“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs

While collaborating to bring innovative solutions to pressing business problems, have you ever wondered how companies at the bleeding edge of innovation approach such high-impact decisions? Embracing the right idea management techniques can be a game-changer in nurturing a culture of innovation.

I recently came across Nestlé’s InGenius. It is the company’s “Employee Innovation Accelerator.” But, here is the kicker, Nestlé paved the way to incentivize its nearly 300,000 employees working in almost 200 nations globally to help the company bring innovative solutions to the market.

This accelerator has delivered on its promise, and how! It has allowed Nestlé to fast-track innovation and provide game-changing solutions to the market in months. In addition, the company has sought to fortify its competitive advantage in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality, saving natural resources and increasing the incomes of its farmer partners.

6 Idea Management Tools

Just so you know, managing your intellectual property assets on an excel spreadsheet is a bad idea. So before we proceed, ensure that you heed this word of caution and avoid running a broken idea management process.

With that covered, let’s learn about the idea management tools an innovation-driven enterprise like yours can utilize.

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP 

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP is an intuitive drag-and-drop tool that helps you manage the end-to-end IP lifecycle from ideas to patents. Implementing tools like this is essential in strategies to strengthen your patent portfolio through efficient idea management and patent lifecycle tracking. With the TIP Tool^TM, anyone in the enterprise can submit and track the progress of their innovative ideas.

Key Benefits Offered by the TIP Tool^TM for Idea Management

#1- Enable Enterprise-Wide Participation

The TIP Tool^TM allows role-based access to users. Enterprises using the tool can enable employee participation across the enterprise without worrying about the confidentiality of certain IP-related information. For example, did you know that PepsiCo’s low-sodium snack idea came from someone who didn’t belong to the R&D team?

#2 – Capture More Innovation by Minimizing Friction from Innovators for Idea Submission

The TIP Tool^TM offers a short, simple, easy-to-fill idea capture form that innovators can fill to describe their ideas or inventions. Moreover, the TIP Tool^TM offers a magic link-based login that relieves innovators from remembering one more password. There might be a situation wherein you need to decide between unfiled ideas and low-priority ideas. Users can utilize TIP Tool^TM’s archive feature to focus on important ideas.

#3 – Gather Specific Information from Innovators with Customizable Idea Form

The TIP Tool^TM offers a customizable idea capture form. The innovation managers can add/edit or delete fields of the form. Sometimes, there arises a possibility that an enterprise requires specific information for which there is no field in the default idea capture form. The TIP Tool^TM covers this scenario as well. The TIP Tool^TM makes it possible to incorporate a company’s internal nomenclature so that no additional training is required for staff.

#4 – Filter Ideas Based on Tags for Any Discussion

TIP Tool^TM understands the importance of having an organized system. Therefore, it allows users to tag, group, and filter ideas. For example, for a particular business meeting, you may wish to select ideas that belong to a specific line of product, technology, or some other category. The TIP Tool^TM makes it extremely easy to add tags to ideas and, consequently, filter ideas based on such tags later.

#5 – Select the Most Promising Ideas for Patenting by Enabling Thorough Vetting of Ideas

The TIP Tool^TM makes it easy for inventors, managers, patent counsel, or other stakeholders working from remote locations to brainstorm ideas in real time. The TIP Tool^TM achieves this by allowing users to edit idea information and add comments. In addition, the TIP Tool^TM records every change made to idea-related information. Moreover, all your ideas can be scored on different parameters within the TIP Tool^TM. You can utilize these scores to prioritize and rank the patentability of each idea.

#6 – Track Ideas As They Progress Through All the Stages of the IP Lifecycle

The TIP Tool^TM offers a drag-and-drop interface to move ideas from one stage to another. It provides four stages to track ideas as they progress – Idea Capture, Internal Vetting, Patent Drafting, and Patent Filing.

#7 – Get USPTO Status Updates for Your Patents and Patent Applications Without the Help of a Patent Counsel

The TIP Tool^TM helps you stay in sync with the USPTO by automatically fetching updates on your patents and patent applications and displaying them within the tool. In addition, you can receive notifications on any PTO rejections your idea received and promptly address each idea’s probable roadblocks within the TIP Tool^TM.

