Concept to Completion: Accelerate Product Innovation and Time to Market

Transcription

1 Concept to Completion: Accelerate Product Innovation and Time to Market Messaging Guide

2 < 2 > Elevator Pitch: From Concept to Completion 3 Noncritical 11 For IT 3 For Business 3 4 Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups)) 11 IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) 11 Vision 4 Specific Pain Points 12 From Concept to Completion 4 Audience 5 CXO 5 VP Innovation Program 6 VP Product Group 7 IT Organization 8 10 Primary 10 Business (Process) Innovation Programs (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups), CXO Level 15 Security Programs, CXO Level Organizational (Cultural) 10 Technological ( Architectural Fit ) 10

3 Elevator Pitch: From Concept to Completion For IT Cisco Quad is an enterprise collaboration platform that enables IT organizations to deliver a community-based solution ( concept to completion ) that improves the idea gathering and feedback phase ( ideation ) within strategic innovation initiatives. The solution enables employees to easily publish, comment, rate, edit, and discuss ideas, regardless of who they are or where they reside within the organization. Employees can develop and refine submissions in public or private community spaces, making it easy for them and teams of employees to share information and keep up-to-date on decisions. The open architecture and standards support of Cisco Quad software enables integration with specialized innovation solution providers to reduce infrastructure overlap and application redundancy. Employees use Cisco Quad software to collaborate on ideas, using the same environment they use to work together on everyday business activities. The integrated policy management capability of the application works in conjunction with an organization s identity, security, and compliance systems to protect intellectual property and confidential information. For Business Cisco Quad is an enterprise collaboration platform that delivers a community-centric solution for strategic innovation initiatives. It includes rich information sharing and social networking capabilities that meet the team alignment and communitybuilding needs of innovation program managers and research and development (R&D) groups. The personalized monitoring and activity tracking capabilities of the application enable innovation decision makers, line-of-business managers, and executives to track innovation activities most relevant to them. By enabling better expertise location, knowledge sharing, and community feedback, the Cisco Quad solution allows organizations to broaden their reach everyone in the organization can contribute their insight, network with peers, and refine ideas within a community setting no matter where they reside. Innovation has become everyone s responsibility. Organizations can no longer depend on specialized groups alone to influence innovation results. Employees need to become equal stakeholders. Leadership teams looking to transform how organizations share professional expertise and employee insight gained from interactions with customers will find Cisco Quad a compelling solution. < 3 >

4 Vision From Concept to Completion Audience CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group IT Organization Vision Cisco Quad transforms the fuzzy front end (in other words, ideation) of innovation by broadening participation from specialists to include contributions from anyone in the organization. Ideas come from many sources from field workers and service representatives to line managers and business analysts. The Cisco Quad solution changes the way people participate in a core strategic area that in many cases is a matter of company survival. By delivering a collaborative environment that harnesses the collective knowledge and creative talent of its workforce, organizations are better positioned to transform innovation processes. Directed by the convergence of communications, collaboration, and content, the application can help organizations break down technology silos and cross-functional barriers to provide a next-generation collaborative experience where employee innovation is a natural aspect of everyday work. From Concept to Completion The value of Cisco Quad as a collaborative front end to strategic innovation initiatives is enabled through three critical anchors: 1. Improve the quality and quantity of new ideas by enabling people to easily publish, comment on, rate, edit, and discuss submissions regardless of who they are or where they reside within the organization. Encourage creativity and broader participation by allowing people to submit their ideas in whatever format they want: text, video, audio, with attachments, pictures, etc. 2. Accelerate product development by using communities, discussion forums, and blogs; allow employees to post ideas, gather and prioritize requirements, store and edit documentation, and archive recorded meetings so that dispersed team members can stay completely informed and aligned with decisions and actions, or initiate real-time communications to brainstorm with other community members or subject-matter experts. 3. Protect intellectual capital and sensitive documentation by controlling the privacy level < 4 >

