VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Business, Innovation and Foresight

Challenge Driven Innovation

Salla Paajanen

Research Scientist

White paper:

Challenge Driven Innovation

Author:

Salla Paajanen

Contents

Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Contextual background ..................................................................................................................... 4

Innovation ........................................................................................................................................ 4

Open innovation ............................................................................................................................... 5

Open-closed innovation ................................................................................................................... 5

Crowdsourcing ................................................................................................................................. 6

Co-creation ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Challenge driven innovation (CDI).................................................................................................. 6

Challenge ..................................................................................................................................... 7

CDI framework ............................................................................................................................ 7

Criteria for defining challenges .................................................................................................... 8

CDI tools and process .................................................................................................................. 8

Digital platforms for CDI ............................................................................................................... 10

Examples of Finnish CDI actors ..................................................................................................... 12

Benchmarking CDI platforms globally .......................................................................................... 16

Open innovation intermediary platforms ....................................................................................... 17

Crowdsourcing platforms ............................................................................................................... 37

Co-creation platforms .................................................................................................................... 46

Open innovation company cases .................................................................................................... 53

PSA Peugeot Citroën ................................................................................................................. 53

Coca-Cola................................................................................................................................... 54

LEGO ......................................................................................................................................... 54

GE and Local Motors ................................................................................................................. 54

References ......................................................................................................................................... 55

Summary

Innovation can be considered as a critical success factor for organizations to survive. While

innovation management is a must for every organization, the way knowledge is shared about

innovations may need to be renewed (Ferreira et al. 2013), while the development focus shifts to

managing innovation partnerships and networks (Launonen & Viitanen 2011). Possibilities of

information and communication technologies facilitate the use of IT-based tools for the integration

of external innovators into the innovation process of organizations. (Hallerstede 2013) Platform

business can become a major competitive advantage in the renewal of knowledge-based services,

technology-intensive businesses and traditional industries (Loikkanen et al. 2017).

Challenge driven innovation (CDI) can be defined as “an innovation framework that accelerated

traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open innovation and crowdsourcing along with defined

methodology, process and tools to help organizations develop and implement actionable solutions to

their key problems, opportunities and challenges” (Bonadio 2011). The CDI process can further be

divided into various stages. According to (Bingham & Spradlin 2011) these steps are: 1) idea

gathering in the open front end of the development process, 2) filtering, 3) decomposition of a large,

complex project into distinct models, 4) channel distribution, 5) assembly and integration, and 6)

launch. However, there are different interpretations of the open innovation process. Overall, trust

across the innovation process is one of the fundamental aspects.

There are various CDI platforms / software and service providers available worldwide. Some Finnish

examples in the field include IndustryHack, Orchidea Innovations, Viima and Keto Software.

However, it is notable that the innovation process should not start from the point of view of a digital

platform, rather from an actual need. Best results can be derived from the CDI process by applying

both physical and digital platforms.

This report includes brief literature review of open innovation, focusing on the framework of CDI.

Furthermore, benchmark of existing platforms and service providers for facilitating CDI is conducted,

based on an interconnected categorization of open innovation intermediary platforms, crowdsourcing

platforms and co-creation platforms. Additional open innovation company cases are described at the

end of the report.

Website of the project: www.vtt.fi/sites/SHARE

https://twitter.com/AarreResearch

Contextual background

Concepts of innovation, open innovation, crowdsourcing, co-creation and challenge, which are

included in CDI are briefly explained in the first subchapters, followed by researching digital

platforms for CDI.

Innovation

A well-established definition of innovation is “an event characterized by an act of creation or

invention followed by successful implementation and deployment so that the benefits of that creation

may be widely enjoyed” (Bingham & Spradlin 2011).

Innovation is the result of the combination of knowledge and technologies which or are established

for particular purposes. Historically, innovation has been crucial for both the well-being and survival

of individuals, companies, social groups and entire civilizations and nations (Carayannis & Meissner

2017). Human resources, referring to knowledge holders with diverse educational and professional

backgrounds, can be considered as the most valuable asset for innovation activities. Thus, teamwork

is important for innovation since teams have more knowledge than individuals do. (Carayannis &

Meissner 2017)

Innovation is possible within a company or an organization; cross-divisional innovation, as well as

between different organizations or industries; cross-industry innovation (Beer et al. 2014; Cross

Innovation 2012). Various concepts and principles, such as open innovation, crowdsourcing and co-

creation, are being used for managing research and innovation. These concepts are complementary,

but approach innovation and idea management from diverse perspectives (Fig. 1). (Neumann 2014)

These three concepts related to innovation are studied and defined in the following subchapters in

more detail. However, it is notable that the definitions and categorization are not unambiguous and

there are different interpretations of the categorization.

Figure 1. One interpretation of the difference between open innovation, crowdsourcing and co-creation

(Neumann 2014)

Open innovation

“Open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal

innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively” (Chesbrough et al.

2006). Open innovation engages companies with external stakeholders, including customers,

suppliers, partners and a wider community. Companies are increasingly seeking to work and source

knowledge beyond their boundaries, and share intellectual property. (Neumann 2014) Though, open

does not refer to simply external, rather open to any source of contribution, including internal

employees and innovation contributors (Bingham & Spradlin 2011). Thus, open innovation supports

in-house research and development activities (Beer et al. 2014). To summarize, “open innovation as

a strategy is used in order to develop something outside one’s current domain, seeking support from

experts in the field, in the end coming up with a solution to expand current boundaries and extract

value in any form, and provides both long term and short term incentives” (Khanna & Cecet 2011).

The open innovation paradigm states that companies need to use external and internal ideas and paths

to market for evolving their technologies. Open innovation processes combine internal and external

ideas into architectures and systems, and utilize business models to define requirements for them.

(Chesbrough et al. 2006) Outside-in open innovation allows external inputs and contributions to

influence company’s own innovation processes, whereas inside-out open innovation involves sharing

unused / under-utilized ideas outside the organization (Chesbrough & Eichenholz 2013). One

important factor of open innovation is that it enables to share risks and expenses with external parties

(Bingham & Spradlin 2011). Via open innovation, individuals and organizations can create mutually

beneficial solutions through solving complex issues and improving processes (Neumann 2014).

Open-closed innovation

Open-closed innovation describes the manner companies currently innovate in an open innovation

environment. It indicates that innovation is not an entirely open process, since openness of the

processes depend on various factors like working agreements that control the information flow

between collaborating parties. (Khanna & Cecet 2011)

“It is right to safe guard one’s own interest, but not to be lead into insecurity,

for it is now time when the whole world is seeking collaboration.” (Khanna & Cecet 2011)

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing refers to outsourcing projects to the public, in order to deliver solutions in terms of

opinions, insights and suggestions. Crowdsourcing is a form of using collective intelligence, such as

Wikipedia. There are various methods of benefiting from a group’s wisdom, but in each method

features of diversity, independence and decentralization need to be fulfilled. (Beer et al. 2014)

Although (Bingham & Spradlin 2011) refer to open innovation and crowdsourcing interchangeably

“open innovation (a.k.a. 'crowdsourcing')”, it can be argued that crowdsourcing requires a lower level

of involvement and engagement than open innovation and co-creation. (Neumann 2014) However,

web-based crowdsourcing platforms can support open innovation by facilitating systematic

interdisciplinary knowledge exchange (Verst et al. 2016).

Co-creation

The most common definition of co-creation is by (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2000) as “an active,

creative and social process, based on collaboration between producers and users that is initiated by

the firm to generate value for customers”. Co-creation engages the end users of a product or a service

to exchange knowledge and resources, in order to deliver a tailored experience through the company’s

value proposition. It is a way to enhance a good idea and customer engagement. (Neumann 2014)

Living labs are defined as “user-centered, open innovation ecosystems based on a systematic user co-

creation approach integrating research and innovation processes in real life communities and settings”

(European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) 2017). Living labs locate the user at the center of

innovation, enabling to enhance the opportunities offered by new ICT concepts and solutions to the

specific needs and objectives of local contexts, cultures and creativity potentials (European Network

of Living Labs (ENoLL) 2017). In living labs, innovative partnerships work closely with users co-

developing services for long-term care (Bessant & Möslein 2011).

