Innovation Management Software

Innovation Management Software Overview

Innovation management software (also known as idea management software) supplies an organized, secure collaboration space for idea generation and progress toward innovation. Innovation management software is similar to project management software but with security features to protect corporate innovations or other kinds of intellectual property (IP). Innovation management software also focuses more on idea-generating while project management concerns itself with strategically planning a project from initiation to completion.

Vendors offer different options for deployments of innovation management, including SaaS cloud-based and mobile apps for iPhone, to support the development of products, ideas, and innovations of various kinds. A platform may include tools that allow employees to collaborate on ideas. Another may provide means of engaging and surveying customers for their input. The focus is to allow the organization to respond to external or internal ideas and opportunities as the case may require.

Users that benefit from innovation management tools include both internal and external constituencies of all sizes, including small firms to large enterprise companies. Externally, they are capable of engaging customers, stockbrokers, and employees through web-based applications. This allows for full transparency of the company as well as the opportunity to give recommendations and feedback. Internally, users can collaborate and share insights with one another allowing for innovation and growth during the idea-creation process.

Innovation Management Products

(1-25 of 54) Sorted by Most Reviews

The list of products below is based purely on reviews (sorted from most to least). There is no paid placement and analyst opinions do not influence their rankings. Here is our Promise to Buyers to ensure information on our site is reliable, useful, and worthy of your trust.

Planview Spigit

Planview Spigit® offers a complete “idea-to-impact” solution that includes:- An employee-driven innovation management platform, which is backed by proprietary crowd science algorithms to tap employees’ knowledge and insight while enabling diversity, inclusion and cross-organizational…

MindMeister

MindMeister is an online mind mapping tool that lets users share maps with an unlimited number of users and collaborate with them in real-time. The vendor says more than 11 million people around the world use MindMeister to brainstorm ideas, plan projects, take meeting minutes, develop…

Ideanote

Ideanote is an all-in-one innovation platform that promises to help teams and businesses around the world capture, develop, prioritize and act on more of the right ideas. According to the vendor, key benefits include:Capture ideas with structure by launching powerful goal-oriented…

ServiceNow IT Business Management

ServiceNow IT Business Management is a soluton bundle built on the Now Platform designed to allow users to gain visibility into portfolio investments and business strategies for better outcomes. Track progress in real time to see exactly how funds are spent and the value of the work…

Braineet Crowdsourcing

Braineet Crowdsourcing aims to enable users to maximize the value generated by internal and external ecosystems. #1 - Impulse cultural change and break down silos Give employees a place to share their quick wins, best practices and experiments across all business units to generate…

Qmarkets

Founded in 2006, Qmarkets is an innovation management software provider, offering a variety of products to help enterprise-grade clients leverage the wisdom of the crowd. The configurable software platform Qmarkets offers allows users to collaborate on targeted innovation initiatives…

IdeaScale

IdeaScale offers idea and innovation management software. There are four editions: Free, SMB, Challenge and Enterprise.

Powernoodle

Powernoodle is designed to help leaders make better quality decisions by quickly and effectively engaging the collective wisdom of stakeholders. The vendor aims to provide the most powerful, yet easy to use, Decision Engagement Platform. Cloud technology is fused with 50 years of…

Zakta

Zakta, an Ascendum Solutions company, offers the Zakta Platform, a semantic analysis, concept visualization and advanced search tool.

Innovation Cloud

Innovation Cloud is a free web-based tool for idea management. It enables users to submit, codevelop and execute ideas.

Brightidea

BrightIdea aims to be the #1 Platform in Customer Reported Business Outcomes from Innovation. According to the vendor, customers generate better ideas with Brightidea, and achieve the highest dollar amount of innovation outcomes (PWC Independent Assurance Report 2017). BrightIdea…

SharpCloud

SharpCloud, from the company in London, enables teams to plan, visualize and communicate strategy across business silos and transforms static data into engaging, dynamic visual stories, to provide insight for leadership teams so that they can make smarter, more informed decisions.…

Orbit Idea

Orbit Idea is an idea management software (ideation platform) that allows users to leverage the combined knowledge, expertise, and creativity of entire organization throughout the innovation process.It combines design thinking, idea challenges, collaborative ideation, crowdfunding,…

Orbit Startup

Orbit Startup is collaborative software (Startup Relationship Management – SRM) supporting Open Innovation strategy. A tool for the sourcing, review, follow-up and development of partners and innovative projects.Between large companies and innovative partners, synergies are numerous…

Forest Software

Forest is a cloud-based platform that helps business units drive strategic change across the organization. With Forest, the user can rally employees around important topics and themes, crowdsource and develop new ideas through focused campaigns, communicate key strategies, and…

Planbox

Planbox is an end-to-end innovation management platform from the company of the same name in Laval, whose services aim to empower medium and large-sized organizations to become more adaptive, creative, and resilient. Planbox helps turn creative ideas into winning projects and integrate…

Strategyzer

The Strategyzer platform is presented as practical tools to help the user understand customers, design better value propositions, and find the right business model, from the company of the same name in Zurich.