5 of communities (restricted or private), and and attract customers. Innovation is more than < 5 > through rule-based policies that determine simply having a great idea. Most enterprises what individuals are able to access, edit, view, have end-to-end processes that begin with or share. For example, a field engineer and a the effort to gather ideas (the ideation phase). corporate product manager might both be Ideas are vetted, selected, and promoted a part of the same community, but those in through a series of different stages that Vision management might have access to sensitive ultimately enable a strategic outcome (in terms From Concept to Completion product information within the community based of a product, service, etc.). Audience CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group IT Organization on their title or any number of other criteria. Audience Important stakeholders interested in improving the ideation phase of innovation strategies include: CXO Innovation processes include aspects of planning, resourcing, engineering, funding, channel readiness, marketing, and delivery. The modern CXO vision is that innovation is too important to be owned by a particular business unit (for example R&D), or even by Related leadership team roles include: management itself. Instead, organizations Chief executive officer (CEO) and direct business reports need to engage employees and customers as equal stakeholders. Employees who interact directly with customers or have years of Chief information officer (CIO) and direct experience in a certain field of practice possess reports, including chief technology officer (CTO) tremendous insight that the enterprise often Innovation has become a strategic sales topic, given the need for many organizations to differentiate themselves from competitors, navigate economic pressures, grow existing markets, move into new markets, and retain does not effectively tap. Cisco Quad can help organizations tap into that employee insight and experience. The social collaboration features of the solution and the built-in integration with real-time communications and video

6 (through the Cisco Show and Share server and projects related to innovation. A critical < 6 > appliance) differentiate it from other innovation focus area of innovation efforts is the creation solutions on the market. The user experience and delivery of new products and services to of this solution enables leadership teams to the market. However, it is not uncommon for watch the innovation activities important to program teams to also manage other types of them. The open architecture of the solution innovation projects. Innovation is not limited to Vision enables the platform to integrate with traditional improving products and services. Projects can From Concept to Completion innovation systems to help track concepts as address many challenges: Audience CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group they move from concept to completion through downstream processes. VP Innovation Program Related roles of this role include: How to improve customer relationships How to recruit and retain critical staff How to improve data quality IT Organization Head of R&D How to redefine a complex business process Innovation strategists Ideation specialists Innovation projects can also target cultural and community-outreach concerns within the company: how to improve management and Rather than assign innovation to a particular department or cross-functional group, many organizations manage innovation as an integrated program rather than a disjointed series of independent projects. A dedicated oversight team (often residing in corporate) employee collaboration, and how to go green. Innovation focused on products and services may be at the forefront, but it is by no means the only topic in which employee ideas are being solicited. The good news is that Cisco Quad can help with all types of innovation activities. coordinates enterprisewide communication, planning, resourcing, funding, prioritization, When it comes to technology, innovation program management teams may not have

7 Vision From Concept to Completion Audience CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group IT Organization direct control over their technology needs. The IT application group that handles corporate systems often supports the innovation team as well. This situation can result in innovation projects using off-the-shelf collaboration tools designed for document-centric workspaces. The Cisco Quad solution transcends documentcentric collaboration by incorporating peoplecentric capabilities (for example, expertise location, communities, and social networking). In some situations, organizations might sanction use of best-of-class tools that have specific ideation features. These vendors are often software as a service (SaaS)-based. Although a specialized option avoids having to deploy onpremises software that might not be used for any other purpose, it means employees have to learn a new user experience and environment that is foreign to the way they normally collaborate. Cisco solves this problem because the Cisco Quad solution can be used for general collaboration purposes as well as to improve innovation activities and, best-of-class tools can integrate with the application through standardsbased interfaces. VP Product Group Related roles follow: Head of product design Head of product engineering Product groups are closely involved in analyzing the output from ideation sessions. For years, design teams have used surveys, focus groups, and send us your feedback tactics to collect feedback and decipher which new capabilities make the most sense to implement. This approach creates a wall between product teams and those using the product (customers) as well as between product teams and the various teams responsible for bringing that solution to market (employees). Given today s economic and market realities, the old way of doing things is no longer acceptable. Today, product groups are looking to transform the way they obtain feedback by making it much more continuous and conversational. To improve employee participation, social collaboration tools (for example, blogs, wikis, social networking, and expertise location), coupled with real-time communications, and < 7 >

8 video can transform the ability for product Emerging technologies groups < 8 > teams to interact with internal stakeholders. Cisco Quad packages these capabilities into one platform that includes policy management Social media strategists Knowledge management practitioners Vision From Concept to Completion Audience CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group IT Organization to secure confidential information and protect intellectual property. The solution enables product teams to deliver community spaces where employees can network and collaborate together on idea submissions that reflect their collective insight. For product teams, a collaborative relationship with employees provides opportunities for more iterative refinement of ideas over time. The integration of video (through the Cisco Show and Share server appliance) that Cisco Quad software achieves should be an especially compelling feature for capturing gestures, body language, and other nonverbal reactions as people suggest and debate the advantages and disadvantages of ideas. IT Organization Enterprise 2.0 evangelists Navigating IT organizations can be difficult. The role of the IT organization can vary greatly when it comes to innovation. Often IT itself is not directly involved in ongoing projects other than to support the underlying technology. However, in some businesses, the IT organization may own a proof-of-concept laboratory where emerging technologies or system prototypes might be demonstrated. If so, then a conversation with those managing the laboratory can lead back to the innovation team. However, in some situations IT may be a member of the innovation team, especially when the innovation effort focuses on an IT capability or has clear technology implications (for example, social media). Many areas are in a position to support strategic