Challenge driven innovation (CDI)

CDI is “an innovation framework that accelerated traditional innovation outcomes by leveraging open

innovation and crowdsourcing along with defined methodology, process and tools to help

organizations develop and implement actionable solutions to their key problems, opportunities and

challenges” (Bonadio 2011).

Challenge

“In its most basic form, challenge is a well-formed problem whose solution has value to a company”

(Bonadio 2011). Once a problem, idea, issue or opportunity is defined with an adequate level of

accuracy, it is expressed as a challenge and distributed to an appropriate channel for innovating.

Challenges are specific, detailed and actionable, but can consist of different forms from broad

questions to more rigorous. A broader question can be formulated in order to obtain access to new

ideas, whereas via rigorous methodology, a challenge is formulated, prioritized, and posted to a

channel with audience, then tracked and finally resulting solutions are assessed and awarded.

Accurate management of intellectual property is crucial in the challenge process, depending on the

selected distribution channel. (Bonadio 2011)

CDI framework

CDI provides a framework to accelerate innovation results by leveraging open development,

crowdsourcing strategies and entrepreneurship with defined methodologies, processes and tools, in

order to help companies, cities and institutions to develop and implement actionable solutions to their

key problems and challenges (Fig. 2) (Di Anselmo 2015).

In CDI, a part of a bigger project is specified as a challenge that represents a problem statement for a

block of work which can be modularized, and in most cases outsourced or insourced as an integral

unit (Bingham & Spradlin 2011; Bonadio 2011). Globalization of knowledge, technology and capital

Figure 2. CDI ecosystem (Di Anselmo 2015)

flows drive the CDI approach for achieving societal benefits or business opportunities (Myrehed

2017). Diversity is a central aspect of CDI, emphasizing to approach and solve challenges in unique

ways. Another important feature of CDI is to recognize that challenges are well-formed problems or

opportunities whose solutions have value. The engagement in the CDI process can be driven by well-

established monetary incentives or non-monetary incentives, such as personal satisfaction, peer

recognition, national security or public safety. (Bonadio 2011)

Criteria for defining challenges

An extension of the SMART problem definition can be used for challenge formulation. SMARTIE

criteria consisting of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant/result-oriented, time-bound,

intriguing/interesting and emotional elements can be used to formulate challenges. (Planbox 2017)

Specific means that the challenge needs to have a clearly defined goals that will not be misunderstood.

Measurable refers to challenges having measurable concrete goals, like units or percentages. If a

challenge is measurable it should be easy to determine whether the goal was achieved when the

challenge ends.

Achievable states that the challenge need to be solvable. Impractical goals can demotivate participants

to solve the challenges. Furthermore, it is vital that the challenge can be broken down into smaller

achievable steps.

Relevant / Result-Oriented means that participants need to understand why they should contribute

for finding a solution to the particular challenge.

Time-bound states that there must be a deadline for finding solutions for the challenges.

Intriguing or interesting means that participants should be offered an opportunity to learn, discover

and experiment with new concepts or technologies

Emotional states that a good challenge should have also an emotional appeal to the participants.

CDI tools and process

Tools of idea management, social network and collaboration as well as workflow management as

separate applications do not comply with the demands companies face to constantly innovate in the

competitive marketplace (Fig. 3). The CDI solution combines the different tools as a unified

information system.(Planbox 2016)

Figure 3. CDI tools (Planbox 2016)

Initial phases for implementing CDI consist of: 1) identifying key problems that need solving, 2)

piloting the challenge approach, and 3) measuring and analyzing the impact (Bonadio 2011)

Furthermore, according to (Bingham & Spradlin 2011), seven stages of CDI can be recognized as

follows:

1) Idea gathering in the open front end of the development process: Aggregating more

opportunities than there is capacity to manage in order to select the most promising one for

moving forward.

2) Filtering: Selecting the projects that best fit to development and marketing by the particular

organization.

3) Decomposition of a large, complex project into distinct models: Each of the dissected modules

of innovation can be characterized as a problem statement or challenge.

4) Channel distribution: Placing distribution channels for the modules of innovation.

5) Evaluation/confirmation: Receiving completed challenge modules from the distribution

channels.

6) Assembly and integration: Reassembling the individual challenge modules into a functional

whole for the markets.

7) Launch: Launching the new product, concept or service.

Strategic practice of CDI enables cost effective problem solving, diverse and faster approaches to

innovation, access to diverse global resources, enhanced risk management, accelerating innovation

and receiving results for investments as improved business performance and shareholder value

(Bingham & Spradlin 2011; Bonadio 2011). Ultimately, the CDI framework and methodology focus

on results in the form of solutions to drive tangible improvements (Bonadio 2011).

CDI centers the entire innovation activity on carefully formulated challenges that target the

organization’s community of employees, customers, suppliers or public members. The process also

ensures that reward and recognition systems are designed for motivating and engaging into the

innovation process (Planbox 2016).

Effective governance of the CDI platform is important, since it brings valuable intellectual property

to the platform, which will not happen without trust (Van Alstyne et al. 2016). However, (Torkkeli et

al. 2008) describes an example of The Mack Center for Technological Innovation (MCTI) in which

IPR are not specified since companies motive is to participate in the research based on early access

to the research data.

Digital platforms for CDI

Digital platforms for CDI derive from the realization that many organizations have ideas, but are

lacking solutions to discrete problems (Bonadio 2011). Knowledge sharing process involves the

knowledge source to use an online community system as a tool to effectively share knowledge with

a recipient (Sharratt & Usoro 2003).

Global innovation platforms function as ecosystem boosters for CDI by integrating innovative IT

solutions, strategic advice, matchmaking opportunities and a tool-set of customized services. The CDI

platforms share success stories and best practices, and help cities and companies in stating challenges

and talented minds in finding partners and funding. (Bonadio 2011)

Platform businesses connect consumers and producers to interchange high value through information.

Open innovation incorporates the business model as a source of value creation as well as value capture

(Chesbrough et al. 2006). New business models and innovation marketplaces are lowering costs and

creating an environment in which open innovation will soon dominate through better search

procedures and template agreements, in addition to sharing intellectual property and assets as well as

commodity exchanges (Bingham & Spradlin 2011). CDI can be facilitated by different IT based tools

(Fig. 3) (Hallerstede 2013).

Figure 4. IT-based tools for CDI (modified from Hallerstede 2013)

Examples of Finnish CDI actors

Finnish companies Industryhack, Nordic Innovation Accelerator, Orchidea Innovations, Solved,

Ultrahack and Viima are briefly introduced based on the information from the company websites,

including company introduction and examples of innovation challenges.

Industryhack, https://industryhack.com/

Industryhack has collaborated with large corporations and over 180 teams, in order to facilitate

hackathons and open innovation challenges since the beginning of 2015. A network of talented, tech-

savvy and experienced individuals and teams help companies create digital products and solutions

through intense hackathon weekends on-site. As a result, new project teams, innovations and

successful cultural change has happened in the Nordic organizations.

Challenges

Nordic Innovation Accelerator, https://www.nordicinnovationaccelerator.com/

Nordic Innovation Accelerator® is an international cleantech business network connecting

innovations with market opportunities and funding. The services include digital open innovation

platform and the Cleantech Venture Day® -event.

Nordic innovation Accelerator® offers an effective way for large corporates to find solutions for

renewal and a way for startups and SMEs to find new business opportunities, partners and investors.

Nordic Innovation Accelerator is also a founding member of a global network Global Cleantech

Cluster Association and is digitally connecting innovation hubs all around the world.

Challenges

Orchidea Innovations, https://www.orchideainnovations.com/

Orchidea Innovations is leading Nordic software company in the field on innovation management by

providing collaborative software for co-development, prioritization and implementation of

innovation.

Challenges

“If your strategy includes a new commercially interesting domain, you can focus the creativity of

your organization with innovation challenge to developing that strategic theme. Quantitative

objectives, gamification and well-designed communication ensures active participation that leads to

achievement of defined objectives.

