platform for business innovationinnovation is a key concept and a current search for most companies...

Platform for Business Innovation

Innovation on Business

Sense of Intent

Key Facts

Platform for Business Innovation Juan de la Rosa

Currently most design companies are being contacted to provide services beyond the typical communication or product practices.

The main concern on contemporary businesses is their ability as a company to face the new challenges like the ones brought by the digital era, the constantly changing markets and the emerging start-ups that are arriving with the flexibility to adapt to more uncertain situations.

According to several perspectives exposed on academic publications like Ned Hamson’s (2004), achieving a state of innovation is very complicated. In his article Hamson exposes the different problems that companies that are searching for innovation face when they try to imple-ment it on their businesses. This effects are mostly connected to the inability of companies to transform and embrace innovation as part of their day-to-day culture.

Most companies have recognized that innovation is possibly the best way to face the constant changes of the market. Nevertheless, companies carry strong misconceptions about the real sense of innovation an on the way to implement it on their businesses.

From this initial approach it is clear that the need for a better set of tools for companies is arising, and design should be able to propose ways to build a better unders-tanding of innovation.

Hamson, N. (2004). Why innovation doesn’t work: and what to do about it. The Innovation Journal 9 (1), 1-7.


Analysis & Research

SurveysAs part of the process to understand the current situation of innovation on companies and the common misconceptions they have when they face the idea of innovation and the possible ways to implement it as part of their common cultural practices, we decided to collect informarion from three designers that are currently working on some of the most important design firms in Chicago and ask them about their experience with their clients regar-ding innovation.

These are some of the results:

I am Paul... working for a business design consultant firm

Q: Paul, what is your definition of innovation?

A: It's an ill-defined word with many interpretations. Often it appears that they are thinking of incremen-tal innovation based on product feature changes, or to "defend" their market position with a "core" innovation.

Q: What are the Tools that the companies that you work with are willing to use?

A: Accelerators or COE's (centers of excellence) who own and shepard the process. Digital tools (as a tangible products) that help communicate and teach.

Q: What are the most common mistakes that companies make when using innovation tools?

A: Lack of understanding, commitment, or effective road mapped ROI (how long to keep doing it and what to realistically expect and when).

Also missing is the idea that Innovation tools as part of a service design, not a product stage gate mindset.

Q: In your opinion, what is missing on the innovation culture on the companies and how could design help them?

A: - Culture is not a process, but mindset of behaviors that fuel actions.

Q: What are the basic competencies that you think are needed to build a culture of innovation inside a company?

A: I would say that organizational structure more akin to a learning org than a federated org. Also a mindset away from products (even supported by platforms) and more towards service dominant logic.

Q: If you have all the resources available, what would be the desirable competencies that you would like compa-nies to develop for innovation?

A: A willingness for acceptable risk not only when things are bad (the market or company performance), but when things are good. Knowing how to balance and support (politically) the right mix of innovation initiatives against the core performance of the business.

I am Angela... working for a design research company

Q: Angela, what are the misconceptions that the companies have about innova-tion?

A: One common misconception of companies is that innovation is something they can "plug in" into their company without having to change culture, processes.

Q: And when they use Innovation Tools?

A: There are several problems, first, some of them are trying to find the "magic recipe" for innovation, meaning one single, rigid process that will always deliver innovation rather than understanding them as stepping stones or thought starters.Some of them think that by sending managers to a 3-day design thinking class, they can expect them to come back and being able to pull off innovation projects

Other problem is in user research: Asking questions about the products that are already in the market instead of trying to understand the world in which that

product lives.

Q: So what do you think is missing on the process?

A: - Seeing the bigger picture, e.g. strategic directions, not just the day-to-day work. Seeing their work as problem-solving (people-focused), not as feature-adding (tech-focused).

Q: If you have all the resources available, what would be the desirable competencies that you would like companies to develop for innova-tion?

A: Build an internal innovation consulting team that has the status to work and teach across silos and connect the dots (often, different departments don’t know what others are working on, duplicating work and missing learning opportunities)

Q: What are the most common mistakes that companies make when using innovation tools?

A: These things are usually great ideas, but end up failing when it comes to operationalizing. Innovation groups usually sit outside core business groups, and don't end up running it like a business--focusing on awareness, communi-cation and impact through tight operations. They also can to include this in the mainstream system to ensure success, e.g., add it to performance goals and metrics of leaders and innovators, allot resources (time) to make this possible. It is hard to expect internal innovation ideas to work without building the system/space around it, and managing the operationalizing.


