Managing Innovation with Idea Management Software

Wikipedia defines innovation as “the development of new customers’ value through solutions that meet new needs, inarticulate needs, or old customer and market needs in value adding new ways.” This can be achieved by bringing in more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas. Among all other types of innovation, it is the innovative management solution that ensures that a product’s cost-to-manufacture and time-to-market are reduced, while keeping cutting edge quality.

For instance, let’s look at the innovative process put in place by Mahindra & Mahindra, a major automobile company in India. They created a new segment to retain their market domination by adopting a unique innovative production process called IDAM - Integrated Design and Manufacturing at a time when they were witnessing the loss of market share and entry of new players in the scene.

The IDAM team consisted of cross-functional teams including suppliers, who catered to every aspect of product development; from design and testing to vendor development and marketing. With an investment of USD 120 million - just one-fifth of what a world major would have spent on a similar-sized project - and a team that consisted of 120 people drawn from different departments such as design & development, testing & validation, marketing, manufacturing and supplier development, M&M developed a successful product ‘Scorpio’  that captured a major share of the MUV market in India.

M&M developed 74 Scorpio vehicles for testing purposes and since they used the Simultaneous Testing and Examining Process (STEP), they tested and retested every component until they were satisfied. The result was that the car won three prestigious awards namely the "Car of the Year" award from Business Standard Motoring as well as the "Best SUV of the Year" and the "Best Car of the Year" awards, both from BBC World Wheels. Within 9 months M&M was able to achieve its target of selling 12,000 vehicles.

M&M’s method of managing innovation fairly sums up the benefits of bringing in innovative ideas into manufacturing. According to Harvey S. Firestone, American industrialist founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., “If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life. Ideas are any man's greatest asset.” And it is definitely true. Since without innovation, there would have no assembly line manufacturing, no hybrids, and definitely no electricity.

Hence, in today’s competitive business environment what manufacturing companies need is idea management software to launch, monitor, manage and screen innovations and ideas. This helps to ensure that superior and viable products reach the market.

Read More About: idea management, idea management services, innovation products

 

Choose Success over Failure with Idea Management Systems

To survive in the competitive business environment enterprises need to continuously innovate that can be with the help of new inventions, new product development, innovation in products and services and their marketing strategies.  Every innovation or invention is based on ideas which is gathered from various sources and developed into a product to benefit the enterprise and its customers. However, with technological enhancements there is an increase in customer awareness, leading to  increase in the demands for better products and services.

 

Innovation in any form, either a modification in the existing product or the development of new product, services or techniques, needs ideas. For most organizations, innovation also includes reinventing and restructuring of the processes or even developing innovative management solutions. Organizations are thus looking for ideas from both internal and external sources. The advent of the internet has enabled the enterprises to crowd source ideas from a diversified group. All the ideas that flow into the idea funnel may not fit into the organization's goals and objectives. Therefore, use of efficient idea management system will help enterprises create innovation products that meet customer requirements and organizational objectives.

 

The idea management system which is defined as a structured and disciplined approach to managing innovation facilitates enterprises to   manage ideas and implement innovations with clear milestones and metrics.  Ericsson implemented a collaborative  self-organized idea management system at Ericsson - ‘IdeaBoxes’ in 2008 that facilitates all employees innovate everyday across the organization.  Since its inception the participation has grown gradually through viral marketing. It is up to each innovation manager to decide if they want to use the tool to help them gather and manage ideas relevant for their innovation efforts.

 

IdeaBoxes has been a great success and has had an unbroken growth since its inception. This system has helped the multinational enterprise with diverse innovation needs across locations to channelize the ideas captured from multiple sources as per requirement.  Further, the adoption of these Idea Boxes as a concrete tool for managing ideas by managers has resulted in the generation of more than 15000 ideas, collections of 30000 comments from over 10000 users as collated by July 2011. A large number of ideas have been implemented and used for new product development and innovation in services and processes across the organization.

 

With the difference between success and failure resting on a single idea, the web based idea management system from the leaders of the industry opens up a large space for customers partners as well as vendors to be involved in the development process.   Further, it facilitates enterprises to manage the idea generation process for capturing, collaborating and assessing of ideas. The idea management software benefits the enterprises with competitive products and services, process improvements leading to enhanced brand value.