In addition to collecting topic related ideas, challenges help internalizing the strategy as participants

are working on it with concrete task. A well-implemented innovation challenge is as well an excellent

way to boost organization's innovation culture and introduce the innovation process to the staff.

Challenges suit equally well short 2-day team campaigns and organization wide innovation

campaigns. You can easily target the participation by inviting the desired people, also outside your

own organization. Easy-to-use rights management ensures that participants outside your organization

see only the desired part of the innovation activities.”

Solved, https://solved.fi/

Solved is a cleantech advisory service and collaboration platform, tackling the world's sustainability

challenges.

The process starts by defining the challenges and finding the right experts. With the handpicked and

diverse team of experts, customers will work together to reach sustainable solutions. In the end,

Solved will deliver a solution package that responds to the challenge that was defined in the first step.

Challenges

Ultrahack, https://ultrahack.org/

Ultrahack believes that hackers have the power to change the world and find solutions to the biggest

challenges in a collaborative manner. Their mission is to build a community where the best talent and

leading industry partners could meet and collaborate towards future innovations, beyond a single

event.

Ultrahack provides an innovation platform for hackers, mentors and industry partners in order to

submit hackathon projects, find new team members and receive feedback. Ultrahack means intensive

hacking and pitching your solutions to partner judges and investors. Furthermore, Ultrahack

collaborates with Nestholma Accelerator that offers investments to promising Ultrahack teams.

Challenges

Viima, https://www.viima.com

Viima is an idea management software that drives business results in various situations. The use cases

have one thing in common: the ambition of gathering extensive creative input from stakeholders and

funneling that towards concrete actions to drive the business forward.

Viima enables organizations to utilize the vast collective intelligence of their stakeholders. Their

software engages people in innovation by encouraging users to express ideas, develop them further

together and advance them into concrete actions.

Challenges

“Using Viima connected our employees working on the field to the decision-makers at the

headquarters in a totally new way. It enabled us to quickly get important information from our clients,

customer service personnel and maintenance staff. We have successfully implemented many of the

shared ideas!

What I especially like about the tool is that it is totally independent of time and location: even the

remote workers can use it easily whenever they want on their mobile devices. Besides, I've always

felt that Viima is a partner you can trust, as demonstrated by both the product and their service.”

Kimmo Koskinen, Veikkaus

Benchmarking CDI platforms globally

There are several examples of CDI platforms from the literature (Bessant & Möslein 2011; Board of

Innovation 2017; Hallerstede 2013; Hulsmann & Pfeffermann 2011; Science2Society 2017; Verst et

al. 2016; Walters 2009), which are researched in more detail in the following benchmarking study.

Europe wide platforms are indicated below, whereas rest of the platforms have a worldwide reach.

Open innovation intermediary

platforms

Crowdsourcing platforms Co-creation platforms

Agorize Atizo (Europe wide) ENoLL

Battle of Concepts (Europe

wide)

brainfloor (Europe wide) GitHub

bluenove Brightidea HYVE

CauseTech.net Chaordix idClic

Cross Innovation (Europe wide) HeroX Ideeologen (Europe wide)

Fraunhofer-Ideenportal (Europe

wide)

Hypios CI iMinds

Get in the Ring InnoCentive IndustryHack (Europe wide)

HYPE / HYPE GO! OpenIDEO jovoto

IdeaConnection Passbrains Nimble Bee

ideas4all Qmarkets

IdeaScale/IdeaBuzz Spigit

Imaginatik Tricider

Innoget

innosabi

Innovation Exchange

Innoversia

Kaggle

NineSigma / NineSights

Nosco

OPENiSME

Presans

yet2

100% Open

Open innovation intermediary platforms

Agorize (formerly Studyka), https://www.agorize.com/en

Founded: In 2010

Range of the network: 5 million innovators worldwide (3 million students + 1 million developers +

300 000 startups, 800 000 employees)

Agorize is a cutting edge online open innovation challenge platform. They help communities of

innovators (students, developers and startups) to grow and develop by working with major companies.

Through Agorize, open innovation can be utilized through student challenges, online hackathons,

startup challenges, internal challenges or hybrid challenges.

Examples of challenges

Airbus: Using Airbus Defence and Space Earth observation data, thinking and conceiving a new

business, primarily based on satellite imagery, focusing on matters related to forestry, agriculture,

smart cities, maritime or other markets.

Groupe ADP: Involving startups and the most innovative SMEs in building the next generation of

infrastructure, resulting in airports that are both smart and eco-friendly.

Vinci: Transforming cities in terms of more human and connected, greener, fairer, more citizen-

focused and cultural as well as more sustainable.

Battle of Concepts, https://www.battleofconcepts.nl

Founded: In 2007

Range of the network: 10 000 students and young professionals

The platform provides innovation challenges from the private and public sector as well as the non-

governmental organizations. They offer the challenge and the innovators / startups have a chance to

provide solutions, win money, receive (start) capital, sign a contract or form partnerships.

Examples of challenges

SURFnet: Part of a ICT cooperation organization for education and research in the Netherlands,

ensuring that students, teachers and researchers have the best possible ICT solutions for working

together and developing their talents further.

Connexxion; Developing new and innovative service concepts that make public transport travelling

more enjoyable. Bluetooth beacons (hardware transmitters) are utilized in a Stappover App, showing

bus stops and time needed for switching busses, but further use cases and opportunities are studied.

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK): 1) Surveying knowledge of the

responsibilities and tasks of the city council and municipal councilor, and 2) Improving involvement

and becoming a candidate of people in their 20s and 30s in local politics and the city council.

bluenove, http://bluenove.com/

Founded: In 2008

Range of the network: Global community of thousands of people

Bluenove develops the methodological and intellectual capital of open innovation and collective

intelligence through strategic partnerships with international thought leaders in the field. Further, they

help their clients from the business world, the public sector, and civil society to deploy the best

practices in open and collaborative innovation. In June 2014, bluenove merged with Imagination for

People (I4P) that is developing a collective intelligence platform. The merger made bluenove the first

consultancy to have an integrated software solution designed specifically to support collective

intelligence within very large groups of several thousand people. With the support of this technology,

called Assembl, they can offer a tool to broaden the number of potential actors, both internal and

external, who can contribute to the innovation process.

Examples of challenges

GRDF: “Their methodologies and artful combination of theory and practice, and the innovative way

they view reality allowed us to quickly find a structured and well-balanced road to success.”

CauseTech.net, http://causetech.net

Founded: In 2015

Range of the network: 12 000+ high-level executives in 110 countries. Other partners and affiliates

include media and publishing groups, corporate R&D centers, universities, incubators, accelerators,

venture capitalists, angel investors, and serial entrepreneurs

UNICEF launched the CauseTech.net community and portal site where innovators, researchers, IT

professionals, academics and others can work together to solve some of the world’s most pressing

problems. The open innovation portal is dedicated to making the most of diverse and collaborative

thinking to identify, invent and adapt technologies to help UNICEF with its work in approximately

150 countries. Participants will be able to share ideas, discuss, and vote on solutions.

Examples of challenges

Access to water / education / alternative energy: Simple technologies have tremendous potential to

improve the lives of people in remote and developing communities, especially children. Yet

connecting these devices with the vulnerable and isolated villages most in need is difficult because

of awareness, cost and distribution challenges.

About 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6

billion people lack basic sanitation.

Today, 121 million children worldwide do not receive an education. Nearly a billion people

entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

1.6 billion people around the world do not have access to electricity. 85 % of these people live

in rural areas far away from the grid.

Cross Innovation, http://www.cross-innovation.eu/

Founded: In 2012

Range of the network: 20000 participants

Cross Innovation promotes collaborative and user-driven innovation that happens across sectoral,

organizational, technological and geographic boundaries. Its focus rests on policies and support

measures that enable cross innovation and creative spillovers between creative sectors and other

industries.

Examples of challenges

aws: Developing on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth at

national level a creative voucher system. This was designed to bridge the cooperation between the

creative sector and companies from other industry sectors, inducing as such cross-innovation.

Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES): Designed to take the best practice initiatives from

each institute and create a world leading academic facility for applied entrepreneurship education.