Analysis & Research

I am Laura... working for an innovationconsultancy


Analysis & Research

InsightsInnovation is a key concept and a current search for most companies now

Companies don't see innovation as an internal process and a cultural change of themselves and expect others to solve that for them

Companies just see tangible results as innovation

We have to build a clear meaning of innovation and innovation culture for companies to follow

While companies search for incremental innovation inside their business, designers are seeking for disruptive innovation

There are different approaches to innovation, and usually when design tries to bring innovation as outsiders, there is a lot of friction with profes-sionals that could be partnering the process

There are difficulties coming from the people in charge of considering the complexity of implementation of innovation

Companies are not owning or internalizing innovation methods

Companies search desperately for innovation, but they lack of the skills required to make innovation happen

Companies situate innovation only on the frontend of their business

Companies are not HC and lack of a clear view of all their stakeholders


Analysis & Research

Design Principles

The Platform should...

reinforce the meaning and key frames of innovation

help companies to build innovation as an internal culture

provide tangible information about the innovation process

both educate and provide evidence of the innovation process

provide differentiated profiles for different users and different needs

take advantage of the different specific knowledge of the different professio-nals connected through it and help build teams

provide easy to apply small steps to implement innovative actions inside the company

engage users to become more susceptible of innovation

help users build new skills for innovation

target both front and backend of the users' business

help the companies recognize their users' needs and values, and the possible options for innovation

Platformsanalysis

A platform is a business model that creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more interdependent groups, usually consu-mers and producers. Exchange is one of the most fundamental parts of being human. Successful platforms facilitate exchanges by reducing transaction costs and/or by enabling externalized innova-tion. As a byproduct, platforms also create ecosystems and leverage their inherent network effects. With the advent of connected technology, these ecosystems enable platforms to scale in ways that traditional businesses cannot. It’s important to remember that a platform is a business model, not just a piece of technolo-gy. A lot of people make the mistake of confla-ting a platform with an app or a website, but a platform isn’t just a piece of software. It’s a holistic business model that creates value by bringing together consumers and producers. Platform business models aren’t new. In fact, they’re as old as human civilization itself – all the way back to early marketplaces, bazaars and auction houses. Think of a bazaar in ancient Rome. The bazaar owner leases booths to merchants. The merchants put products in their booths. The bazaar owner then advertises to customers to come to the bazaar. The customers consume the goods that the merchants, the producers, are offering to sell. The platform, the bazaar, facilitates these exchanges by bringing together the consumers and producers. In the 20th century, we saw platform


Platform definition

business models in the shopping mall and auction house. Like their predecessors, these businesses have mostly used brick-and-mortar locations to facilitate exchanges. But thanks to connected technology, platforms can now facilitate the exchange of value produced by decentralized networks of individuals. The result is that platforms can now facilitate exchanges at an unpreceden-ted scale. That’s why in the Connected Revolution, platform business models built on technolo-gy will create the most value. At society’s current pace, it’ll take multiple generations to adopt platform business models. But we believe that’s far too long given the value platforms create. So we became the world’s first full-service Platform Innovation™ Company, focused on delivering upon our mission of organizing the world’s exchange of value through technology.

1. Services marketplace: a service2. Product marketplace: a physical product3. Payment platform: payment (P2P or B2C)

4. Investment platform: investment (money in exchange for a financial instrument, be it equity or a loan, etc.)5. Social networksa social network in which the core transac-tion is a double opt-in (friending) model of interaction6. Communication platform: direct social communication (e.g., messaging)7. Development platformsClosed development platform: software built across access to data (usually via an API)Controlled development platform: software built in a controlled, integrated development environmentOpen development platform: open-source and free software8: Content platformsSocial: a content platform in which the core transaction focuses on the discovery of and interaction with other peopleMedia: a content platform in which the core transaction focuses on discovery of and interaction with media


Case Analysis

Salesforce historyThe company was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a company specializing in software as a service (SaaS). Harris, Moellenhoff and Dominguez, three software developers previously at consulting firm Left Coast Software, were introduced to Benioff through friend and former Oracle colleague Bobby Yazdani. Harris and team wrote the initial sales automation software, which launched to its first customers in the fall of 1999.

In June 2004 the company's initial public offering was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol CRM and raised US$110 million. Early investors include Larry Ellison, Halsey Minor, Stewart Henderson, Mark Iscaro, and Igor Sill of Geneva Venture Partners, as well as Nancy Pelosi.

In July 2012, Salesforce applied to trademark the term "Social enterprise" in the US, EU and Jamaica where the term was in widespread use to descri-be businesses with a primarily social purpose. This was successfully challenged by a campaign called #notinourname which was launched by Social Enterprise UK resulting in Salesforce.com withdrawing their trademark application and agreeing not to use the term in their future marketing.

In October 2014, Salesforce announced the development of its Customer Success Platform to tie together Salesforce's services, including sales, service, marketing, analytics, community, and mobile apps.

ServicesSalesforce.com's customer relationship manage-ment (CRM) service is broken down into several broad categories: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud (including Jigsaw), Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud (including Chatter), Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, and IoT with over 100,000 customers.