#8 – Track KPIs of Innovators at Your Enterprise

The TIP Tool^TM offers a super simple dashboard to see innovation-related metrics for your R&D teams quickly. For example, you can see the number of ideas submitted and the patentability of those ideas by all your innovators. In addition, you can identify the most promising innovators as well.

#9 – Get A Quick Glimpse of Your Idea Pipeline in One Click

The TIP Tool^TM also offers role-specific dashboards. As a result, innovation managers can get a holistic view of the idea pipeline in seconds. Consequently, the TIP Tool^TM helps you manage the workflow from idea collection to portfolio management.

Demo

Sign up for an interactive product demo of the TIP Tool^TM and experience its features yourself! The TIP Tool^TM offers a demo playground with pre-populated data to easily explore the tool’s functionalities.

Pricing

The TIP Tool^TM provides a free tier (forever). Its premium tier costs $50 per month and $495 per year. The TIP Tool^TM has a custom tier as well. Visit its pricing page.

Review

Client Interaction

We mentioned the TIP Tool^TM’s features of staying in sync with the USPTO and understanding an idea’s movement along the IP lifecycle with a glance.

Triangle IP’s founder, Tom Franklin, regularly speaks to prospects and clients to gather insights on benefiting from using the TIP Tool^TM.

Here’s what a prospect had to say about these features.

Their Usual Process

“At our company, we track IP progress during each quarter in the following manner:

1. First, how many inventions are getting started?
2. Second, how many of these inventions are getting completed (meaning that they have been sent to the Intellectual Property Committee to make a decision)?
3. Next, how many Intellectual Property Committee decisions are being made in a quarter?
4. In the final stage, we also consider it a success if we establish trade secrets. However, make no mistake, filing a patent would be the best success.

Understandably, we consider how many filings we have completed in the quarter. So that is our specific focus on the metrics.”

How the TIP Tool^TM Helps

“I used to get emails from my boss asking, “Show me how many of these things happened this quarter.” I would previously have to generate this data manually.”

Having this information summarised in your tool is extremely handy for me.

Website

Visit Triangle IP’s website to explore the TIP Tool^TM.

Brightidea Idea Box

Brightidea’s advanced software attempts to accelerate the success of innovation by facilitating and streamlining the ideation process and collaboration.

Key Benefits Offered by Brightidea Idea Box for Idea Management

#1 – Collect Ideas Using A Frictionless Platform

Brightidea’s Idea Box offers an always-on digital suggestion box for collecting ideas. This accessibility empowers the workforce to submit ideas whenever and wherever is convenient.

#2 – Scale Your Innovation Platform

If your business requires help managing and automating an increased volume of idea submissions, Idea Box can upgrade the system at no extra cost for additional modules and services.

#3 – Receive Robust Idea Analytics

To make informed idea decisions, Idea Box can track every idea’s RoI and business impact from within the tool.

Demo

You can request a demo here.

Pricing

Brightidea allows a free trial to try the product. Unfortunately, extensive pricing information is unavailable.

Review

You can explore Brightidea’s reviews on G2.

Website

Visit Brightidea’s Idea Box website to explore the product.

Ideanote

Ideanote is a next-generation innovation software that offers what users need to collect, develop, prioritize and act on more of the right ideas.

Key Benefits Offered by Ideanote for Idea Management

#1 – Collect Highly Contextual Ideas

Ideanote allows users to achieve quantity and quality while sharing ideas. For example, if users want to add images, presentation decks, or videos to give people context, Ideanote makes it possible.

#2 – Facilitate Enterprise-Wide Innovation

Ideanote allows outsiders to contribute to the internal innovation process through guest accounts. Moreover, the tool promotes community building by letting people describe their expertise.

#3 – Customize Access to Innovation Process

Ideanote allows users to organize people in groups and assign them access depending on their roles in innovation management. Therefore, a section of users can contribute ideas, while experts can manage tasks surrounding the vetting of ideas.

Demo

You can request a demo here.

Pricing

Ideanote’s free tier (limited to 10 members) is free. The business tier (for 15 to 2500 members) offers dynamic pricing, ranging from $49/month to $1249/month. The enterprise tier (unlimited members) requires booking a demo. Visit its pricing page.