Fraunhofer-Ideenportal (TecScout),

https://www.venturelab.fraunhofer.de/de/fuer-forschende/tools/fraunhofer-

ideenportal.html

Founded: In 2015

Range of the network: 24 500 employees in 69 institutes and research units at locations throughout

Germany

Fraunhofer is Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization. Their research efforts are

geared to people’s needs, having an impact on their lives through health, security, communication,

energy and the environment. The platform transforms the future by being creative, shaping

technology, designing products, improving methods and techniques and opening up new views. To

find practical solutions to current challenges, Fraunhofer brings together forward-thinking

stakeholders from industry, the scientific community, and the public sector. They organize and

coordinate long-term collaborative work and foster productive synergies.

Examples of challenges

Working and fostering 2020: How can assistive technologies support a life as independent as possible

in old age?

Banks and future: Customers’ demands of their banks concerning bank-customer-relationship,

innovations, agility as well as efficiency require the development and the use of new methods and

solutions in organizing and in technology. With the innovation forum Bank & Zukunft, this challenge

is addressed with project partners on a new constitution of banks. The goal of this collaboration is to

explore and implement trend setting concepts and practicable solutions for the bank of the next

generation.

Get in the Ring, https://getinthering.co/

Founded: In 2009

Range of the network: 10 000 startups connecting with investors and creating a 1 000 000 wide fan

base

Get in the Ring organizes startup competitions in 100 countries. The enable innovators to compete

against startups, win awards, gain exposure and create a fan base to scale up business.

Examples of challenges

L’ORÉAL: Get in the Ring and L’Oréal Research & Innovation are looking for startups and small

enterprises with unique solutions in the areas of Personalized Beauty, Smart Materials and Delivery

Technologies.

Givaudan: Get in the Ring and Givaudan are looking for innovative solutions to give vegetable,

protein based, red meat analogue products a similar appearance as raw, cooking, and cooked meat.

To sustain food resources now and in the future, vegetable protein will progressively replace animal

protein. Givaudan is actively working on the development of plant-based red meat analogues which

need to mimic meat in order to be highly successful and appeal to meat lovers and flexitarians.

HYPE Innovation / HYPE GO!, http://www.hypeinnovation.com/home

Founded: In 2001

Range of the network: 200+ organizations worldwide (from Nicaragua and Australia to Saudi

Arabia and Sweden)

HYPE Innovation is a global leader in innovation management software and services, with over 16

years’ experience, a wealth of best-practice expertise, and clients around the globe. HYPE GO!,

powered by HYPE Innovation, enables small to medium-sized organizations and individual

departments of bigger enterprises to bring their employees, customers, or partners together to

collaboratively solve problems, make processes more efficient, and discover new opportunities.

Examples of challenges

Swisslog: A cornerstone of the new initiative was to establish an online corporate innovation

application, allowing anyone in the enterprise to share ideas for current business challenges and

opportunities.

IdeaConnection, https://www.ideaconnection.com/

Founded: In 2007

Range of the network: 14 000 vetted scientists and engineers

IdeaConnection builds solution teams from a secure network of brilliant experts. Each team is

managed by a world-class facilitator. By combining expertise and diverse perspectives, they provide

solutions and insights not normally achievable by individuals working alone. Only client challenges

that are assumed to be solved are accepted, since the focus is on productive success. With over 70

000 pages on its website, IdeaConnection has one of the largest collections of resources for open

innovation on the internet. The member base consists of scientists, technology owners and developers,

problem solvers and thought leaders, of which many are seeking to license or sell their technologies.

Examples of challenges

ABC Widget Company: Developing computer vision technologies for law enforcement, e.g., 1) rapid

analysis of video databases, and 2) video-based parking.

Nokia’s Big Open Innovation Challenge 2017 ed.: Looking for ideas, technologies and new business

models in Internet of Things that enable a smart, safe and sustainable world. These are concepts that

could improve cities by solving urban challenges, improve safety with technology and enable the next

industrial revolution with robotics, sensors and Long-Term Evolution (a standard for high-speed

wireless communication).

ideas4all, https://www.ideas4all.com/

Founded: In 2008

Range of the network: Community of approx. 310 000 innovators (107 458 ideas, 5 860 challenges)

Ideas4all is a creative online community for people who have ideas, and are looking for ideas. The

platform enables a personal space to share, save and organize ideas while being inspired by the

thousands of ideas shared by other users.

Examples of challenges

Nintendo “friend codes”: In the future, you could share all friend codes of each player with names in

an app of the Nintendo Switch consoles. The player would only have to look for friend codes with

the username and use it.

Selling disposable ecological paper ties for single use: Investigating the type of paper or similar

material that exists and fulfills the function of a tie.

IdeaScale / IdeaBuzz, https://ideascale.com/

Founded: In 2009

Range of the network: IdeaScale is the largest cloud-based innovation software platform in the

world with more than 25 000 customers and 4.5 million users.

IdeaScale’s platform for innovation challenges and contest software helps organizations reach

specific goals by involving the opinions of public and private communities by collecting their ideas

and giving users a platform to vote. These short-term challenge-based initiatives are campaigns that

focus member conversation and reward members for their contributions. Challenge homepages are

the submission collection point, after which the challenge submissions are weighted and evaluated.

Finally, the platform allows the organization to select and announce winners and implement the

innovations.

Examples of challenges

Crucial information at fingertips: Easier, better way to monitor hospital's electric network. This will

provide: 1) Cause and location of trip and/or component failure, 2) Metering, 3) Prevent nuisance

trip, and 4) Improve maintenance department performance.

Train arrival times posted outside of station: From the station closest to my apartment, I can take

either a bus or a train. It would be great to know how far away my train is before paying to enter the

station. Ideally, the stations would use the same digital clocks as are used at the platforms.

Imaginatik, https://www.imaginatik.com/

Founded: In 1994

Range of the network: Vertical expert networks

Imaginatik focuses on advisory, software, and analytics to help companies build sustainable

innovation capabilities. The platform facilitates clients master the discipline of innovation, with end-

to-end capabilities in enterprise software, computational analytics and human expertise.

Examples of challenges

Imaginatik has helped Goodyear in both internal and external innovation initiatives, they facilitated

open innovation at NASA Langley Research to source new ideas and concepts and Walmart’s project

in energy savings.

ICON: “Imaginatik has the most comprehensive innovation software platform in the marketplace.

Innovation Central enables innovation at all maturity levels that will transform your organization.” -

Jamie Tallon, Director of Product Innovation

Innoget, https://www.innoget.com/

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: The Innoget user community consists of thousands of specialists in their

fields

Innoget is the global open innovation network for innovative companies, scientists, startups and

experts in diverse fields. The platform offers a simple and secure opportunity to make trustworthy

contacts, initiate projects and to share knowledge about technologies as well as disciplines like

biosciences, chemistry, engineering and IT, with guaranteed protection of intellectual property and

confidentiality. The Innoget community benefits from free access to both innovation opportunities

and innovative technologies published by leading organizations from the scientific community and

the business world.

Examples of challenges

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): Seeking proposals for a small unmanned autonomous

surface vehicle to improve the working conditions of the inspectors.

Convestro: Seeking proposals for the efficient concentration and desalination of recycled brine,

including the removal of organic contaminants.

innosabi, https://innosabi.com

Founded: In 2010

Range of the network: The extensive APIs of innosabi crowd allow community collaboration in all

processes and even provide an immediate connection to over 2 million potential innovators around

the world

Innosabi crowd creates virtual spaces for interaction and idea generation on an unparalleled scale. It

enables collaboration with hundreds or thousands of employees, partners, and customers. It is a digital

tool to include all potential innovators at every step along the innovation and development process.

The innosabi platform technology creates large innovation networks and uses intelligent software to

connect the right people, detect innovative ideas, and identify valuable capabilities. They are focused

on providing a platform for companies to build their own innovation networks with customers,

employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Examples of challenges

Postbank: In a new Ideenlabor platform new services and products are developed with customers,

non-customers, partners, employees and startups.