9 innovation efforts as solved through the Cisco architecture teams, need to have a business < 9 > Quad solution. One is emerging technology conversation with vendors so they can in turn groups that might be evaluating tools that interact with their internal customers. However, can improve ideation activities. Other groups IT professionals also have their own needs from include knowledge management practitioners a vendor and product perspective so they can and Enterprise 2.0 evangelists. One of the undertake their own technology assessment Vision goals with blogs, wikis, communities, and social and compare and contrast proposed solutions From Concept to Completion networking tools is to help employees more with existing systems or market alternatives. Audience easily connect, build relationships, and share CXO VP Innovation Program VP Product Group IT Organization information more visibly. These benefits align well with the needs of innovation projects. It is important that these IT personnel understand the specific use of the Cisco Quad solution to improve innovation (in addition to collaboration in general) so that they can adequately represent the solution to innovation teams. IT organizations are also keenly interested in the technology underpinnings of solutions such as Cisco Quad software (for example, architecture, application functions, integration, policy management, deployment, and operational support). IT organizations, especially

10 Primary Business (Process) Organizational (Cultural) Technological ( Architectural Fit ) Noncritical Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups) IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) Specific Pain Points Primary What are the critical topics that strategists and decision makers face with respect to engaging employee participation within innovation efforts? We divide primary concerns into three broad categories: business matters (that focus on the ideation aspect of innovation), organizational matters (that focus on employee participation), and technological matters (that focus on architectural fit ). Business (Process) The following topics are related to innovation program and project teams: Enabling anyone from the organization to create and join communities focused on innovation Ensuring easy transition from everyday work activities to post ideas or share relative information with innovation teams and communities Providing the ability for employees to define rich profiles that help co-workers discover their expertise or interests, and invite their participation in innovation projects or brainstorming sessions Allowing innovation team members to refine and iterate ideas in real time Enabling ideation teams to publish agreedupon concepts for community review Taking advantage of multiple feedback mechanisms (for example, comment, rank, rate, and discuss) to help with vetting of ideas Adhering to security and confidentiality controls Organizational (Cultural) Enabling employees to take ownership of innovation efforts in a community setting Improving idea sharing across employee and management levels Providing a visible means of showing how ideas are recognized and acted upon Technological ( Architectural Fit ) Offering required features (for example, blogs, wikis, communities, social networking, realtime communications, and video refer to the Cisco Quad data sheet) < 10 >

11 Primary Business (Process) Organizational (Cultural) Technological ( Architectural Fit ) Noncritical Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups) IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) Specific Pain Points Providing a modernized architecture (open standards and open source) Ensuring interoperability (integration with existing systems) Developing deployment models (mobile, on-premises, SaaS, and cloud) Providing policy-based management (risk management) Noncritical It is important to focus on the topics most relevant to the audience. In the case of concept to completion, a focus on the ideation aspects of innovation is appropriate. Less-critical topics include: Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups) Cisco Quad is best positioned as helping with the fuzzy front end of innovation the ideation phase where people collaborate on ideas in a community setting. Discussions about downstream processes that take ideas into product lifecycle management activities are outside the scope of what the Cisco Quad solution offers (requiring customized integration). Technology in general is not as important as the user experience, Cisco Quad features, and Cisco capabilities that enable the innovation solution. Unless those involved in innovation strategies are interested in how the solution has synergies outside concept to completion, comprehensive conversations about other application scenarios (for example, quote to cash or hire to retire), can be distracting or overload the audience with too much information. IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) The discussion context needs to focus on how Cisco Quad specifically handles the collaboration and community needs of ideation. A general discussion about collaboration does not differentiate the solution from existing tools the organization might already have in place. < 11 >