Review

You can explore Ideanote’s reviews on G2.

Website

Visit Ideanote’s website to explore the product.

IdeaScale

IdeaScale is an innovation management solution that links enterprises to people with ideas. It is an intuitive space where the best ideas thrive based on merit. IdeaScale lends relevance to the most important challenges.

Key Benefits Offered by IdeaScale for Idea Management

#1 – Collect Ideas Using Intuitive Form

IdeaScale offers a simple and customizable idea submission form to add relevant details.

#2 – Integrate Social Sharing APIs

To add new ideas to your enterprise’s IdeaScale community, users can utilize in-built APIs to platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, and MS Teams.

#3 – Receive Innovation Trend Analysis and RoI

IdeaScale offers enterprise-wide innovation dashboards allowing users to gain insights into an enterprise’s innovation inputs and outputs. You can learn more about ideas’ origin, implementation, and relative value.

Demo

You can request a demo here.

Pricing

IdeaScale crafts its pricing proposal based on the program’s chosen features, scope, and more. IdeaScale requires booking a demo for this process.

Review

You can explore IdeaScale’s reviews on G2.

Website

Visit IdeaScale’s website to explore the product.

Viima

Viima is an all-in-one innovation platform that helps take ideas to innovations, helping along every step. Viima makes the journey effortless so that users can focus on making more innovation happen.

Key Benefits Offered by Viima for Idea Management

#1 – Effortlessly Process Idea Collection

Viima allows the categorization of new ideas in the right places. Moreover, it automatically ensures that the right people receive notifications about new ideas.

#2 – Promote Responsible Enterprise-Wide Engagement

In addition to mentioning specific users during idea vetting, Viima offers the feature of allocating an idea’s responsibility to particular users.

#3 – Prioritize Flexible Idea Evaluation

Viima offers a flexible evaluation system allowing users to create custom metrics to rate ideas.

Demo

You can request a demo here.

Pricing

Viima’s basic tier is available for free. The premium tier starts at  $6/user/month. The unlimited tier starts at $1999/month. Visit its pricing page.

Review

You can explore Viima’s reviews on G2.

Website

Visit Viima’s website to explore the product.

Idea Drop

Idea Drop allows leading global enterprises to put innovation at the heart of their enterprises. It packs powerful automation and intuitive intelligence to supercharge innovation programs and collaborate on strategic goals.

Key Benefits Offered by Idea Drop for Idea Management

#1 – Promote Safe Idea Collection Form

All users are not comfortable with publicly sharing their ideas. Idea Drop allows users to hit a ‘cloak’ button when dropping an idea to hide their identity.

#2 – Informs Collaborators of Idea Changes

Idea Drop alerts users in real-time about status changes to ideas and other significant interactions between users.

#3 – Avoid Duplicate Idea Generation

Idea Drop’s pattern recognition technology flags similar ideas to avoid collaborating on similar alternatives to existing ideas.

Demo

You can request a demo here.

Pricing

Extensive pricing is unavailable—contact Idea Drop for more details.

Review

You can explore Idea Drop’s reviews on G2.

Website

Visit Idea Drop’s website to explore the product.

Quick Wrap Up

There are several competing idea management tools available for innovation-driven enterprises. But the “best” idea management software is the one that matches the size and the nuanced needs of your enterprise.

If you are a small-to-medium enterprise, you will significantly benefit from using the TIP Tool^TM.

About Us

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP is an intuitive drag-and-drop tool that helps you manage the end-to-end IP lifecycle from ideas to patents. The tool underwent creation with the vision of democratization of patents. Usually, the patent process is not transparent, and many enterprises do not have enterprise-wide innovation capture systems and processes. The TIP Tool^TM is here to change that. With the TIP Tool^TM, anyone in the enterprise can submit and track the progress of their innovative ideas. The TIP Tool^TM also helps you manage your patent portfolios with deep learning to guide your patent strategy efficiently.

Disclaimer: The information in this article/review is sourced from the internet and may not be entirely accurate or up-to-date. We recommend visiting the respective software websites for the most current and reliable information. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and may not reflect the views of Triangle IP. We are not liable for any consequences that may arise from relying on the information provided in this article/review.