Bayer: Intelligent algorithms, automated translations, optimal system integration options and first-

class user experience of the innosabi platform create state of the art innovation infrastructure.

Munich Airport: innosabi software provides the infrastructure for stimulating innovation in order to

exchange information and cooperate.

Innovation Exchange, https://www.globalinnovationexchange.org/

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: 19 123 collaborators (898 organizations, 5610 innovations created in 148

countries and implemented in 186 countries across 217 sectors and subsectors)

The Innovation Exchange is an open innovation marketplace that connects funders, innovators, users

and solution seekers and gives them the tools to maximize their ability to meet the largest, most

pressing development challenges.

Examples of challenges

The Toilet Accelerator India Edition: The challenge calls for applications from businesses that are

addressing the most challenging water and sanitation issues in the country. Some of the largest

multinational corporates like Firmenich, Lixil, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever support the Toilet Board

Coalition.

U.S. Mission to India: Seeking Proposals for Videos for Empowerment: The Public Affairs Section

of the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai (PAS Mumbai) aims to use the power of online videos and

social media, “Videos for Empowerment”, to raise awareness and call for action on important issues

to the U.S. government and its goal to strengthen U.S.-India bilateral ties.

Innoversia, http://www.innoversia.net/inicio-0.html

Founded: In 2000

Range of the network: 1 401 universities in 15 countries (Andorra, Argentina, Brazil, Chile,

Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic,

Uruguay, Venezuela), representing 10,1 million students, 8 million users and 850 000 university

teaching staff

Platform for universities and research and technology organizations to publish technological

solutions, establish contact with companies and stimulate innovation. It consists of 12 internet sites,

one for each country, and a global site that offers information and contents from across the network.

Examples of challenges

Optimization and simulation processes: Tools to support decision-making in industrial operations,

using mathematical models of optimization and simulation.

New selective membranes for CO2 separation: The objective of this project is the synthesis and

characterization of new materials of membranes selective for the separation of CO2.

Kaggle, https://www.kaggle.com/

Founded: In 2010

Range of the network: Community of data scientist

Kaggle is a platform for data prediction competitions that allows organizations to post their data and

have it scrutinized by the world's best data scientists. The platform facilitates hosting competitions of

real-world machine learning problems, exploring and analyzing high quality public datasets, and

running code in the cloud and receiving community feedback.

Examples of challenges

Passenger screening algorithm challenge: Improve the accuracy of the Department of Homeland

Security’s threat recognition algorithms.

Zillow Price: Zillow’s Home Value Prediction (Zestimate): Improve the algorithm that changed the

real estate world.

NineSigma / NineSights, http://www.ninesigma.com/

Founded: In 2000

Range of the network: 2 000 000+ solution providers (52 % businesses, 34 % universities, 14 %

government; non-profit; consultants; investors; other)

NineSigma's open innovation services connect innovation-seeking companies to the best solutions,

capabilities and partners around the world. Their services constitute of innovation impact as

breakthroughs that drive societal and business change, innovation solutions as options to address

innovation needs, innovation insights as context for guiding strategic decisions and innovation

capability as skills to enhance the innovation team. NineSights is a secure, collaborative community

connecting innovators with problems of all sizes.

Examples of challenges

Circular materials challenge, sponsored by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation: As part of the New

Plastics Economy Innovation Prize, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is asking the question how can

we make all plastic packaging recyclable? The Circular Materials Challenge is seeking alternatives

to non-recyclable multi-material films used in packaging.

Nike ease challenge: The Nike Ease Challenge focuses on designing a new, innovative footwear

solution that provides a more hands-free design and helps athletes of all abilities to more easily put

on, secure and take off their shoes.

Nosco, http://nos.co/

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: Millions of problem solvers through partnership with InnoCentive

Nosco is a social platform for ideas, helping companies to become more innovative. The platform

enables employees and customers to share ideas and collaborate to improve them. Nosco facilitates

the collection of ideas and has high customization on organizational needs in addition to good

usability. The four key features involve social (start of collaboration among participants), workflow

(specific stages for idea generation, measure (metrics of progress and performance) and manage

(handling people and ideas during the process).

Examples of challenges

Bühler: Nosco helped Swiss food production company Bühler develop and execute their annual

Bühler Innovation Challenge.

Danfoss: Danfoss uses Nosco to match ideas and people in their big annual business plan competition,

Man on the Moon.

OPENiSME, http://www.openisme.eu/

Founded: In 2015

Range of the network: 10 000 000 experts worldwide

OPENISME is a project co-founded by the CIP Programme of the European Union designed to help

unlock the innovation capacity for firms through partnerships primarily between SMEs and research

institutions. The OPENISME platform allows SMEs to find experts skilled on the very specific

topic of interest for the company. The improved precision of the matching brings several tangible

benefits for the company: The expert has a solid knowledge of the field and might already have a

solution to the company’s problem.

Examples of challenges

Typical use-cases start with an SME seeking to solve a business problem but not having the skills,

time or money to come up with a solution. In the first stage of the project, the open innovation

platform will harness automated matching through a concierge service to assist SMEs.

PRESANS, https://presans.com/

Founded: In 2008

Range of the network: 5 000 000+ experts

PRESANS is a Paris-based company, with operations all over Europe. The network of experts

organize worldwide calls for expertise to engage the best experts (and the most surprising) to bring

the insights their clients need for certain strategic or operational decisions related to innovation.

PRESANS’ offer stands apart through their focus on the integration of state-of-the-art web-mining

technology and high-quality services.

Examples of challenges

German home appliance company: The question was whether or not to develop a liquid atomization

technology (to create a cloud of droplets without heating up the liquid) for an upcoming product line

in order to save energy and to improve the user experience, and thus gain competitiveness.

Large multinational energy company: The company needed immediate support to back up a decision:

to industrialize or not a technology.

Qmarkets, https://www.qmarkets.net/

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: 2 000 000+ engaged users

Qmarkets offers a range of innovation crowdsourcing products to meet a wide variety of use-cases,

including idea and innovation management, continuous improvement and technology scouting.

Known globally for their flexibility, Qmarkets configures their product to suit the exact culture and

requirements of their clients.

Examples of challenges

Swiss Post: Utilizing Qmarkets’ software to meet a wide variety of their innovation needs. They

recently reported that the project had generated over $9.5M in value for the organization.

RTE: “Qmarkets’ platform has helped us respond to the needs and expectations of our employees,

allowing us to identify ideas which not only deliver financial gains but also improve the wellbeing

and safety of our workforce.” -Ronan Minvielle, Innovation Manager

yet2, http://www.yet2.com/

Founded: In 1999

Range of the network: Global network of 150 000+ marketplace users, syndication partners, 800

global brokers, online technical networks, social media and other promotional platforms

From an open innovation marketplace (the original crowdsourcing platform) yet2 has evolved to

become expert for providing proven services and methodologies for enabling clients to execute open

innovation successfully, and specializing in the acquisition of patents. With a team of skilled and

experienced professionals, yet2 understands the nuances of external collaborations between different

types of organizations, the critical importance of internal preparations, articulating technology needs

or technology value propositions and how to set deal expectations.

Examples of challenges

Method of improving mechanical properties: Seeking improvements in the mechanical properties of

aluminum that can lead to reductions in weight, reductions in cost or increased formability.

Electric motor technology: Looking for high power density electric motor technology for high voltage

(48V or other) systems.

100%Open, https://www.100open.com/

Founded: In 2009

Range of the network: Network of central team in London, associates network, advisory board and

partner agencies

100%Open creates new products and services by connecting organizations to the best people, ideas

and technologies in the world. Their 30-piece toolkit covers the whole open innovation journey from

setting a strategy for collaboration to implementing mutually beneficial business models. It helps to

make the case for open innovation and shows how to co-create or crowdsource relevant ideas,

prototype the best ones and construct strong partnerships.

Examples of challenges

Carlsberg: Efficiently launching Somersby Cider in Switzerland with local partners and a new hybrid

of crowdsourcing and word-of-mouth marketing to drive awareness and trial of an international cider

drink in a market where share of imported cider is 2%. The consumer co-creation crowd generated

insights, ideas and active participation in the brand’s launch.

