It seems every organization wants to tap into the ideas of
their customer.  A list of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) or Voice of the Customer (VOC) software
designed to accomplish this can be found below in today's blog entry.

Introduction.  We talk about collaborative innovation but
for the most part we mean 'internal' collaboration.  We think of getting all the smart people who
work for us assembled to collaborate on ideas.

With great frequency lately companies I talk to are asking
me how to open the innovation process up to those people outside of the
company.   

They want to know...

Best of Both Worlds.  Companies are trying to harness the intellectual
capital of their smart employees.   Internal portals dedicated to
collaborative ideation are perfect to manage the process.  Companies also have always wanted to gain an
understanding of what their customers are thinking.  They want to be able to harvest the great
ideas customers can generate.  Enterprise
Feedback Management software is ideally suited to capture the Voice of the
Customer, with the results ready to be brought inside for further discussion.

Intellectual Property
Security.  Once we go down this road of
opening things up outside of our safe, internal computing systems we start
worrying about the security of our intellectual property. 

Internal Innovation
Collaboration. Idea Management Software solutions serve a purpose.  They're usually very good as a clearinghouse
for ideas generated inside the company.  With
the right exposure and administration, ideas can be pushed in front of your own
subject matter experts and then they collaborate in order to enrich the
ideas; readying the best concepts for eventual production.  But the notion of opening up these same
portals to the customer base or to vendors or to the public is trickier.

External Innovation
Portals.   The idea management software
solutions themselves can be opened up to outsiders by presenting a different
portal view into the system.  With good
security administration, customers can see some parts of a challenge while
internal team can see more.  In fact the
portal presented to customers needs to be entirely intuitive (you can't train
thousands of customers, they have to be able to log in and figure out what they're
supposed to do).  And the customer facing
portal into the ideation process needs to be compelling and interesting and
alluring.

A great route is to hold an idea contest.  In this scenario customers are asked for
their ideas and typically a prize is offered for a winning idea based on the
most votes of all customers.  

Here's a sample external ideation portal designed to run an idea contest:

Software Designed For
Customer Feedback.  An alternative method to gain an understanding of what your customer is thinking is to use
software especially designed to capture their thoughts.  This category of technology is typically
called 'Voice of the Customer (VOC)' or 'Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)'.

How EFM Works.  These EFM software vendors use a variety of
methods to capture customer thinking. 
The very best of them reach the customer in every channel.  When a customer goes to a company web site a
pop up window may ask for feedback or ask the visitor to answer a survey.  This can happen during mobile phone visits as
well.  Obviously the formats for cell phone presentation
need to be scaled to size.  And
the entire process needs to avoid appearing intrusive.

The very best VOC software offerings also facilitate visits
to brick and mortar sites.  When the
customer goes to the company store they may see a Quick Response (QR) Code that
takes the customer to an online portal on their phone where they can provide
feedback.  A similar QR code can be
placed on the product packaging.

Here's a QR code on the right that takes you to a quickie survey I put
together on my resume web site to solicit your feedback:  

Some of the EFM software vendors are more geared toward
customer service and customer satisfaction, but their format is idea for idea
solicitation.  

Where Customer Data
Goes.  Once the customer feedback is
collected a couple of things can happen. 
One, Application Program Interfaces (API's) can grab the collected data
and put it into the company's internal idea
management system for further discussion. 
The very best customer ideas can then be enriched, promoted and turned
into realities.  

And two, the EFM software vendors typically provide wonderful
analytics to help assess the data collected.  

Three, frequently the decisions made on the collected data
can be used to push out a different web experience to the customer via
different software known as Customer Experience Management (CEM).  If we know the customers' interests are
trending in a specific direction the banners on the web site can reflect that,
as can other communication channels like email or banner ads on search engines.

EFM Software
Vendors.  Several years ago I
published a list of every idea management
software vendor I could find.  Along
with all the comments others added to it, the list became pretty comprehensive
and a resource for those researching their choices of software for idea
management.  

Here's a first go at exploring the leading software
offerings in the Enterprise Feedback Management space. 

The descriptions are gleaned from their web
sites.  The majority are Software as a
Service (SaaS).  Some of these focus on
customer service or satisfaction more than capturing ideas.  But they're all designed to solicit the Voice
of the Customer.  If you feel I missed
any please chime in by entering them into the comments section.

Summary:  Idea Management Solutions are perfect for
internal collaboration focused on innovation. 
Compelling portals with easily administered security can be configured
using existing internal idea management software solutions.  Specialized software exists designed to
encourage customers (and the public) to provide solicited feedback including
ideas.  Most software vendors in both
spaces provide Application Program Interfaces (API's) to facilitate integration
between each other.  

Excellent technology options exist for your company to
facilitate internal collaboration on innovation, as well as to include ideas
solicited from your customers.

Ron blogs researches and writes about enterprise technology
focused on social media, innovation, voice of the customer, marketing
automation and enterprise feedback management. 
Ron Shulkin is Vice President of the Americas for CogniStreamer',
an innovation ecosystem.  CogniStreamer serves as a Knowledge Management
System, Idea Management System and Social Network for Innovation.  You can
learn more about CogniStreamer here http://bit.ly/ac3x60 . 
Ron manages The Idea Management Group on LinkedIn (Join Here) . You can follow him Twitter. You can follow his blogs at this Facebook
group.  You can connect with Ron on LinkedIn.