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Due to the increasing impact of the Internet, social interactions, and the growing acceptance of social software, organizations are reacting to new models and technologies by actively soliciting feedback as a way to meet and manage the changing expectations of employees, customers, partners, and suppliers, according to IT research firm International Data Corporation’s (IDC) 2013 Innovation Management Solutions MarketScape report.
While the report profiles and ranks ten leading worldwide providers, IDC said the market currently has no leaders, as the majority of companies today that have deployed an innovation management solution have done so to solve either co-creation or open innovation but not both.
The report named Lithium, Spigit, Brightidea, UserVoice, Salesforce.com, Hype Idea Management, Imaginatik and IdeaScale as major players in this market, but noted Lithium and Spigit are the vendors closest to providing a holistic solution to meet customers broader needs, as the market for innovation management solutions has become highly fragmented.
“As competitive pressures rise, companies will increasingly look to innovation management solutions to help build a more agile business,” Vanessa Thompson, research manager for enterprise social networks and collaborative technologies at IDC, said in a statement. “Companies are now able to make many smaller changes based on feedback from employees, customers, partners, and suppliers that add up to larger, more significant changes and an overall more agile and innovative organization. Managing the complex processes associated with leveraging this feedback is where innovation management plays a key role.”
In addition to examining the key players in the worldwide innovation management solutions market, the report analyzes their current capabilities as well as longer-term strategies that impact their ability to service customers and gain market share. The research methodology utilizes a scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market, providing technology buyers with a foundation to allow companies to compare the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.
“Moving forward, it will be critical for innovation management solution providers to fulfill the growing customer demand for broader and more specific idea capture and management scenarios that tie together internal and external constituents, but also deliver end-to-end management of the ideas or feedback into action,” Thompson concluded.
In the related project and portfolio management (PPM) software market, worldwide revenue totaled $1.65 billion in 2012, up 11 percent from $1.48 billion in 2011, with Oracle maintaining its top spot, with revenue of $381 million, according to a recent report from IT analytics firm Gartner. Microsoft placed second in overall market share, posting revenues of $252.3 million and representing 15 percent of the market, with growth of 10 percent.