Why you need an innovation partner in 2019
Innovation is a buzzword that rattled around the walls of the boardroom for a long time. Decreasing brand loyalty, exciting technology developments and constantly changing consumer behaviour make innovation more important than ever for long-term success.
At Dootrix we’re proud to be innovation partners with some of the largest and most progressive organisations in the UK. Whilst every organisation has a desire to be “innovative”, nurturing a culture of innovation and bringing innovation to life within any business is a challenge.
There are a number of ways that organisations can attempt to foster innovation internally, but we’re seeing a significant increase in the number of organisations appointing external partners to help them introduce fresh thinking, new ways of working and activate new technologies to stay ahead of the competition.
So how do you know if you need an innovation partner in 2019?
You’re struggling to turn ideas into products
Having great ideas is not the same as executing them. Whether you’re struggling with ideation and putting pen to paper or swimming in a sea of post its that you can’t prioritise, getting from idea to final product is difficult.
This is where design thinking is your greatest weapon. A programmatic approach to innovation can drive rapid progress and take you from unstructured ideas and solve problems in short timeframes. Design thinking enables you to:
- Empathise with the human needs involved in the project
- Define the problem or challenge in human-centric ways
- Ideate effectively and prioritise quality ideas
- Prototype your innovation
- Test your product with real customers to validate your ideas
Whether it’s the use of innovation sprints, design workshops or other methodologies, an experienced innovation partner familiar with these strategies and approaches can guide you through the innovation process, providing creative energy and a framework from turning an idea into a tangible outcome for the organisation.
You don’t have time to explore
Being successful at innovation means being willing to explore. You have to empower your teams to have the time to dig into details around platforms, tools, technologies and techniques to help engineer your ambitions.
Whilst innovation is a constant on the agenda of most CIO’s, business as usual looms over progress. Organisations struggle to create an environment where the exploration required for innovation is built into the day to day. According to McKinsey, innovation is cultural. It’s open, it’s transparent, it’s collaborative; it’s an obligation of everyone within the organisation.
However, this type of culture isn’t something you can switch on overnight. An experienced innovation partner can help introduce innovation into your organisation or project teams quickly. Introducing them to new strategies such as cross-platform development in Xamarin, new processes such as agile delivery, or the latest cognitive services to give you access to the latest in AI.
You’re yet to unlock the power of the cloud
Adopting a cloud computing platform is now an essential asset for any organisation that wants to be able to innovate at scale.
The cloud has been evolving at a rapid pace over the last ten years and many organisations fail to understand the impact that the latest incarnation of cloud computing can bring to their businesses. The developments of Platform as a service (PaaS), serverless computing, elastic computing and a plethora of ‘lego brick’ cloud services, mean that it is faster and cheaper than ever to build transformative applications for your organisation. The ability to reduce the cost of future change as the world changes around you makes cloud imperative to innovation.
Systems that would have taken years to build can be delivered in weeks or months; ideas that would have taken an impossible amount of compute power to even consider exploring can be prototyped in days, for almost zero cost, reducing the cost of change and generating real ROI for organisations.
Selecting a cloud proficient innovation partner will enable you to harness the power of cloud computing and not only benefit from the flexibility, efficiency and strategic value of the cloud but also understand how to leverage cloud platforms to exceed the expectations of your users, satisfy your customers and grow your business.
Maybe it’s time
If any of the signs above point in your direction, it might be time to start thinking about appointing an innovation partner. Innovation is a process, not a specific moment in time. Innovation culture is something crafted and engineered, not left to change. The right strategic partner will help you bring your ambitions to life and increase the success of your innovation in the long term.
Want to understand how our innovation partnerships work? Contact us now for a free App Innovation workshop.
