Web 2.0 brought greater connectivity, faster communication and a global reach. Exploiting these facets, crowdsourcing and open innovation broke through as an alternative way for organizations to seek results; a method to facilitate connections with globally diverse actors and present problems to those with the knowledge to make a difference.
InnoCentive were at the forefront of this movement and for the past 15 years have been expediting innovations through our Challenge Driven InnovationTM methodology – positioning problems in a manner that elicits diverse solutions and, by offering prizes, drives individuals to create ground-breaking results. The InnoCentive global Solver network of 375,000 individuals and small companies has provided solutions to over 2,000 Challenges and been awarded nearly $20 million in the process. Tapping into this hub of creativity has brought significant benefits for organizations as they return again and again to see their tough problems solved by connecting with individuals from industries they might never have dreamt could provide the winning solutions.
One of the sectors that has capitalized on this ‘open’ movement is the energy industry; it lies at a nexus of many technical disciplines, and with high-tech R&D demands that can be extrapolated to various expertise areas, the industry is perfectly positioned to benefit from crowdsourcing.
The Italian energy conglomerate Enel have been working with InnoCentive for the past year and in that time have posted eight Challenges, with high quality solutions awarded in seven of them. One of those successful Challenges sought a method to prevent and remove ice build-up on electrical distribution lines. Another wanted a wireless communication system that could be used in tunnels and other confined spaces, while a third was looking for a method to clean photovoltaic panels in the field. These problems give but a taste of the diversity of issues that one organization has posted.
The success in the energy sector though is not a new phenomenon. An example from InnoCentive’s more distant past is the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) “Breaking Viscous Shear of Crude Oil” Challenge. The Challenge introduced the problem to individuals who may not have even considered working in the oil recovery industry prior. This included the provider of the winning solution: an expert in concrete mixing and pouring who noticed that a method could be transferred to help separate oil and water once they had frozen into a viscous mass. Posting the problem as an open innovation Challenge allowed the OSRI to access out-of-the-box ideas and different perspectives that had not been institutionalized to one way of thinking. This broadening of perspectives allowed a decade’s old issue to be solved in a six-month period.
The examples we’ve looked at so far have all been ‘public’ Challenges – the client behind the project has disclosed who they are and are happy for the world to know this is an issue that matters to them. This though does not have to be the case. InnoCentive’s methodology has the ability to not only anonymise the Challenge, but also abstract the problem so that the source industry could be masked. The Slurry Separation Challenge is one example of this masking: purely stating the technical problem and proposing multiple industries where it occurs. This level of abstraction may reduce the specificity and precision of the problem, but can allow for more unusual and unexpected solutions to come forward as Solvers are not constrained by preconceptions of how an industry would expect solutions to look.
The energy industry has a diverse set of innovation aims that cover nearly every expertise, however this diversity should not be seen as daunting. It’s an opportunity to use crowdsourcing to access external expertise that organizations may not have internally. It’s an opportunity to position problems in a manner that allows new viewpoints to offer solutions. It’s an opportunity to expedite innovation by using the crowd to supplement your internal work.
InnoCentive have been at the forefront of this crowdsourcing movement and has a wealth of experience in both the energy sector and wider fields. If want to find out more or to explore how InnoCentive’s methodology and expertise, global Solver network, and purpose-built platform could help your organization, click here.
Source: www.breakingenergy.com
By Subcontractors USA News Provider