 
Read More About: idea management solutions

 

Protecting Your Brand From The Counterfeiting Threat

Brand Protection is a key element for any successful company. A company's brand and trademark are worth protecting for the sake of employees, existing and prospective clients, and the future of the company. The  brand is one of the most important assets for every organization and like any other asset they need to be protected. Organizations irrespective of the type of business,  normally spends millions of dollars and years  of hard work to develop their brand. However,  as soon as they make it, counterfeiters come along and steal their intellectual property.  One of the most visible aspects of enterprise brand protection is the constant battle against the counterfeiters. Any successful brand runs the risk of someone producing a replica product using their styling, design or colors. 

An organization’s brand not only comprises of its trademark, but also its product range, trade dress and its marketing strategy. The intellectual property being one of the most critical components of intangible assets that a company owns, it is essential to secure the  brand from the adverse effects of trademark and  brand valuation and other forms of brand abuse. Today there are many who don’t understand the effects that theft of intellectual property have on a company. It not only represents potential lost sales, but also diminishes  the  value and truly tarnishes the brand. The bottom line is that you are taking someone else’s property without their permission. Theft is a theft. 

Why protection solutions have become a necessity 

The counterfeiting industry is booming and it’s not just the consumer goods market that is affected. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in counterfeit prescription drugs, car parts, and technology such as cell phone batteries flooding the market. It's important that any company that is investing in its brand make the effort to monitor their company, brand, product and executive names online. Withcounterfeiting of goods being  a huge problem for businesses, effective anti-counterfeiting solutions are essential.  As more companies outsource production to foreign countries, they lose control of their designs, plans, processes, trademarks and copyrights. The reason manufacturers work so hard to combat the counterfeiters is to protect their brand and keep their reputation for a quality product. 

Choose the right solution 

In order to overcome these issues, solution providers have come up with brand protection solutions. These solutions operate from a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform offering a dynamic day-to-day visibility into a huge selection of market intelligence data that can be utilized to recognize suspect products and companies. This visibility helps in taking proactive measures to combat counterfeiting before it impacts the company’s bottom line. Ensure your brand retains its equity in the face of infringement, choose your brand protection solution wisely. 

Read More About: enterprise risk managementbrand managementgray market

Protect Your Brand from Counterfeits With the Right Solution

Every organization understands the importance of their brand and  are sensitive about their brand image, which is much more than just a trademark.  The production and sale of counterfeit goods is a multi-million-dollar business with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development approximating the value of counterfeiting to be in the range of $250 billion per year. The predominance of the counterfeit activities has been a major cause for all the brand dilution activities, as this results in  lack of consumer trust and satisfaction, revenue loss and a tarnished brand reputation. A brand is  an enterprise’s identity that reflects its intrinsic nature and character, and therefore, any erosion in the brand’s image is difficult to recover from.

Hence, companies today require effective anti-counterfeiting solutions to completely and effectively secure their brand. Many brand protection solutions that are available today are not equipped with detailed product anti-counterfeiting features and  merely scan the internet for any kind of brand and trademark abuse. Therefore, it has become crucial for organizations to realize the importance of their brand and need for  total protection from brand counterfeiting. Advanced anti-counterfeiting solutions have superior search capabilities and are appropriately designed for counterfeit detection in multiple industry verticals. Apart from detecting counterfeits they can also  successfully shut down illegal operations.

Not only do these solutions help in detecting and tracing the brand violators and responding accordingly, but these solutions are also equipped with innovative search capacities that are appropriately designed for   detecting counterfeits across industry verticals. Leading service-providers offer cost-effective brand protection solutions that use advanced search technology to monitor activity for any number of products globally. It picks up pricing, discount percentages, and quantities for each product and helps to quickly identify the companies that cause loss of revenue, brand and customer satisfaction.

Besides delivering competent and convincing results, these solutions are completely equipped to easily stop the revenue, profit and brand  reputation erosion caused by counterfeits as well as regain margins lost to channel violations. Genuine businesses encounter a delightful restoration of their operations without affecting their costs as these cost-effective solutions leverage the prospects for the genuine businesses to experience favorable returns. Therefore it is imperative to invest in an effective anti-counterfeiting solution that can be implemented without any delay. The solution must also enable end users to view this data in the form of user-configurable charts on their dashboards and provide an organized company risk index that marks the suspects and highlights them.