Salesforce.com: is the primary enterprise offering within the Salesforce1 Platform.Force.com: is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to create multitenant add-on applications that integrate into the main Salesforce.com application.Salesforce1: is salesforce's mobile application for Android and iOS.Work.com: previously Rypple, is a social perfor-mance management platform that helps mana-gers and employees improve work performance through continuous coaching, real-time feedback, and recognition.Data.com: previously known as Jigsaw, is a cloud-based automated system for acquiring

and managing CRM records within a user's Salesforce.com account.Desk.com: previously known as Assistly, is a cloud-based helpdesk system for interacting with customers and solving customer issues.Do.com: was a cloud-based task management system for small groups and businesses, intro-duced in 2011 and discontinued in 2014.Site.com: is a portal to the Salesforce Lightning App Builder, a technology that allows for rapid application development of cloud-based applications.Salesforce Ideas: is a suggestion management systems, based on Dell IdeaStorm, that enables registered users to add, promote, demote and comment on ideas. Each idea is represented as an article, and such articles are updated by Salesforce to indicate when an idea is imple-mented.AppExchange: Launched in 2005, the Salesfor-ce AppExchange is an online application marketplace for third-party applications that run on the Force.com platform.

Text taken from Wikipedia

-Worldwide, Salesforce and its ecosystem will enable the creation of more than 1 million jobs within the Salesforce customer base due to the use of cloud computing between the end of 2014 and the end of 2018. Those jobs, called direct jobs in economic parlance, will engender another 1.5 million indirect or induced jobs as increased customer revenue drives jobs in supply and distribution chains and as new company employees spend money in the general economy.- Between the end of 2014 and the end of 2018, the benefits of cloud computing that accrue to Salesfor-ce customers will add $272 billion in GDP impact to their local economies.- Cloud computing generates these benefits prima-rily from permitting an increase in IT innovation, which in turn supports business innovation leading to accelerated development schedules, faster project completion, shorter time to market for new products, and lower operational costs.- The United States, because of its large share of cloud computing implementations and share of Salesforce's global revenue, will generate more than 50% of the world's financial gain from the Salesforce customer set, but about 60% of the jobs will be created in emerging markets where labor costs are low.- In a custom IDC survey of 1,142 cloud-using organizations in 8 countries supporting this study, Salesforce customers said, on average, they have experienced payback from their Salesforce technolo-gy investments in 13 months or less. Over four years, aggregate worldwide investments by Salesforce customers in cloud computing should yield 3–5 times the financial benefits compared with costs.


Case Analysis

Salesforce economy- IDC research shows that when organizations spend on cloud computing subscriptions, they also spend on ancillary products and services, from additional cloud subscription and profes-sional services to supporting software, hard-ware, and managed services.- For this reason, the Salesforce partner ecosys-tem that services Salesforce implementations provides these ancillary products and services and builds applications on the Salesforce1

Platform, generates 2.8 times the revenue of Salesforce itself, and is expected to grow 3.7 times as large as Salesforce in the coming years, according to IDC. This is a function of the expected growth of Salesforce's partner network and the expected growth in ancillary products and services as customer implemen-tations become more customized and mission critical.

Text taken from IDC whitepaper on Salesforce


Case Analysis

Salesforce ecosystem Sales.com

Sales

CommunitiesCommunication& collaboration

Learn &support

Understanding& prediction

Plan &Reach

Strategy

Open Innovationplatform

Sales Cloud

SalesforceIQData.com

Chatter

Communitycloud

Service

Desk.com

Servicecloud

Marketing

Pardot

Marketingcloud

Analytics

Platform& Apps

WaveAnalytics

Waveapps

Appcloud

Appexchange

Force.com

Platformdesign


Analysis & Research

Stakeholders and values

P4BI

CEO level

CEO levelAdministratorProject ManagerDesign team

DesignerProject

Manager

AdministratorExecutioner

Learn, understand & poject

Learn, understand & poject

Build capacities

Build capacities

Follow, oversee & connect

Follow, oversee & connect

Facilitate, lead, engage

Facilitate, lead, engage

Build educational modules, a strategy tool and analytics dashboard

Give easy steps to ease the process and provide evidence

Design connectivity tools and follow up process dashboard

Provide a toolkit to facilitate teamwork and analysis of problems


Analysis & Research

Platform and ecosystem

Human Centeredstakeholders / values

Business Orientedtools / models

Technology Definedempowering tools

· Collaborative system· Ecosystem growth· Scalable & Modular· Cloud service

PlatformAnalytics

DashBoard

Manageprojects

Innovationtool kit

Educationmodules

ExternalPartneringEcosystem

· SalesForce· Google Analytics· Linkedin· Google HangOuts


Analysis & Research

Basic Company Streamline

Future innovation

Implementationplan

OPEN INNOVARION PLATFORM- Search for new markets- Search for new products- Search for new process- Search for new social trendsOPEN COLLABORATION & TEAMWORK

TREND ANALYSIS- Culture of data collection- Visualizing and searching for patterns- Future forecasting and big data analysis

FOSTER INNOVATION AS A PROCESS- Foster team culture- Foster design thinking- Foster prototyping and constant iteration

PROVIDE BASIC INNOVATION TOOLS- Meeting and brainstorming- User center approach- Empower teams and teammembers- Learn and use qualitative reseach

LEARN

PRACTICE

UNDERSTAND

INNOVATE

platform for business innovationinnovation is a key concept and a current search for most companies...

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