Driving innovation using enterprise crowdsourcing

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is emerging as a critical source of information and knowledge in contemporary enterprises. In an era of global competition and where “CIO” is increasingly being used to refer to “Chief Innovation Officer,” facilitating enterprise innovation is becoming more and more important. This paper presents a case that is designed to illustrate the use of a crowdsourcing tool to gather data from an enterprise’s crowd to facilitate generating innovative ideas and help manage innovation knowledge. The case presents the basic system design and provides screens to illustrate its use. The case also examines how two firms have used the tool in the banking and consulting industries. Finally, the case examines some potential challenges associated with systems of this type.