Innovation Minds AT THE EDGE

Presented as a Virtual Home for Hybrid Work, Innovation Minds provides a Holistic Employee Experience to help users transform a workplace to not just be as good as the old workplace, but actually better. The product aims to increase across engagement, productivity and innovation.

edison365

edison365 cloud-based software is designed to improve transparency, encourage collaboration across remote teams, and provide clear indications of business value created. It integrates into a business’s existing Microsoft platforms, including Teams, SharePoint Online, Yammer, and…

aumentoo

aumentoo is a digital platform to plan, run and manage innovation. aumentoo aims to change to the user's daily working process for a significant reduction of inefficiencies and friction. aumentoo is an innovation management enterprise software solution, supporting innovation from…

Sapta Platform

Sapta is a cloud-based / SaaS product for startups helping to track innovation and OKRs in one combined offering for startups. According to the vendor, the Sapta platform solves strategic scaling problems for high growth organizations to drive productivity, collaboration & better…

FIBRES

FIBRES is a tool for building futures intelligence. The software helps foresight, innovation, and strategy teams create their own understanding of the future.

Learn More About Innovation Management Software

What is innovation management software?

Innovation management software (also known as idea management software) supplies an organized, secure collaboration space for idea generation and progress toward innovation. Innovation management software is similar to project management software but with security features to protect corporate innovations or other kinds of intellectual property (IP). Innovation management software also focuses more on idea-generating while project management concerns itself with strategically planning a project from initiation to completion.

Vendors offer different options for deployments of innovation management, including SaaS cloud-based and mobile apps for iPhone, to support the development of products, ideas, and innovations of various kinds. A platform may include tools that allow employees to collaborate on ideas. Another may provide means of engaging and surveying customers for their input. The focus is to allow the organization to respond to external or internal ideas and opportunities as the case may require.

Users that benefit from innovation management tools include both internal and external constituencies of all sizes, including small firms to large enterprise companies. Externally, they are capable of engaging customers, stockbrokers, and employees through web-based applications. This allows for full transparency of the company as well as the opportunity to give recommendations and feedback. Internally, users can collaborate and share insights with one another allowing for innovation and growth during the idea-creation process.

Innovation management software features

Innovation management software products are equipped with a variety of features that can be useful to potential customers. A cross-section reveals the following general capabilities:

  • Strategy & planning templates and guidance
  • Project milestone generation & progress tracking
  • Stage progression schema for product release roadmap
  • Customizable content presentation elements
  • Mobile-friendly design interface
  • Secured access, single sign-on (SSO) integration
  • Project budgeting, forecasting
  • In-built collaboration & communication
  • Prototyping in-built, or via integration
  • Surveys or ideas crowdsourcing
  • Custom fields for data gathering
  • Employee or customer engagement, VOC
  • Market intel or tracking (for benchmarking, competitor comparison)

Innovation management software comparison

Some important things to consider before choosing an innovation management software include:

Versatility: A perk about innovation management software is that many of these products can handle multiple tasks. Ensure you’re getting your money’s worth by selecting a product with several features, such as analytics, customer feedback, and staff collaboration. Be sure your vendor will offer flexibility and options for your business.

Affordability: If you’re looking for a product that is affordable and simple, you may miss out on some other advanced features such as drag and drop options, custom filters, and ROI analytics. For some users, these features aren’t as necessary and therefore the free versions are more than suitable. Be sure to look for a product that hits the right balance of cost vs features

Idea vs. Project Management: Though similar to project management software, innovation management software is used for collecting ideas within one platform and allowing them to evolve. If your needs are focused on managing processes throughout the project after initial creation, look into project management tools that may have features better fitted for your business.

Pricing Information

Similar to project management software, limited deployments of idea management software are available free to individuals or small groups. Free trials of more substantial offerings are also available.

Relatively low-cost PPM-like deployments are available on a subscription basis (monthly or annual) from some vendors, usually going for under $15 a month with a limited amount of users.

Higher tier plans that far exceed project management or PPM-like capabilities are available. Though these pricing plans are customized, expect to pay anywhere from $800 to $3000 per month with many or unlimited users. These are relatively high costs but supply advanced features such as prototyping, research and testing tools, and frameworks for progressing complex engineering or software projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does innovation management software do?

Innovation management software, also known as idea management software, is used to organize the process of gathering ideas and insights on certain products in hopes for improvement and development. They are designed to receive feedback from employees, stakeholders, customers, or any group hired to improve the quality of a product. They allow for collaboration, edits, input, and a primary database for accepting and rejecting ideas.

What are the benefits of innovation management software?

While using innovation management software, users can expect a platform that brings words, data, ideas, and people together. This creates easier access for collaboration, feedback, and selecting and rejecting ideas. Using these software tools then enables users to improve the quality of their products and save an enormous amount of time when it comes to internal and external communication.

How much does innovation management software cost?

Many of the innovation management software tools will offer their product for individuals and small groups. These versions will come with limited features and users. For paid subscriptions, look to pay at least $10 per user, with the higher pricing containing the most features to be customized upon request. Vendors typically offer free trials of their products.