HYPE Enterprise vs. Powernoodle

Well Suited

• Idea Generation campaigns aimed at solving a specific problem. Contributors can be limited to certain groups, or it can be open to the whole organization.
• Open Innovation campaigns aimed at getting solutions from external sources (add-on module required).
• Continuous improvement process specific to functional areas.
• Processing, sorting, evaluating and scoring ideas.

Not Well Suited

• Surveys
• Managing Projects

Incentivized

Well Suited:

• Groups needing to make a decision
• Democratically based decision making
• Sensitive topics
• Discussions Groups needing input

• Hype Innovation allows for a full onsite implementation behind a firewall and does not need to communicate to an external server. This is a major advantage for a defense company.
• Hype Innovation is easily configurable by a systems admin with very limited knowledge of the product.
• Product Updates are rolled out quarterly and offered to all clients.
• Hype Innovation has a specific instance of their Hype software platform that is aimed at their clients and improving Hype itself. Feedback from their management is very quick.

Incentivized

• Powernoodle has ignited deeper, more candid conversations among our team leaders. We've been able to see through these discussions that we haven't always told our story in the most compelling manner, and that we need to be clearer, more concise and less wordy. Since Powernoodle limits your contributions to a certain number of characters, it forces you to think hard about what you really want to say. This feature was particularly powerful for our organization, which has tended to verbosity.
• Powernoodle allowed us to vet old and new ideas in a safe space, minimizing biases and groupthink. In many organizations there are some who speak more than others, and often their ideas get more attention. What Powernoodle does brilliantly is it allows, actually requires, each participant to write what they wish anonymously and without interruption. Each participant is equal in the sense that all input into Powernoodle is brief (limited number of characters) and the anonymity definitely prevents the usual bias toward those who speak the most.
• Powernoodle increased critical thinking about our organization and forced us to re-examine why and how we do what we do. With Powernoodle, we were able to look at everyone's ideas, comment on them, decide if some should be merged, and ultimately vote on them. The Powernoodle process forced us to be clear, which meant we each needed to think critically about what has worked and what hasn't worked for us, and how we move forward with what has worked and with new ideas.

• The concepts and projects module requires an overhaul to be more flexible. This is on their product roadmap.
• The software would benefit from the addition of an MS Exchange integration for receiving idea e-mails.
• Customisation of the layout and possible custom components is challenging.

Incentivized

• It's not mobile friendly yet, but other than that no complaints!

After evaluating numerous idea management and innovation management platforms, the main reasons we chose Hype Innovation were:

• On-premises installation (Viima did not allow this);
• Cost (Viima and IdeaDrop had substantially higher costs for the amount of users we required);
• Ease of Configuration (Viima was easiest to configure, but IdeaDrop was a challenge.);
• Customer Service (From initial contact to roll-out was 5 weeks).

Incentivized

• Longstanding issues with products and services have been made visible to the wider company and many solutions have been identified.
• A common idea management platform has allowed management to gauge the level of employee involvement and cross functional communication.
• Safe storage and archiving of ideas has enabled the company to keep track of inputs over time and refer back to ideas that were not relevant at the time of generation.
• The added workload of managing the innovation platform has meant that more money has had to be spent on the individual responsible for the platform.

Incentivized

• While we are still in the beginning stages of taking action on the decisions we made using the Powernoodle process, I have no doubt that there will be a very positive ROI on our overall objectives.