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Author: Jim Lundy
Topic: Social Software
Issue: How will Social Software technologies evolve?
Summary: Spigit is launching a new ideation application called FaceOff that uses crowdsourcing and some clever gamification and UI work to attract users.
Event: At E2.0 on November 15th and at subsequent events over the last month, Spigit has been introducing FaceOff, its new Ideation application that makes it fun to share and vote on ideas.
Analysis:
Over the last two years, Spigit has been building a solid install base by focusing on what everyone really wants: better ideas and a system to realize them. With the launch of its new FaceOff application, Spigit could usher in a new era of crowdsourced idea generation by making it light and easy to use.
Innovation is always something that keeps business executives up at night. The challenge for enterprises is how to come up with the winning idea. Crowdsourcing has become a recognized way to shorten the time to discover the idea that makes a difference.
The problem for many enterprises is that they still haven’t discovered that idea management should be a core capability. The other challenge is that it is often the fear of failure that stops an enterprise from jumping into social idea management.
Spigit’s FaceOff freemium product was developed to allow the enterprise to experience the value of game mechanics and of extending co-creation efforts to external audiences.
Spigit FaceOff features a compelling way to engage users in a subtle, but not over powering game that has brands and their related ideas facing off for votes by users. The ease of engagement and engaging hot-or-not-esque pair wise comparison format entice users to participate. This subtle use of gamification is what may push enterprises over the edge to drive their innovation efforts forward.
In addition to this announcement, Spigit has quietly been building a presence in social software by focusing on idea management (ideation). It’s flagship platform, SpigitEngage, now offers Ideation extensions to a number of social software platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint and Jive Software.
For enterprises, the crowdsourcing of ideas is something that should be leveraged in both customer and employee communities. Instead of just allowing for a rating, enabling both idea submission and voting mechanics that move beyond popular opinion to crowd belief and investment can shave months off of solving a problem. More importantly, an engaging ideation platform can help to surface the winning idea that no one has yet thought of or to develop a nascent idea into a viable innovation.
Aragon Research feels that idea management in social networks is critical to engaging people and for speeding up business processes and work in general (see the Research Note titled The Eight Pillars of a Collaboration Architecture).
Planning Assumption: By YE 2015, a majority of social networks will incorporate ideation as a core feature.
Aragon Advisory: Enterprises need to begin to leverage the power of crowdsourcing to accelerate their innovation efforts.
Enterprises should evaluate Spigit’s Idea Management offerings both on a standalone basis and as an extension to their existing enterprise social networking platform.