Some companies just don’t need fancy social tools to make their intranets effective; what works is what employees need. “Intranets hold up a mirror to the culture they serve.” That’s the ideal, anyway, James Robertson, managing director at Step Two Designs, told the hosts of the Intranet Benchmarking Forum’s monthly IBF Live broadcast this week. Each year, Step Two judges intranets from companies around the globe in its Intranet Innovation Awards. Robertson said the judging panel isn’t particularly interested in whether something “is just a cool idea.”

“It’s the value that it’s all about,” he said.

Source: www.ibforum.com Posted by http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 190 days, 20 hours, 2 minutes ago

The goal of any innovation, idea or continuous improvement is to ultimately increase profit (either through less costs or greater revenue).  The quicker an organisation (or a project within an organisation) can move from an 'innovative' state to an 'operational' state, the quicker an organisation can begin to reap the benefits. This article looks at how the intranet can help with this process.

Source: cibasolutions.typepad.com Posted by roowright 407 days, 4 hours, 8 minutes ago

Do you feel like me sometimes that you don’t get the recognition you deserve? Isn’t it difficult to win awards which recognise your intranet achievements?  Are you nodding your head like me to these questions? If yes, then you can do something about it!  Enter for the 2011 Intranet Innovation Awards now! The Intranet Innovation Awards are global awards that celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the enhancement and delivery of intranets.  This is your chance to win a global Intranet Innovat...

Source: markmorrell.wordpress.com Posted by markmorrell 750 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes ago

In part one of the Idea-driven Workforce, we discussed ways to engage employees in innovation and the five characteristics of effective employee innovation. In part two, we will look at operating a successful employee-driven innovation program in your organization — what works and what doesn't.

Pitney Bowes, a US$ 5.4 billion provider of software, hardware and services that integrate physical and digital communications channels with 33,000 employees across the globe, has long understood the connection between an engaged employee base, innovation and growth.

Source: www.cmswire.com Posted by Helen79 796 days, 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

Alongside the announcement of the 2010 Intranet Innovation Award winners, Step Two Designs has published the Intranet Innovations 2010 report. This features 15 detailed case studies of the winners and commended entries this year, and over 200 screenshots in full colour.

It's a must-have for intranet teams, who rarely get to see the work of others in their field.

I also think this year's Platinum winner, Canadian law firm Bennett Jones, has created one of the most sophisticated, fit-for-purpose and busi...

Source: www.alexmanchester.com Posted by AlexManchester 926 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes ago

We continue the list of finalists and winners with the management division -- internal applications aimed at employees.

We got a good crop of entries in this division as well, since companies are increasingly adopting social applications for internal use as well as with customers. The diverse management winners included the US military, Intuit (its second award this year), and a company that makes and sells cement.

• Employee Social Application
• Innovation System
• Collaboration System

Source: forrester.typepad.com Posted by bee 934 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes ago

Riveting article on Bloomberg / Businessweek about how leaders really don’t want employees to innovate. Rather: “Businesses need most of their workers to carry out their primary duties with enthusiasm and consistency,” writes Pat Lencioni”

As to how organizations should lead and execute, the article opines in two seperate areas:

“What should leaders do? Be more open to new ideas from employees? Probably not. Better yet, they should stop overhyping innovation to the masses and come to the realization that only a limited number of people in any company really needs to be innovative

As heretical as that may seem to those who want to believe that "innovation is everyone’s business," consider that even the most innovative and creative organizations need far more people to be dutiful, enthusiastic, and consistent in their work than innovative or creative.

If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I’m all for respecting the realities of how organizations operate today and...

Source: www.pretzellogic.org Posted by bee 994 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes ago

Most great ideas for enhancing corporate growth and profits aren't discovered in the lab late at night, or in the isolation of the executive suite. They come from the people who daily fight the company's battles, who serve the customers, explore new markets and fend off the competition.

In other words, the employees.

Companies that have successfully made innovation part of their regular continuing strategy did so by harnessing the creative energies and the insights of their employees across functions and ranks. That's easy to say. But how, exactly, did they do it? One powerful answer, we found, is in what we like to call innovation communities.

Source: online.wsj.com Posted by support 1002 days, 18 hours, 19 minutes ago