INTERFACE NET-WORKS™: Making the supply chain more environmentally and socially

sustainable by using collaborative approach to business model creation in a series of global

workshops to align the motivations of Interface, ZSL and local communities and deliver a more

sustainable product.

Table 1. Summary of innovation networks / intermediaries approach (modified from Beer et al. 2014)

Provider Method Segment

Agorize Student / hybrid / internal / startup

challenges, online hackathons

Global major companies,

communities of innovators

Battle of

Concepts

Innovation and startup challenges for

students and young professionals

European private / public

sector, non-governmental

bluenove Support and consultancy services,

collective intelligence, smartsourcing

Various organizations and

companies

CauseTech.net Share ideas, discuss, and vote on solutions High-level executives, R&D

centers, accelerators, investors

Cross

Innovation

Policies and support measures that enable

cross innovation and creative spillovers

European stakeholders in

different sectors, organizations

Fraunhofer-

Ideenportal

Long-term collaborative work and foster

productive synergies

European stakeholders in

industry, scientific

community, public sector

Get in the Ring Startup competitions Startups and global enterprises

HYPE Running challenges with single parties or

multiple groups

SMEs, departments of bigger

enterprises

IdeaConnection Solution teams with a facilitator to combine

expertise and diverse perspectives

scientists, technology owners /

developers, solvers and leaders

ideas4all Personal space to share, save and organize

ideas Community of innovators

IdeaScale /

IdeaBuzz

Platform for innovation challenges and

contest software

Public and private

communities

Imaginatik Crowdsourcing, workshops, analytics Global companies

Innoget Trustworthy contacts, projects and sharing

knowledge

Innovative companies,

scientists, startups and experts

innosabi Virtual spaces for interaction and idea

generation on an unparalleled scale

Innovators and companies

around the world

Innovation

Exchange

Connecting funders, innovators, users and

solution seekers to solve challenges

Organizations across diverse

sectors and subsectors

Innoversia Internet sites for publishing technological

solutions

Latin universities and

organizations

Kaggle Data science and machine learning Community of data scientists

NineSigma /

NineSights

Challenges, contests, technology search,

innovation gallery, technology landscaping,

expert advisory

Companies, unis,

governmental institutions,

non-profits, consultants

Nosco Methodology consisting of stages: social,

workflow, measure and manage International companies

OPENiSME Information mining, challenges, experts

search and ranking, connectivity SMEs and experts

Presans Calls for expertise to engage the best

experts to generate insights Global companies and experts

yet2.com Consulting, technology scouting /

licensing, marketplace, patent transactions

Global1000, SMEs, capitalists,

research institutions, brokers

100%Open 30-piece toolkit (collaboration, beneficial

business models) Top-notch corporations

Crowdsourcing platforms

Atizo, https://www.atizo.com

Founded: In 2009

Range of the network: 25 000+ creative thinkers from all over Europe

Atizo is an internet-based brainstorming platform, in which forward oriented companies set up

innovation challenges to receive fresh ideas from their open innovation community. The platform

facilitates in transforming creative ideas into reality through a methodology of companies posting

challenges and rewards and innovators submitting ideas.

Examples of challenges

Crowderland: Creating a new ARROW cream product with new properties, fragrance and

ingredients.

Taalance: Searching for markets in which to provide services with qualified unemployed

professionals.

brainfloor, http://www.brainfloor.com/

Founded: In 2007

Range of the network: 6 580 registered users from different sectors (5 active ideas lounges, 2 845

searched posts, 41 878 submitted ideas)

The leading ideas and innovation portal in the German speaking region based in Tegernsee, working

with well-known trading and industrial companies. Their motto is: Fascinating instead of

discounting. The brainfloor team organizes the workflow process of the collaborative BrainClub and

selects the best ideas to present the companies.

Examples of challenges

Stiftung Domino: New business ideas for the Domino foundation for people with disabilities. Which

present or new business areas (services and/or own products) offer opportunities and can be financed?

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS): Developing new products and services at the customer

touch point, bringing additional economic returns.

duplo: Making the brand duplo a part of the customer’s life and the most liked brand - a Love-Brand.

Brightidea, http://www.brightidea.com/

Founded: In 2005

Range of the network: Partnership with IdeaConnection consisting of 14 000 scientists and

engineers

Brightidea offers a centralized innovation platform that employs the power of crowdsourcing to turn

ideas into reality. The innovation management software is a software-as-a-service (SaaS), accessible

via a web browser, for tracking innovation programs within organizations. The platform consists of

a comprehensive set of tools for innovation program leaders who have advanced knowledge in

harnessing open innovation within an organization where a record of different activities, from

hackathons to crowdsourcing to design competitions, are managed. The platform provides a complete

suite from idea collection to the execution of the entire program to global customers.

Examples of challenges

Autoliv: World’s largest automotive safety supplier Autoliv implemented crowdsourcing as their

novel innovation tool, Safety NET. After researching the innovation platform market and receiving a

supplier recommendation, the company selected Brightidea to run their innovation programs. The

goal was to find solutions to difficult company innovation initiatives by crowdsourcing ideas within

the company, and to demonstrate truly innovative and valuable insight derived from this new

collaborative approach.

Cisco: Critical platform requirements for Cisco included the ability for the platform to scale across

the enterprise, flexibility to accommodate all the different unique needs of business unit stakeholders,

and ease of use, both for platform administration and end users. They selected Brightidea’s innovation

program software and implemented it in 2007 as a response to these needs and requirements.

Chaordix, http://www.chaordix.com

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: Community of 75 000+ participants

Chaordix uses the power of crowdsourcing to help leading companies across the globe advance

innovation, engage with stakeholders and market their brands more effectively. The innovative crowd

intelligence platform enables companies to understand, engage, and co-create with customers,

employees and other stakeholders.

Examples of challenges

Rust-Oleum: With people passionate about paint and stain projects visiting its Chaordix-powered site

every day, Rust-Oleum soaks up the community’s commentary, dialogue, input and creative ideas.

Creator’s Studio helps Rust-Oleum build brand advocates while taking new and better products to

market, even faster.

HTC: Leveraging the Chaordix Crowd Intelligence™ platform to connect with thousands of

passionate users through an exclusive online community called HTC Elevate. Participants are invited

to provide early, honest input to HTC decision-makers before products are developed.

HeroX, https://herox.com/

Founded: In 2013

Range of the network: Community of problem solvers enabling breakthroughs

HeroX is a crowdsourcing platform through which innovators can help brands solve challenges. It is

a spin-off of XPRIZE, the leading organization solving the world’s grand challenges by creating and

managing large-scale, high profile, crowdsourcing competitions. The platform enables to re-arrange

the problems of companies, organizations and communities into a series of measurable targets that

innovator competitors need to achieve.

Examples of challenges

Customers such as Coca-Cola, Forbes, NBC

Hypios CI, https://www.hypios-ci.com/welcome

Founded: In 2015

Range of the network: 950 000+ experts across the world

Hypios CI combines intelligent crowdsourcing with competency discovery technology and human

outreach to deliver an optimal open problem-solving service. Hypios developed a semantic

technology that is able to identify business niches and skills to generate innovation and added value

across industries.

Examples of challenges

Treatment of olfactory nuisances: Submission deadline: Mon, 08/14/2017 30 000.00 EUR

Separation of inorganic and organic matters: Submission deadline: Sun, 08/06/2017 7 500.00 EUR

InnoCentive, www.innocentive.com

Founded: In 2001

Range of the network: 380 000+ global network from almost 200 countries (2 000+ external

challenges run, 3 000+ internal challenges)

InnoCentive offers crowdsource solutions from a diverse network of highly educated problem solvers

or internally within an organization. The platform facilities shifting from slow, expensive and

unproductive innovation to open innovation and crowdsourcing. Customer, referred to as a seeker,

contacts InnoCentive with a problem / need. Through their methodology, PhD educated challenge

experts help decompose and formulate the problem as a challenge, defining the problem, solution, IP

requirements and awards. The Challenge Driven Innovation™ methodology and purpose-built

technology result in fresh thinking and cost-effective problem solving with 16+ years’ experience.