Read More About: enterprise risk managementbrand managementgray market.

 

How to Combat Grey Market Sales?

 

With the rise in online shopping and eCommerce, there has also been an increase in gray market products that are sold through these online portals. Simply put, gray market products are generally illegal and are sold outside the original distribution channel of an enterprise with no consent from the original manufacturer. Going by the nature of the gray market, it becomes complicated to keep  track of the exact sales at the source.

When you are browsing the internet for your choicest cosmetic product or mobile accessory you come across numerous websites selling them. At the first glance the offer might look attractive and authentic along with the discounts and services offered but the chances of these being gray market products are high. This indicates that there is a huge chance that the mobile, cosmetic or lifestyle good that you choose online might be faulty or have crossed the expiry date and have been remarked. Therefore, one needs to be cautious before purchasing them.

Gray market products lead to disruptions with the authentic distributions in the sales channel. The original partners loose revenue to the gray market sales. Furthermore, it makes an original enterprise lose its brand reputation, market share and consumer goodwill. Hence, companies today are looking for effective ways to combat gray market sales.

Industry Solutions to Combat Gray Market 

Service providers specializing in online brand management and protection solutions have come up with high-end SaaS based software that enables end-users to combat gray market sales. The software monitors the open market on an end-to-end basis for buy/sell listings of goods and part numbers making use of advanced search agents. These search agents track detailed market data from a wide range of market types that is comprised of the following:-

  • Franchise and large distribution websites

  • Independent and gray market web sites

  • Email-based forums that aggregate buy/sell listings

  • Trade boards

  • Auction sites

  • Chat

  • B2C sites

  • Blogs

  • B2B sites

This software has the capacity to directly deliver the data via a website to the end user in a compact, multi-dimensional market intelligence format. Using this format the end users can attain personalized dashboards, custom report views and even set up user formatted export files. All the essential information is accessed and used within an intuitive interface. This further helps the investigators to manage and develop case histories, assess evidence and understand the link between partners, suspect companies and other associated contacts better.

Over the years, the internet has acted as a pivotal medium in giving rise; to gray market sales. However, resorting to advanced brand protection solution will enable you to steer clear of gray market sales. 

Read More About: enterprise risk managementAnti-Counterfeiting

 

Enhance Delivery Capabilities with Efficient Supply Chain Solutions

Global markets are expanding beyond borders, thereby changing the way demand and supplies are managed. Global companies are propelled by markets across continents and efficient supply chain solutions are vital to business organizations today. And with the increasing  complexities of trade, supply chain solutions are also getting highly sophisticated. For improved flexibility and future growth and fueled by global competition and changing market dynamics, supply chain managers are seeking new solutions that better position their organizations.


Successful and reliable supply chain solutions offer the much needed relief in streamlining infrastructure, and in disciplining operational progress in the entire process. Advancement in technology has made it easy for organizations to customize the supply chain depending on the need of the organization. Effective supply chain management ensures the delivery of the right product in the right quantity and in the right condition with the right documentation to the right place at the right time at the right price. The two important facets of revenue recognition are availability of products and sound market coverage. Both these are dependent on sound implementation of the supply chain strategy. The modern day business scenario is characterized by increasing complexity, competition and territorial business opportunities.


Supply chain management solutions help in reducing inventory, increasing the speed of transactions, efficiently fulfilling customer demands. Owing to the ongoing improvements and broadened scope in personal computing that has made it possible to optimize the supply chain performance. Strengthening the supply chain cycle is the key to attaining operational excellence and business success.  A company can achieve great benefits with an efficient and effective supply chain management.


A global supply chain solution will take into account coordinating all the different pieces of this chain as quickly as possible without losing any of the quality or customer satisfaction, while still keeping costs down. Ideally all the members of the channel, from suppliers to end users, coordinate their business activities and supply chain processes to minimize their total costs and maximize their effectiveness in the market.  


Partner with a reputed service provider  who can capture your supply chain processes, goals, and key metrics to understand what you wish to achieve in terms of meeting supply challenges and making improvements. It is essential that they have the experience and know-how to keep your supply chain at top efficiency while also keeping costs low for your company. Choose your solution with care as the right  supply chain solutions can improve a firm’s profitability, better customer relationships, and enhance delivery capabilities effectively.


