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EP3: Tools for Open Innovation

Transcript:

As promised, we will put theory into practice. Today we will be talking about the paper “The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: an exploratory multiple case study analysis” by Andrea Urbinati, Davide Chiaroni, Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini from 2018. The overall question: What does a company need to do, in order to implement digital technologies in an Open Innovation process?

The Tools

Big Data

Huge amount of data, that can’t be handled with in a “normal” way. The correct amount of bytes depends on the size of the company. In order to handle big data, one needs analytical skills to extract value from this massive amount of data.

Internet of Things (IoT)

It’s the technology to connect “things” via internet. Smart homes and wearables are real life examples, because they exchange data via the internet from one object to another.

Information and Knowledge Management systems (IKM)

Creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. (e.g. eLearning platforms like "Moodle")

Cloud Computing

The Cloud! To put it as simple as possible: it’s an IT-Infrastructure made available via internet. Normally it includes data capacities, computing power or an application software (e.g. adobe programms, that also save your projects in their cloud).

Product-Lifecycle-Management – Systems

Systems that withhold all the information and data regarding the life cycle of a product - from the concept to the trash bin/ recycling bin. With these systems one can also control the process of development and enable the redistribution of workflows. Also crossfunctional teams can use these systems: One might be good in CAD programs to do the mock up, the other one is an engineer and realises the product and then there are administrators and such that do the distribution. All these steps can be included in one PLM - System.

System of Rapid Prototyping (SoRP)

SoRP (e.g. 3D printing technology), mainly revolves around prototype generation, test design, refining and commercializing. Its most beneficial in the product development phase, you can e.g. simultaneously develop several versions of the same product and speed up the product offering.

Combining the Tools

In order to understand the significance of the different tools, you must understand, that combined and used simultaneously, they give the organization additional advantages in the Open Innovation process. For example, a proper Cloud infrastructure must be installed in order to deal with Big Data. That means you need good working computers and lots of storage to even benefit from other digital technologies.

Two other tools working well together when it comes to product development is the System of Rapid Prototyping and Product lifecycle systems, because SoRP enables saving time on prototyping and PLM provides control over the product lifecycle of said product.

How to use them?

On the organizational level it helps in reorganizing the Research and Development units in data capacities and time management for example. They need to restructure their way of financing digital investment, implement routine ways for innovation activities and standardize technologies’ features.

But let’s move on to the process of Open Innovation: There are three phases, that a company has go through to enable Open Innovation. I will include a little example just to make it more approachable: The generating of an idea, let’s say a nurse droid, the development of the droid and the last phase would be the commercialization of it, so bringing it to the people and the hospitals.

The mentioned tools now need to be used tailored to the phase you find yourself in.

Examples

More and more private hospitals invest in digital technology to monitor the patient’s diagnostic-therapeutic pathway via electronic medical records. A hospital put together a group of 20 to 25 people including doctors and nurses. This so called task force was supposed to work with new digital tools to accelerate the elaboration of information on their patients instead of using the traditional clinical records on paper. In detail, they used Big Data and Cloud computing, where they saved and analysed the information of their clients. In the end they reduced the time on elaborating clinical records from three to four weeks to four days from the patients’ discharge. On the OI process, let’s say “timeline”, the technologies where used within the commercialisation phase, so they where already using it on customers, their patients.

The second example is of a company that tries to establish a unit called “Digital Direction – unit” that responds directly to the CEO. Before this unit they used site management, apps, social media etc., which helped different units to communicate. First they planned to make a unit, that reorganized and put together all these different platforms linked to digital technologies. In this idea generating phase they mainly used Information and Knowledge Management systems. By initiating this unit the company was following two main goals: They wanted to digitalize the marketing and commercialization in order to get to their final customers and they wanted to put the digitalization of sales processes in the hands of sales. The next step, to achieve these goals, was to overcome the technological and digital gap. We now arrived at the development phase, where they integrated graduate programs for internal offices and employees and of course digital training courses. Because the implementation of digital technologies and the initiatives require experts in the field, they need to be found as well.

The technological transformation of the past years actually forces the companies to adapt their research and development units. They now have to adapt their innovation activities. In particular they do so by standardizing technologies’ features, to rethink their planned budget for digital investments and, as we already reflected on, developing new and formalized procedures for innovation activities.

Summary

To summarize the findings of Andrea Urbinati et al. there are certain steps a company needs to go through to enable Open Innovation and to really use it to their advantage. For optimization of your digital processes, it is advisable to form a unit that will be combining the different tools tailored to the organizations needs, and where it stands in the OI Process (whether it is on the stage of idea creating, developing or commercializing). After these things are sorted out, the optimized tools can be implemented in the different departments, which need to work with these tools again. To involve the employees in this transformation process will require workshops and some time. But as the case studies showed, it will be worth it, because in the end it will safe costs and time and employees will be technological wise be picked up appropriately. 

Source:

Urbinati, A., Chiaroni, D., Chiesa, V., & Frattini, F. (2020). The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: An exploratory multiple case study analysis. R&D Management, 50(1), 136–160.