12 Primary Business (Process) Organizational (Cultural) Technological ( Architectural Fit ) Noncritical Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups) IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) Specific Pain Points Specific Pain Points When listening to customers or prospects, you may notice a pattern of opportunities or problems common to many organizations. Following are some common pain points: Employee engagement in ideation efforts: Getting employees to use another tool is difficult especially if it is used only for ideation. If the tool makes it difficult to set up a community, define a user profile, and interact with communities, it creates a participation barrier. If employees could use the same user experience and way of collaborating with colleagues for innovation as they do with their everyday work activities, they may be more apt to create and join innovation communities and share ideas. Employees have always had a way to provide management with feedback ( messages and surveys). However, these methods leave workers isolated those who asked for feedback have no way to see who is submitting feedback, or a way to easily connect and brainstorm with co-workers on that feedback. In many cases, employees never know if their ideas were even considered or acted upon. This scenario can disenfranchise employees by making it appear that their time and energy does not matter that the company is asking for their input but ignoring it at the same time. Delivering a community-centric platform where people s participation and contributions are made visible (within security policies) can help workers feel that management and innovation teams are listening and valuing their collective insight. It also affords employees the opportunity to connect with each other and refine ideas as a community. The people who do the work are best suited to solving the problem: Innovation teams and dedicated R&D groups are often not regularly close to the customer. Product groups may not have the information and analysis on how their solutions are actually used and what problems arise. Employees who deal with customers and products on an everyday basis (for example, in < 12 >

13 Primary Business (Process) Organizational (Cultural) Technological ( Architectural Fit ) Noncritical Business Audience (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups) IT Audience (Supporting Innovation and Product Groups) Specific Pain Points a sales or service role, or in a store or factory floor setting) develop tremendous insight over years of experience. Delivering a solution that taps customer-facing insight regarding market opportunities or customer needs offers tremendous value to the organization. Innovation activities may have to align with confidentiality, intellectual property, and compliance policies of the enterprise. In such cases, innovation solutions will need a policybased security framework such as the one built into Cisco Quad: In some situations, ideation efforts need to occur in very secure settings. The need to innovate can be influenced by competitive concerns (for example win or lose), market opportunities (for example, acquisition), failings in go-to-market strategies (channel problems), or gaps in ongoing business operations (for example, poor performance). In some situations, the company s primary market value and competitive differential is the intellectual property created by its employees (for example, designers, researchers, and market analysts). Confidentiality of ideas can be of paramount concern to leadership teams, those running innovation programs, and product groups. Compliance needs can also necessitate the need for policy-based logging and audit controls to satisfy reporting needs especially in regulated industries, or possibly in industry sectors working with government entities. < 13 >

14 Targeted Business Strategists and decision makers are often results-oriented. When organizations evaluate collaboration and enterprise social software systems, the types of solutions they enable are often viewed (for example, from a return on investment [ROI] viewpoint) as discretionary. A discussion about the types of innovation outcomes that Cisco Quad enables can be an effective means to moving the conversation along to avoid tangled discussions about metrics. With Cisco Quad, the following business and organizational benefits are possible: Ideation Increased employee participation continually (as measured by the number of people who participate in innovation communities) Increased number of new (as measured by the number of submissions) Increased number of qualified ideas accepted into downstream innovation processes (as measured by the number of vetted concepts promoted from the community into a formal innovation review and approval stage Employee Engagement Greater employee satisfaction as measured through corporate communication and human resources surveys or related assessment methods General (Subjective) Increased organizational capability to capture business insight and expertise of workers Reduced innovation process and project latency and coordination costs through better expertise location and community enablement < 14 >

15 Innovation Programs (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups), CXO Level Security Programs, CXO Level Important Questions to Ask Asking questions can help identify use-case scenarios where you can position Cisco Quad as a strategic solution. Leaving questions open ended allows customers and prospects to more broadly describe what they are looking for. More precise questions can subsequently follow to identify potential application areas, solution sponsors, and Cisco Quad champions. Innovation Programs (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups), CXO Level Anchors: Improve the quality and quantity of new ideas; accelerate product development Do you have a strategic initiative underway to expand innovation efforts to include employee participation? If so, are you considering new collaboration models that enable employees to form innovation communities to visibly share their ideas, gather feedback on those ideas, and iterate concepts to the point where they can be promoted to the next stage in the innovation process? Talking points: Innovation has become everyone s responsibility. We cannot rely solely on R&D teams or product groups to develop new concepts for products and services that will keep us competitive. Our people have tremendous insight regarding our business challenges and opportunities they work with our customers every day, and they hear product stories (good and bad) that are never captured through formal channels; we need to harness those customer experiences and let our customers and employees become equal stakeholders when it comes to innovation. Cisco Quad enables anyone in the organization to participate and contribute ideas and because those concepts are shared in a community setting, employees can network and collaborate to refine ideas into a more viable concept that feeds into an innovation pipeline. Open collaborative platforms like Cisco Quad enable you to discover the hidden collective insight of your workforce. By clarifying ideas, employees can brainstorm more easily and < 15 >