Related links - rack integration &  Reverse Logistics

Reverse Logistics - Creating Environment Friendly Enterprise

The business environment today is abuzz with a number of operational activities. The supply chain and logistics activities being the backbone of every enterprise  brings in  success through higher returns, profit margins, better customer service and loyal customers.  Nevertheless, the evolving business models as a result of globalization and technological enhancements are partnering changes in the supply chain activities of the enterprises.


The supply chain solutions of the modern day business are not just focused on the management of the raw materials and products from the manufacturer to the distributor but extends to see the satisfaction of the customers and end-users. This aspect brings in another angle to customer satisfaction and extends the supply chain process to reverse logistics. Referring to all operations involved in the reuse of products and materials, Wikipedia defines Reverse Logistics as "the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal”.


Reverse logistics today is a phase in the product's lifecycle. Also termed as Aftermarket supply chain this includes logistics, warehousing, repair, refurbishment, recycling, managing e-waste, call center support, reverse fulfillment, field service activities. The reverse logistics involves movement of  finished goods from  the customer or end-user to the manufacturer due manufacturing defects, warranty returns  or unsold inventory. With re-manufacturing, refurbishing and recycling included as a part of the reverse logistics planning, this aftermarket activity helps to understand customer requirements, recapture  value as well as saves on money and environmental resources by ensuring  proper disposal of unused goods.


Today the globalized enterprises  locate their  manufacturing units in area with lower labor costs, and warehouses  at places close to shipping zones so as to reduce the internal transportation costs. The movement of finished inventory or parts of finished goods thus involves a global supply chain. With reverse logistics facilitating effective returns management ,manufacturing enterprises can now pull out their products from areas of low demand to those with higher demands thus ensuring that all their products are sold irrespective of  the markets.


However, since reverse logistics is still a new concept being accepted slowly by the larger business population, not all supply chain solutions are ready to handle the returns. Nevertheless, leaders in the supply chain and logistics industry have designed integrated systems which will aid the returns process in an efficient manner. With the use of trusted returns management solutions they provide their clients speed, real-time visibility and efficiency in dealing with inbound product and help in minimizing volume of return inventory.


Related links - Rack Integration

Address Translation Challenges with Enterprise Translation Solutions

Website translation is no more an option that only large scale companies can invest in. Today it has become compulsory for almost every organization, mid scale or start up ventures that wants increased brand awareness and maximum web traffic, leading to successful business expansion. Majority of Google search results display page translation options, especially if it is an ecommerce site or a corporate website. The reason being global brands today want to reach out to their potential consumers around the globe. Language is not uniform across the world, hence it is essential for companies to be able to converse or share their product and service details, and brand messages in foreign languages as well. This is the reason why most companies are deploying efficient website translation technologies.


Challenges of Language Translation


Today majority of multinational companies need to translate their bulk content successfully to manage global expansion. However, they often face bottlenecks that results from wrong language translation procedures. Companies that cannot detect these loopholes often get caught up in tedious and continuous translation assignments that are error prone and lack the professional erudition. This automatically leads to unwanted delays and costly overruns.


Keeping these aspects in mind, language translation service providers have introduced advanced enterprise translation solutions/software. These companies have a wide translation network including thousands of translators located globally having experience in hundreds of language. This enables them to take on any project of any vertical and size. The software further offers bilingual speakers with contextual translation of phrases and words, instead of the conventional sentence-based translation that results in grammatical and syntax errors. This helps in reducing the localization cost up to 50 percent and increasing the translation speed. Other benefits that the software offers are:


* Efficient terminology management that helps to maintain messaging precision and consistency

* Automated language translation that can be utilized as a springboard using professional editing

* A translation memory that helps in content-recycling through recurrent projects

* A project management dashboard and instant reporting that helps to streamline team coordination


Furthermore, the language translation services also offer a collaborative translation platform that helps in translating bulk content quickly and cost-efficiently utilizing high-end translation software technologies, community collaboration and a systematic workflow management. It also allows you to implement an onsite system of your own so that you can supervise the overall translation process. This enables you to translate the content and effectively cooperate with your community to save money and time.


