Open Innovation – NineSigma Overview

NineSigma aims to connect solution seekers with solution providers. RIIS now represents NineSigma in SA. NineSigma’s network of solution providers is the largest in the world and spans all industries, geographies and technical disciplines, offering unparalleled access to both patented and pre-patented knowledge and intelligence capabilities.

NineSigma is the most experienced and advanced Open Innovation service provider in the world. Founded in 2000, NineSigma has been offering open innovation solutions long before it was an accepted management practice. In fact, NineSigma is responsible for a large part of how open innovation is practiced today, and continues to evolve its services and organization to ensure that your organization will be prepared to move to the next level of open innovation capability, regardless of where you are today.

We Engage companies across all industry sectors with the global innovation community, and Enable their organizations to leverage external resources to solve immediate challenges, fill product pipelines and integrate new knowledge and capabilities into their organizations.

NineSigma’s Open Innovation Universe

Our open network of solution providers is the largest in the world, and spans all industries, geographies and technical disciplines, offering unparalleled access to both patented and pre-patented knowledge and intelligence capabilities.

With offices in the United States, Europe and Japan, NineSigma is uniquely positioned to help companies across the globe achieve the benefits of Open Innovation. We have extensive experience driving results-oriented projects and programs across the innovation value chain, from front-end ideation to R&D, and throughout the supply chain. Our customizable services continue to reflect the constantly evolving demands of the global marketplace.

Launch a Program

NineSigma is the leader in Open Innovation services, which help our clients in the design and launch of successful OI programs. We work with clients along the two dimensions of Engage and EnableSM (see diagram) to maximize long-term success. We can begin work with clients at any point in their OI program development – from pre-planning assessments, executive alignment and business case, to the optimization of an existing OI program.

The Enable dimension is focused on the “people” side of open innovation. The Enable dimension is all about building high-performance OI organizations. Along this dimension we work with clients in the following areas of open innovation Enablement:

Organization Design
Process, and Supporting Roles & Responsibilities
Metrics
Rewards & Recognition
Training & Development
Knowledge Management in Support of Open Innovation.

The Engage dimension is focused on leveraging the global innovation community to find solutions. Along this dimension we work with clients in the areas of open innovation Engagement:

Project Selection
Engaging the Global Innovation Community
Ecosystem Development
Supplier / University Elite Networks
Inter-Company Collaboration

In our work on over 1,500 open innovation projects we have developed many best practices that we bring to each client project. Our goal is to work with you to rapidly develop OI capacity in your organization to leverage the global innovation community for new knowledge, capabilities and breakthrough innovation.

Find a Solution

You have identified your most critical innovation needs and are now ready to leverage NineSigma’s intermediary services and launch an external knowledge search. Although we recommend a broader program approach to ensure that organizational structure and key processes are in place to support your OI goals, you may choose to launch a series of knowledge searches, or “Requests for Proposals” (RFPs) to quickly find a solution or gain access to knowledge and capabilities missing in your internal program.

Companies utilize NineSigma’s Requests for a wide range of innovation searches including Requests for product/process technologies, platform technologies, new capabilities and expertise, and even the “Holy Grail” projects which are considered to be the really difficult searches. What makes NineSigma so successful in our intermediary services is our proprietary approach to the Request that enables clients to define their needs so that researchers across industries and disciplines can easily understand what is needed and respond with the best possible solutions.

Our OI PlusSM service can help you with solution-provider facilitation from evaluation of responses through negotiation, while addressing confidentiality requirements that may be specific to your new opportunity.

Contact Us to get started in finding a solution to your most challenging innovation needs.

About Open Innovation

Open Innovation represents a shift from the traditional model where 100% of a company’s innovation originates from within, to a more open model where both internal and external ideas are combined to create a more collaborative advantage. In 2003, Dr. Henry Chesbrough coined the term “open innovation” as a paradigm that assumes firms should use external and internal ideas to support a firm’s innovation goals, as well as internal and external paths to market in order to advance their technology. Sometimes called “External” or “Networked” Innovation, this model has many facets that continue to evolve today.

Open Innovation is focused on uncovering new ideas, reducing risk, increasing speed and leveraging scarce resources. With a better understanding of what is “out there,” a company is able to lower risk by combining external capabilities with internal innovation resources. The old question of “Why reinvent the wheel?” clearly applies, as Open Innovation enables a company to connect with someone who has already developed the technology in need or who is further along the development path.

Although companies have been collaborating with external partners for years, Open Innovation has become a core management discipline because of the breadth of external knowledge and the speed at which it can be transferred. Some of the most notable drivers of Open Innovation include:

Global talent mobility
Increase of VC and government spending enabling small company innovation
More market-focused academic research
Push for commercial applications by government labs
Emergence of private research institutes
Internet and search technology
The need to optimize existing supplier networks for strategic value

The following table depicts the new “Open” Innovation viewpoint against the old “Closed” Innovation model:

NineSigma began work in this space in 2000, long before the term “Open Innovation” was coined. NineSigma has made the benefits of open innovation accessible to organizations around the globe through a series of proven and successful services delivered by a professional team of Ph.D. level program managers.

Most practitioners view open innovation as the ability to Engage the global innovation community to find outside solutions for challenges that their organizations are unable to resolve on their own. It is our experience that this is simply not sufficient. Many organizations, while successful in finding new knowledge, fall short at Enabling their organization to integrate that knowledge successfully into their organizations. All too often, processes are not in place to create buy-in. Purchasing and Legal departments are not prepared to expedite negotiations with the smaller solution provider, and budgets are not established to act quickly on the new deal. Before you know it, the deal falls through, and no value has been realized.

Whether you are seeking an intermediary service provider for the first time, or preparing to build out your own internal open innovation capability, NineSigma has the right solution for you. Contact RIIS for a free consultation.

Please feel free to visit the international NineSigma website www.ninesigma.com for more information.

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