16 with confidence that the information being shared is within a secure environment. that participation barrier by providing a reusable and consistent user experience < 16 > Are you using innovation tools that seem to be that employees have to learn only once. separate from the way employees normally Are you interested in enabling business units collaborate with each other? If so, do you think to take advantage of the same platform used Innovation Programs (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups), CXO Level Security Programs, CXO Level participation would improve if employees were using the same community environment for ideation as they were for everyday collaboration? for product-level innovation to address their own innovation needs (for example, improve processes, share information, improve data quality, etc.)? Talking points: Sometimes you need Talking points: Innovation does not always specialized tools that are specifically have to focus on the next great idea designed to meet high-end innovation for products. Many times organizations needs. However, other times a more innovate locally to improve processes, generalized environment can achieve improve data management, improve cross- many of the same benefits and be used functional collaboration, or meet other to advantage not just for ideation but departmental needs. Cisco Quad enables also for many other collaborative needs. organizations not only to meet their high- A consistent user experience and set of end innovation needs but also to respond collaboration tools can help employees to the everyday innovation needs of line-of- transition back-and-forth from ideation business groups to improve productivity, activities and their normal day job. information sharing, and cross-functional Employees often fail to use specialized relationships. Cisco Quad is designed as tools regularly because of the extra effort an enterprise collaboration platform with a needed to participate. Cisco Quad lowers built-in community and social networking

17 capability where people can come together to connect and share ideas even needs is not so great. The Cisco Quad enterprise collaboration platform includes < 17 > in more casual contexts. a policy management function built into Innovation Programs (VP Innovation and VP Product Groups), CXO Level Security Programs, CXO Level Security Programs, CXO Level Anchors: Protect intellectual capital and sensitive documentation Do you have innovation initiatives that are not using specialized or generalized the core solution. Its open architecture and support for standard integration interfaces enables the solution to work in conjunction with your existing security, identity, and compliance systems. collaboration tools because of security concerns? If so, would management sanction use of an innovation solution that satisfied confidentiality, intellectual property, and compliance needs through a policy-based management capability? Allowing employees to participate and contribute ideas that make us more competitive, or solve challenging problems, or enable the company to exploit new business opportunities is great. Having ideas accidently leak out to the general workforce, or inappropriately disclosing sensitive data, or failing to provide a proper record of innovation sessions to satisfy compliance

18 Why Enterprise Social Enterprise social software (ESS) is sometimes equated with collaboration software, but not always. Sometimes ESS is equated with ESS appeals to a younger workforce and other workers who have a more digital lifestyle outside work, including mobile < 18 > specific tools: blogs, wikis, social networking, they are familiar with external social media micro-blogging (Twitter), RSS feeds, and online tools (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) and communities. Business or IT personnel might ask may have their own personal blog. why ESS is important most companies already have collaboration and communication tools in place (for example, , discussion forums, content management systems, and enterprise portals). In response, consider: ESS is a more natural way of communicating, sharing information, and collaboration when compared to older, document-centric methods that are tied to the desktop and office productivity suites.

19 Cisco has long had a strategy that examines Communications is intrinsic to how people < 19 > market transitions and market adjacencies to collaborate Cisco s skills in unified identify new sources of growth, innovation, and communications, video, and networking customer value. Collaboration and enterprise offer unique value as we develop solutions social software are natural extensions that encompass collaboration and content of current Cisco solutions in the unified management. communications, mobile, and video markets. Cisco has a broad portfolio of solutions that it can use to advantage to deliver ESS solutions in ways far more comprehensive than bestof-class solutions. Cisco also brings fresh eyes to a collaboration market that has been dominated by document-centric vendors repackaging traditional solutions.

20 Common Objections Why is Cisco in this space? Cisco has always had a corporate strategy I already have (SharePoint/Jive/IBM), so why the Cisco Quad solution? < 20 > influenced by market transitions and Cisco Quad offers superior and market adjacencies. Collaboration is a transparent integration between natural progression of our move into unified unified communications and video with communications, mobility, and video and social collaboration. This modernized telepresence. architecture spans collaboration, social, What does Cisco know about human relations-related challenges? Cisco s workforce strategy, leadership traits, and corporate culture have long been identified as a best-practice example of how to motivate employee learning, performance, and innovation. unified communications, and content. Policy management is designed into the core product. Open standards and open source enable greater interoperability, and scalable infrastructure supports multiple deployment models. Is Cisco Quad actually available? Also, through customer advisory boards, It is available now. we have an excellent source of insight to human resources challenges facing many organizations across the globe Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco s trademarks can be found at trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R) C /11