Related links: Translation Software Solution, Language Translation Solutions

Make Your Website Meaningful With Enterprise Translation Solutions

If the language of a website is incorrect, then its total content tends to have a different meaning than what is originally intended. If this is not corrected then the online audience gets the wrong message about a brand that in turn affects its public image, web traffic and revenues. Therefore, it has become imperative for enterprises, especially the ones planning business expansion to resort to professional translation services to make their corporate websites comprehensible and meaningful.


Recently, language translation along with the interpretation industry has been described making use of terms such as “translation”, “globalization”, “localization” and “internationalization”. In addition to that, the very phrase “going global” is no longer new. In fact, it has become a way of life. Most enterprises today are expanding their operation base round the globe and venturing into untapped territories. They touch base with foreign consumers speaking multiple languages demonstrating their products, services and brand mission. Legal documents and contract forms are being exchanged between countries specifying the terms and conditions of business and litigation policies.


Hence with all these exporting and importing transactions, interpreters and translators are transferring documents, manuals, conversations and agreements from the original language source to the target language. In case there is a communication breakdown then it will lead to commercial break offs, automatically leading to monetary losses and loss of vital business opportunities. All these aspects, heightens the importance of professional language translation solutions.


In order to aid the situation, service providers specializing in professional translation services have introduced innovative enterprise translation solutions. These companies with their own translation network of thousands of translators situated globally can accommodate assignments of any domain and size. The solution also provides bilingual speakers with contextual translation of words, sentences and phrases than a generic sentence based translation that is error prone. This minimizes the localization cost by 50 percent and maximizes the translation speed. Few other benefits include:


* Terminology management that helps in messaging accuracy and consistency

* Translation memory helping in content recycling through successive projects

* A project management dashboard and instant reporting that streamlines team coordination


Apart from this, enterprise translation software also provides the companies with a collaborative platform that facilitates huge amount of translation in a quick, trusted and cost efficient way utilizing innovative translation technologies. It also results in proper workflow management and community collaboration. Implementing an onsite server of your own indicates having complete control on the overall translation process. Furthermore, you can also supervise every step of this translation and cooperate with your community to save time and money.


Related Links: Translation Software Solution , Language Translation Solutions

Train Your Employees about Phishing Attacks

The cyberspace is a mix of scopes, opportunities as well as security hazards. Development in internet technology has resulted in various kinds of cyber attacks in the form of malware and virus attacks. The most talked about one today is Phishing, which is an after effect of social engineering.


Phishing attacks have been making rounds with eminent brands. The Hotmail Phishing news was a much talked about incident when this global brand encountered a situation with more 10,000 hotmail passwords getting violated by hackers, cyber criminals and other third party intruders. This is the reason why enterprises and individuals are required to update their employees with regards to the essential guidelines that are required to be followed in order to stay protected from Phishing attacks.


The media reports on this mass Phishing attack indicated the vast number of accounts that got compromised. The majority of attacks resulted in the loss of vital data that was official, private and financial. According to Paul Wood, a senior analyst for Symantec asserted on Phishing attacks through and said that “A user's unique email address is often used to authenticate a number of Websites, including social-networking sites and instant messaging on a public instant messaging network”. Wood also came up with the following advice “If your e-mail address has been compromised, not only should you change the password there, you should also change it on any other site that uses that email address as a login ID.”


The recent reports on Phishing awareness campaigns suggests the increased number of security breaches. The people’s control is one of the crucial areas to focus on as Phishing attacks are generally aimed at unsuspecting users. Furthermore, the process control and technology also need to be implemented but will be of no use in case the people’s controls are weak. Standard Phishing protection mostly addresses the “process and technology” part of Phishing Security. However, the modern day solutions efficiently address the “people’s risk” factor. The recent trend has been towards an “incident based” reactive approach towards Phishing.


Service providers today have come up with anti-Phishing software that aims in taking proactive measures to update the users and employees about Phishing attack and enable them to detect these attacks so that they can avoid them in future. The solutions help in gauging the response to simulated attacks and then prepares a detailed action plan depending on the responses. This helps a company to set up a sound anti-phishing strategy.


Read More About: anti phishing tool,  protection from phishing, Simulated phishing attack