innovation projects yield success.”
To find out more about Microsoft’s Innovation Process Management Solution visit their Enterprise Project Management Solution web site, EPMConnect. You will find Innovation Process Management under their features enterprise project management scenarios.