Implementing a Closed Loop Process for Innovation

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Implementing a Closed Loop Process for Innovation
Track Industry Focus High-Tech

• Vida Killian, Dell
• Navin Ganeshan, Network Solutions
• Patrick Taylor, salesforce.com

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Innovation is the Lifeblood of Any Organization
Innovation distinguishes between a leader
and a follower.
Steve Jobs CEO, Apple
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How Exactly Do You Drive Innovation?

Raise the ratio of innovators to employees,
learning over investment, and externally sourced
innovation to internally sourced innovation.
-Harvard Business Review

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Obstacles to Innovation
No Scaleable Way to Capture Ideas
How do I involve more people in the innovation
process?
Ideas Locked in Silos
Difficult to Prioritize Ideas
How do I ensure that ideas are not prioritized in
a vacuum?
How do I get my employees customers to
collaborate and share ideas?
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Introducing Salesforce Ideas
Engage All Your Communities Online
Bubble the Best Ideas to the Top
Spark Conversations Around Ideas
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Executive Sponsor
Implementation Team
Customers
Project Team
Online Community
Executive Team
Employees
Deliver Results
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Whats New With Ideas? Winter 09 Release

• Force.com Sites
• Public Sites for Ideas
• Visualforce for Ideas
• Self-Registration
• SAML Integration
• Syndication
• Moderation and Data Quality Tools
• Merge Ideas
• Status Tags and Sorts
• Validation rules on Ideas and Comments
• Expert Icon
• Suggested Duplicates

• The Ideas App
• Up and Down Voting
• Rich Text on Ideas Comments
• Multiple Categories
• My Profile Page
• My Activity
• My Ideas, Votes, and Comments
• Community Nicknames
• Delete Vote API
• New AppExchange Apps
• Ideas In Action App Salesforce Labs
• Ideas Dashboard Salesforce Labs
• Account and Contact Integration - BlueWolf
• Email to Idea - BlueWolf

Limited Release Available after Dreamforce
Limited Release Available early December
Available with Visualforce Pages but not in
the standard UI
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Greatly Reduce Barriers to Participation
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Syndicate Content Across the Web
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Content Indexed by Google
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Look At Ideas.com Find Your Inspiration

• Example Communities
• Product Feedback
• CRM Rollout
• Cost Cutting Ideas
• Dashboard Gallery
• Green Office
• Sales Feedback and Discussions
• Marketing Department
• IT Department
• Employee Services
• Customer Communities
• Salesforce IdeaExchange
• Dell IdeaStorm
• My Starbucks Idea
• Network Solutions
• Fair Isaac
• Model Metrics

Anonymously browse the site or login post ideas,
vote, and join the discussion
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Vida Killian IdeaStorm Manager
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All About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ DELL) listens to customers and
delivers innovative technology and services they
trust and value.

• INDUSTRY Technology
• EMPLOYEES 82,700
• GEOGRAPHY Global
• USERS 45,000
• PRODUCT(S) USED Salesforce CRM SFA, Service
  Support

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Dells Digital Media Vision
Engage in relevant conversations with our
customers online 24/7, worldwide in all major
languages.
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Digital Momentum Grows
Whats Next?
Benefit
Example
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A company this size is not going to be about a
couple of people coming up with ideas. Its
going to be about millions of people and
harnessing the power of those ideas.
-Michael Dell
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IdeaStorm
OBJECTIVE Encourage ideas,feedback, input and
dialogue RESULTS

• gt10,000 ideas generated
• 615,000 promotions of ideas
• 81,000 comments
• gt200 ideas Implemented by Dell
• Average 10,000 unique visitors/day

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IdeaStorm Timeline

• Feb. 16, 07 1st idea submitted - Home
  technology makeover show
• May 07 First BIG idea implemented - Dont
  eliminate XP just yet
• Oct. 07 IdeaStorm gets its own blog
• Nov. 07 IdeaStorm upgraded with new look and
  colors
• April 08 Storm Room added to the Dell
  Community Forum to provide a place for
  IdeaStorm members to carry on conversations
  not directly related to ideas
• Sept. 11, 08 10,000th idea is Glass Across
  Entire Screen
• Oct. 08 Upgrade to SFDC Ideas 2.0 Platform
• Nov. 08 IdeaStorm widgets for portability to
  other communities
• 2009 Further Idea Collaboration Storms
  expansion private Storms, other languages,
  PremierStorm

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A Rough Breakdown
12 UNUSABLE No action needed.
4 INNOVATIVE Possible game changing ideas.

