Increasingly, enterprises including many of the Global 5000 are considering technology platforms that provide deep innovation management functionality that leverage principles of social collaboration, crowdsourcing, game dynamics and analytics to drive a repeatable end-to-end innovation process that results in business outcomes. As organizations head down the path of implementing an innovation process, they may reach a point where they need to decide whether they build their own “home-grown” technology platform, or purchase a software solution from an enterprise innovation platform provider. This short whitepaper helps you understand the tradeoffs.

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SPIGIT IS THE INNOVATION ENGINE
THAT DRIVES BUSINESS GROWTH
Innovation is regarded as the key driver for business growth
by every successful enterprise. However, a recent Booz &
Company survey of 700 companies and senior innovation
executives revealed that just 25% felt their companies were
effective at generating new ideas and converting them into
product development projects.
Increasingly, enterprises including many of the Global 500
are considering technology platforms that provide deep idea
management functionality that leverage principles of social
collaboration, crowdsourcing, game dynamics and analytics
to drive a repeatable end-to-end innovation process that
results in business outcomes.
As organizations head down the path of implementing an
innovation process, they may reach a point where they
need to decide whether they build their own “home-grown”
technology platform, or purchase a software solution from a
social innovation platform provider.
Before such a decision is made, it’s important to consider
the environment and culture that the innovation platform
would operate in.
KEY CULTURAL QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK AT THIS
POINT ARE:
1. Is innovation a key strategic goal of the organization?
2. Is there an established innovation program and process?
3. Does IT have the expertise to build, maintain and
upgrade an internal system?
4. How are ideas currently shared in the organization?
5. Is the organization supportive of innovation and have a
culture of trying new things?
With these high-level thoughts, the following key questions
from the business and IT perspectives will help you decide
which route the organization should take.
FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE:
1. Does your senior management team need assurance
that other companies have seen success using such
platforms?
2. How quickly does the platform need to be “live”?
3. Does the User Interface need to be engaging and
appealing?
4. Should the platform use the latest advances in behavioral
science, game mechanics and collaborative decision
models?
5. Will access to thought leadership and support be
required?
6. Will the innovation process be likely to evolve and
improve?
7. Is the team resourced to review all ideas or are
automated mechanics required to identify the best ideas?
8. Will external users be asked to participate in providing
ideas?
9. Is there a requirement to measure outcomes and
automatically produce reports on progress?
10. Will you need best practices and technology to ensure
sustained engagement?
The Innovation Conundrum:
Build or Buy Social Innovation software

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INFO@SPIGIT.COM
WWW.SPIGIT.COM
FROM AN IT PERSPECTIVE:
1. Are there sufficient internal resources available to build a
new platform?
2. Is there sufficient in-house expertise in design and
development in the areas of social, mobile, ideation,
crowdsourcing, game dynamics and analytics?
3. Will resources to maintain, support and upgrade the
platform be available?
4. Are competitors using a cutting edge platform that is
evolving faster than you can develop in-house?
5. Can a secure environment be provided to hold data and
is sufficient data storage available?
6. Can a secure external environment be provided to
extend the platform to partners, customers and
suppliers when needed?
7. Will the platform need to operate on different Operating
systems, browsers, mobile devices and interfaces?
8. Will the platform need integration with other enterprise
systems such as SharePoint, Jive, and Yammer?
9. Will the platform be internationalized and localized for
your globally dispersed workforce?
10. Will the resources applied to an internal project distract
the organization from your real core competencies?
ABOUT SPIGIT
Spigit is a leader in Social Innovation, helping organizations unleash the creativity of
employees, customers and partners to find transformative ideas that drive growth.
Leveraging crowdsourcing, game mechanics and big data analytics, Spigit’s
platform is helping the world’s leading brands invent disruptive products, generate
new revenue streams, build an innovation culture, reduce costs and significantly
improve employee and customer engagement.
The world’s leading brands including major Retail, Healthcare, Financial,
Technology, Government, Insurance, Utilities and Pharmaceutical companies use
Spigit.
Headquartered in San Francisco’s Bay Area, Spigit is the innovation engine that
drives growth and a key player in the social enterprise market. For more information
about how you can enable crowd innovation for your enterprise, visit www.Spigit.
com, email info@spigit.com or call 1-925-297-2600.
While “home-grown” platforms may initially seem attractive
due to perceived lower cost, best of breed platforms that
have been designed by innovation experts with deep idea
management, crowdsourcing and social and behavioral
algorithms are usually more effective in the long term.
Social computing, game dynamics and crowdsourcing
are continually evolving fields with new research and
development occurring daily, making it impossible for most
organizations to stay at the cutting edge of the field. By
purchasing a leading end-end social innovation platform,
an organization can focus on innovation and execution to
improve the business, rather than trying to build enabling
tools and technology for ideation.