Examples of challenges

America Makes: Seeking a wide variety of educational content in the area of additive manufacturing

(AM) for inclusion in a resource repository to be shared with other members of America Makes.

AstraZeneca: Looking for collaboration opportunities in the areas of digital health, e.g. big data,

wearable technologies and clinical trial enrollment, to develop healthcare.

OpenIDEO, https://stories.openideo.com/

Founded: In 2008

Range of the network: Community of 20 000 people

At OpenIDEO, people from all over the world collaboratively tackle some of the toughest global

issues in social development. Methodology of crowd competition is utilized to present challenges in

an online environment. Ideas to solve the challenge are requested from large groups of people with a

set of competences that match the needs of the challenge.

Examples of challenges

Disrupting the drivers of mass incarceration in Washington, D.C.: The OpenIDEO DC Chapter

organized a design challenge in partnership with local organizations and returning citizens to explore

ways to support residents affected by mass incarceration.

Water and sanitation challenge sponsored by Water.org: Uncovering solutions that expand water and

sanitation solutions among low-income households in India.

Passbrains, https://www.passbrains.com/

Founded: In 2011

Range of the network: Global community with thousands of software professionals, testing experts

and application users

With its Managed Crowd Testing -service, passbrains offers an innovative and competitive delivery

model for on-demand testing of mobile, web and desktop applications, and a large variety of digital

products under real-world conditions. The basis for the crowdtesting service is a web based

crowdsourcing and test management platform, hosting an exclusive, global community built and

managed by passbrains.

Examples of challenges

eBay: “Managed Crowd Testing is an excellent tool to further extend our quality assurance strategy

by adding test resources with the most heterogenous skill profiles, professional backgrounds and

cultural user behavior,”

Spigit, https://www.spigit.com/

Founded: In 2007

Range of the network: 6M+ employees at 500+ of the world’s most innovative companies use Spigit

to ideate

Spigit facilitates companies in using collective intelligence in the enterprises’ business challenges.

The participants in Spigit are familiar with the business, so businesses can receive valuable ideas for

product development and innovation from them. The community itself includes the employees,

partners, and customers.

Examples of challenges

Citi Banks on Spigit for Global Innovation: Spigit helps Citi engage it's 240,000+ employees to

achieve enormous return on investment.

AT&T uses Crowdsourced Ideation to Drive New Products: AT&T uses crowdsourced ideation to

drive new products, earning over $44M in seed funding.

Tricider, https://www.tricider.com/

Founded: In 2011

Range of the network: Different people from all across from different channels

Tricider is a free brainstorming tool for easy decision making with friends or in a team. Different

people from all across the world come together at one platform to collect ideas and find solutions.

The participants of a brainstorming are able to propose ideas, to evaluate and to vote structured

without the need to be at the same place. Tricider is the tool when it comes to getting consensus in

difficult questions or just deciding where to go for lunch, reducing mails, meetings and calls. The

mytricider account offers an opportunity to have all questions in one view, to edit, end and to remove

them.

Examples of challenges

What would you recommend to others in the digital preservation community to watch over the next

year? Facilitator and presenters will suggest their own examples of project, initiatives, and

developments to watch over the next year. The session will reference examples from presenters

during the week and build on examples provided contributed by attendees and in tweets from across

the digital preservation community.

Table 2. Summary of crowdsourcing approach (modified from Beer et al. 2014)

Provider Method Segment

Atizo 1) Call for innovators, 2) brainstorming in

the network, 3) evaluation of solutions

European innovators of

products and services in

general

brainfloor Collaborative BrainClub to generate ideas

for companies

European innovators / idea

seekers, German trading and

industrial companies

Brightidea People-powered innovation methodology Companies worldwide

Chaordix

Creative problem solving, design thinking,

systematic creativity, combined with

proprietary crowdsourcing

Leading companies worldwide

HeroX Crowdsourcing Various brands and innovators

Hypios CI Intelligent crowdsourcing with competency

discovery technology and human outreach

Companies and experts

worldwide

InnoCentive

Challenge Driven Innovation™

methodology and purpose-built technology

for crowdsourcing, PhD-level challenge

experts and innovation program managers

Solver network and seekers as

corporations / commercial

enterprises, public sector

agencies and non-profit

organizations from around the

world

OpenIDEO Crowd competition in an online

environment People from all over the world

Passbrains

1) Gathering market insights, 2) ideation

for digital roadmap, 3) design assessments,

4) field / crowd testing, 5) user experience

studies

Companies, software

professionals and testing

experts

Qmarkets Configuring their product to suit the culture

and requirements of their clients

Global network of users and

companies

Spigit Collective intelligence of employees,

partners and customers Innovative companies

Tricider Exchange of ideas / brainstorming to

facilitate decision making

Mostly individuals, e.g.

bloggers, educators, but also

companies

Co-creation platforms

European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL), http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/

Founded: In 2006

Range of the network: 170+ active living labs members worldwide (395 historically recognized over

9 years), including active members in 20 of the 28 EU Member States, 2 of the candidates and it is

present in 5 continents in addition to Europe

The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is the international federation of benchmarked living

labs in Europe and worldwide. Founded in November 2006 under the auspices of the Finnish

European Presidency, the network has grown in leaps. Directly, as well as through its active members,

ENoLL provides co-creation, user engagement, and test and experimentation facilities targeting

innovation in many different domains, such as energy, media, mobility and healthcare. ENoLL acts

as a platform for best practice exchange, learning and support, and living lab international project

development.

Examples of challenges

SPECIFI Project: Demonstrate how cities can overcome technological limitations, geographical

limitations and lack of sustainable business models.

The European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility (ECIM): Smart Mobility project, backed

by the European Commission, set to change the way we access and use transport services for the

better.

Living labs from all over the world can be found from the ENoLL site:

http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/livinglabs

GitHub, https://github.com/

Founded: In 2008

Range of the network: “Over the last nine years, our community has grown to almost 20 million

users, 57 million repositories, and 100 million pull requests.”

GitHub is a development platform enabling to host and review code, manage projects, and build

software alongside millions of other developers. It is the largest open source community in the world,

consisting of millions of open source projects. Through GitHub, both small and large companies can

develop their software. The process starts with opening an issue that is a discussion thread for

reporting bugs, requesting features and asking questions. GitHub team member will take on the job

and create a branch of the code, which is an alternate timeline for safely changing the software and

writing new features. GitHub tracks the changes and generates snapshots of the progress. Once

enough progress has been made, the team will collaborate on the changes after a pull request is

opened. The team members review and discuss the requested changes.

Examples of challenges

SAP: A group at SAP asked their managers to allow them to use GitHub for a project. By word-of-

mouth, developers in other groups at SAP noticed that GitHub let them share code and ideas to create

their own practical, agile workflows.

Groupon: “As our engineering organization grew, and we hired more engineers that were accustomed

to hosting their own code or contributing to open source projects on GitHub, it was only natural to

move our internal repositories to GitHub as well”, said Release Engineering Manager Seth Lochen.

“GitHub became part of our engineering culture organically and we embraced that cultural shift.”

HYVE, https://www.hyve.net

Founded: In 2000

Range of the network: The platform consists of approximately 98 000 participants

HYVE invents, designs and develops groundbreaking product innovations, services and business

models within an end-to-end process starting with customer insight generation in the fuzzy front end

of innovation and ending with series production and market entry. The activities are focused on value

co-creation with consumers who are always at the center of innovation thinking.

Examples of challenges

Co-creating the future of learning: Which loopholes are there in the current education system? What

specifically should be taught and in which format?

Artificial intelligence and smart networks: The aim of the current focus is to encourage the dialogue

between AI experts and jointly discover how artificial intelligence can enrich the sectors education,

energy, health, mobility and administration in the future.

idClic, http://acercadeorange.orange.es/somos-responsables/comprometidos-

nuestros-empleados/idclic/index.html

Founded: In 2010

Range of the network: 400+ employees, 200 experts

Orange’s IdClick is a cooperative idea management platform. It is an internal open innovation tool

used for collecting, evaluating, and implementing ideas from the employees for the development and

improvement of products and services. To recognize the efforts and reward those who have bright

ideas, they are highly regarded as “best practices” by the other Orange’s subsidiaries and celebrated

annually in an “International Festival of Ideas.”