• 80 IMPROVEMENTS
• Includes both incremental ideas for next
  generation products as well as improvements to
  existing products and services.
• Use existing Ideas Management process to work.

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200 Ideas Implemented
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Idea Management Tips (the hard part)
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Be Prepared For The Initial Spike Of Ideas

• Dell received 2,000 ideas in first 2 weeks
• Community expects immediate response/engagement

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Provide Regular Updates

• Beginning - Updates were sporadic
• Today - A dedicated blog with updates every 2
  weeks

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Understand ExpectationsCustomers
HOW
Timely Feedback Dell (SME) Participation Idea
Status Explanation Updated Site Business
Review PR Support Onsite Events Thank You
WHAT
Positive Experience Action taken on
Ideas Recognition
WHO
Customers and Employees
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Understand ExpectationsBusiness Partners
HOW
Timely Accurate Reporting Access to
Data Alignment with Strategic Plans Informed
Execs Business Champions Professional
Development Communication Support
WHAT
Positive Experience Executive Support Defined
Process
WHO
Internal Business Partners
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Business PartnersShould You Push Or Have Them
Pull Idea Information??
The Far Side, Gary Larson
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DELL CONFIDENTIAL
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Depends.

• PULL
• Engaged Business Partners
• Regularly on site reviewing ideas and comments
• Have Dell Login to the site to engage in
  conversations
• Provide access to Reporting and Idea Management
  Tool
• They update Central Team on idea Status changes
• PUSH
• Areas that dont have time. Only want to review
  top ideas relevant to them.
• Wont ask need to be told.
• Provide regular reporting at appropriate time
  (i.e. Product Planning cycles)
• Involve with urgent or highly voted ideas that
  need official response

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Final Thoughts

• Goal
• Increase Pull Reduce Push throughout company
• Notes
• Both push and pull methods need executive
  support
• Ideas augment other customer feedback
• Ideally manage ideas in the same process as
  focus groups, customer visits, surveys, etc.

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Backend Idea Management Tool
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Navin Ganeshan Senior Director, Business
Intelligence
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All About Network Solutions
Leading provider of web presence and
online-marketing services for small
businesses Pioneered the service for registering
domain names in 1992 Currently manage over 7M
domain names, 1.5M email addresses and 350K web
sites.

• INDUSTRY Online Small Business Services
• EMPLOYEES 1,000
• GEOGRAPHY Global
• USERS 200
• PRODUCT(S) USED Salesforce CRM SFA, Marketing,
  Informatica Connector, various App-Exchange and
  custom modules

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Our Challenges

• Information silos no singular truth on
  customer pain-points
• Feedback channels optimized for complaints not
  innovation
• Product roadmaps not always aligned with customer
  needs
• In general, insufficiently tuned-in to customer
  needs and market trends

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How We Are Tuning In

• Centralize, Analyze, Socialize feedback
• The Voice Of The Customer project
• Help customers connect.and learn
  www.LinkTogether.com, www.MySolutionSpot.com
• Engage them on their turf
• Social Media Strategy
• Foster customer-sourced innovation
• Ideas VOC Phase 2 A single innovation pipeline

Ideas
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Garnering SupportIt takes a company
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Customization Considerations

• Name, Branding, URL
• Sibling to blog (solutionsarepower.com)
• Uncluttered, informal experience

• Force.com Sites or Custom page
• Utilized Force.Com Public Site for quick
  deployment

• Custom-CSS or VisualForce
• Used custom CSS for speed/simplicity

• Multiple communities
• Separate Internal, Public communities

• Idea Categories
• Aligned with product lines

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Management Measurement
Measurement

• Innovation Pipeline

• Idea-Generation Rate

• Logins By Day

• New User Registrations

• Management Workflow
• New ideas trigger emails to product owners
• Product owners update idea status
• Periodic updates on neglected ideas
• Dashboards sent weekly to exec-mgmt

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Implementation Details

• Ideas deployed internally to Sales before public
  launch
• Overall effort was about two weeks most time
  spent on UI design, TCs, management process
• Created custom fields to track
• Product and product-line categorization
• Assignment, action and detail fields

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Observations

• Socialize, socialize, socialize (carrot)
• Executive support (stick)
• Tap into hidden talent/strengths
• Do not overlook process be clear about
  expectations and measurements
• Seed content well
• Acknowledge/address legal concerns
• but keep the process simple for users and
  employees

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Moderated By
Patrick Taylor
Customer Success Manager
Salesforce.com
Vida Killian
IdeaStorm Manager
Navin Ganeshan
Senior Director, Business Intelligence