Examples of challenges

The CEO of Orange, Stephane Richard, was interviewed about this seven-year-old platform.

According to him, their employees have 20 000 ideas a year, which highlights how valuable the tool

is for both employees and the company.

Ideeologen / The Ideaologists, http://www.ideeologen.de/

Founded: In 2000

Range of the network: Internal and external experts of an open innovation software for ideation

processes

Co-creation in practice and to developing companies further has been the expertise of Ideeologen for

seven years. They support companies in the development, design and implementation of co-creation

campaigns. Ideeologen and Innolytics merged to Innolytics GmbH that includes online marketing,

market research and innovation management in one software.

Examples of challenges

Vodafone Germany: Construction of the Vodafone Innovation Park and establishment of co-creation

approaches. This included strategy development, development and implementation of a

communication strategy (reorientation and revision of the homepage, compilation of articles),

addressing of potential partners, design of thematic areas and implementation of the program.

Nestle Germany: Developing new concepts for ready-to-use versions for the Maggi brand. Almost

200 so-called lead customers were invited to develop new products together with product developers

and experts from the Group. 100+ visualized ideas refined in a product development workshop.

iMinds, https://www.imec-int.com/en/livinglabs

Founded: In 2004

Range of the network: 3 500 researches (75 nationalities)

Imec offers researchers and entrepreneurs the chance to co-create and test their innovative solutions

thoroughly with their target audience and stakeholders. The involvement of the end users at an early

stage of the development process makes it possible to tailor the innovation from the outset to real

needs, habits, attitudes and contextual factors. Thus, products and services have a better chance to

success on the markets.

Examples of challenges

Growing a mobile microeconomy: Together with iMinds, the Flemish mobile service provider has

used that community to create Belgium’s largest living lab through its City of Things project in

Antwerp. They are connecting subscribers with developers and entrepreneurs looking to research new

products and devices, while rewarding the community with discounts, virtual currencies and special

offers for taking part in studies and surveys.

EduTablet: Aiming to improve students’ and teachers’ experiences through tablet use in secondary

education. Cronos came to iMinds to set up a living lab that would involve teachers, students and

educational publishers in the co-creation of educational apps.

IndustryHack, https://industryhack.com/

Founded: In 2015

Range of the network: 2 000+ professionals

Local IndustryHack enables to work with some of the most innovative companies in traditional

industries like manufacturing, energy, maritime, or construction, to help them co-develop new digital

services with the best software and analytics teams.

Examples of challenges

Hiab - Cargohack: 1) Make load handling easier and safer, 2) Secure availability of equipment, and

3) Take the lead in Intelligent Load Handling solutions.

Fiskars: Thing2Data (database of things) experimentation for designing and building digital services

for Fiskars gardening products.

Lassila&Tikanoja: 1) Improving facility management services to become more proactive and

customer feedback driven 2) Utilizing data from services and processes to create new facility

management services, and 3) Creating new data-driven business models for facility management.

jovoto, https://www.jovoto.com/

Founded: In 2007

Range of the network: 80 000 creative professionals globally

Jovoto enables large brands and non-governmental organizations to brainstorm at scale and solve

design and innovation challenges. The scale of projects ranges from a few hundred talents under non-

disclosure agreement to broad public audiences while turning the creative challenge into a media

event. The platform was founded in Berlin at the University of Arts and since then has successfully

organized more than 380 challenges.

Examples of challenges

Victorinox: Victorinox and jovoto’s global creative community are teaming up for the 7th time to

create a limited edition collection of the Swiss Army Knife! Each year designers and illustrators from

all over the world submit their designs for a chance of getting produced by Victorinox!

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS): Create one or more comfort area(s) for a train station

that makes spending time at the station more pleasant.

Citizens for Democracy i.G: Design an inspiring communication concept to activate people to take a

stance for the binding popular initiative.

Nimble Bee, http://www.nimblebee.eu/

Founded: In 2014

Range of the network: 1000+ participating students (30+ different universities, 18 different

challenges, 650+ submitted ideas, 31 intellectual property purchases by corporate)

The Nimble Bee competition is an online collaborative event, connecting the innovation challenges

of global businesses with the fresh ideas from students from universities around the world. The

competitions are series of iterations through a managed network of universities and consumer

communities, resulting in valuable new ideas for the companies, and experience in real-life business

for universities and students.

Table 3. Summary of co-creation platforms (modified from Beer et al. 2014; Bessant & Möslein 2011)

Provider Method Segment

ENoLL

Co-creation, user engagement,

experimentation facilities, in addition to

networking

Different regions and

industries interested in

working with living labs

GitHub

Hosting and reviewing code, managing

projects, and building software with other

developers

Small and large companies

HYVE

Innovation core disciplines, corporate

innovation labs, incubation and startup

building, innovation science

70 % of DAX companies,

international, SMEs, political

institutions, associations,

research centers

idClic Internal open innovation tool Corporate Orange

Ideeologen

CoCreator® tool for idea competitions and

workshops, developing business models,

products / services, training and consulting

Various German companies,

service sector

iMinds Pre-test, intervention and post-test

consulting and support

Researchers and entrepreneurs

in the field of digital solutions

IndustryHack Co-developing new digital services with

the best software and analytics teams

European / Nordic companies

in traditional industries like

manufacturing, energy,

maritime, construction

jovoto Brainstorming at scale and solving design

and innovation challenges

Large brands and non-

governmental organizations

Nimble Bee

Connecting innovation challenges of global

businesses with the fresh ideas from

students from universities around the world

Global businesses, and

universities and consumer

communities

Open innovation company cases

PSA Peugeot Citroën

The French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroën has adopted an open innovation strategy, including

building and managing relationships with a variety of ecosystems from individuals and business to

the academic world and institutions. As part of its relationship with the academic ecosystem, the

Group launched the StelLab network of OpenLabs and academic chairs in 2010. StelLab is designed

to strengthen PSA's scientific partnerships with publicly funded laboratories involved in the leading-

edge research. The OpenLab network operates worldwide to respond more effectively to the societal,

environmental and economic challenges associated with the car of the future, benefiting from the

shared human and experimental resources of PSA Peugeot Citroën and its partner laboratories. (PSA

Peugeot Citroën 2016) They have a goal of thinking about the future of the automotive industry,

particularly according to scientific advances. For example, a partnership has been established between

PSA and the Institute of Movement Sciences of Marseille. (Pierre 2014)

Coca-Cola

Currently, Coca-Cola is adopting open innovation models on levels between the team and other

entrepreneurs from one side and the company and its consumers from the other. The Coca-Cola

Accelerator program aims to help start-ups in eight cities around the world; Sydney, Buenos Aires,

Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Singapore, Istanbul, San Francisco, and Bangalore. Those start-ups aim to

think in innovative ways to build happiness of the Coca-Cola brand. (Elmansy 2017)

Coca-Cola’s program “Shaping a Better Future” allows internet visitors to suggest solutions to real

society problems, e.g. unemployment or the environment. Afterwards, Coca-Cola selects the best

project and offers its author $50 000 to implement the project. The winner is selected according to

the fundamental value of the project but also according to the number of received votes. In order to

obtain the greatest number of votes possible and improve their image, Coca-Cola encourages the

authors of the projects to share them on social media channels, especially on Facebook. (Pierre 2014)

LEGO

The Danish Lego company has utilized open innovation already for many years (e.g. MindStorms,

Lego Ambassador, Lego Design By Me formerly Lego Factory and the Lego Cuuso). In all of their

operations/programs, Lego makes a point of honor by having their fans in the Lego community to

participate in the evolution of their product lines. (Pierre 2014)

GE and Local Motors

GE collaborated with Local Motors to launch a new initiative aimed at co-creating for a new world

of home appliances (Pierre 2014). Last year in 2016, they announced Fuse

(https://launchforth.io/fuse/), a radical new approach to manufacturing that accelerates product and

technology development by combining open innovation with small batch manufacturing.

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