Read this interview between Interviewee: Zohar Stolar, head of product at OpenideaL and Interviewer: Elroi Marom, CEO of Linnovate to learn how OpenideaL will empower and streamline the ideation process.
Hi Zohar, I was happy to hear you launched a new version of OpenideaL, the popular open-source idea management platform.
What can you tell us about the new version of OpenideaL?
The new version of OpenideaL has many improvements which I’m excited to share with you. The first improvement that you will notice is of-course the new design. This highlights the tasks and puts the focus on streamlining the ideation process with live updates of new content. By taking a quick glance at the home screen, you’ll see the ideas and challenges, the status of the ideas, (where they are in the life cycle), are displayed in an organized manner shortening the reaction time.
We implemented a lot of user feedback into this new release. We worked hard to fix any bugs or issues our users experienced in the previous version. We’ve embedded an online help guide so it is easier for the user to use, interact with the platform, and share ideas with the group or the community. We took the liberty to improve the administrator experience and added a new admin and management portal so configurations are straightforward and concentrated in the same place.
When we say fully customizable, we mean it.
You can configure the points, the categories, and different notifications users can receive. The idea life-cycle is clearer and visible without any programming. Of course all the great stuff from previous versions remained. So we have the community page, where you can see all the members of the community. You can search for people that interest you, follow them and see what they’ve come up with. You can follow ideas, join your friends, or even contribute to ideas and challenges. A new notable feature is that a team can now promote ideas together with the concept of co-authors. By creating,and promoting an idea together, the team can receive credits as a joint effort.
Q: I took a look and played around with OpenideaL and I must say you did a great job. I like the new design and the news feed on the right side very much. It is very useful.
It can be useful to individuals, but OpenideaL is enterprise software that can contain proprietary information. I built it so many organizations can use it on prem with integration to enterprise systems like identity management and require customization to the brand and process.
Q: Do you offer integration and customization for customers?
OpenideaL is a software for enterprises, meaning that it is almost 100% customizable, from design, to the ideation lifecycle, all the way down to how the idea object is structured. For example, one can easily extend the idea from its default structure (description, categories, images and attached documents) to being a more complex, tailor-made structure that includes data like estimated cost, time-to-market, departments involved, equipment this idea depends on, and basically any information that fit your vision of the innovation process. This allows for better and fine-grained analysis and smarter decision making.
OpenideaL can also connect to other systems within the enterprise such as a CRM, AI and ERP. We can connect to any Single Sign-On or external authentication whether it’s the usual social networks such as Facebook, Google or LinkedIn, or proprietary identity management systems such as Active Directory.
In a single click you can turn OpenideaL from an open (public ) community of ideas to a private one where it’s ideas are private to the author and to the innovation officer. This is very useful for environments, systems and cultures where ideas can potentially become commercial patents. In these cases, you might want to develop the idea in a protected environment, where you can protect intellectual property and the ownership of the idea.
Q: Do you have plans to offer a SAAS version of OpenideaL?
Many companies wanted to host such information in-house. Some of the OpenideaL users include European companies with high regulation, including governments, the defence sector and health organizations which need to host the data and the software in their own data center. The OpenideaL appis very easy to install and is 100% open source. It is also easy to customise and adapt to any industry’s needs. To make things even smoother, we provide customization and support services which include setup, deployment, and integrations, directly on your data center.
That being said,, we do see a trend that other organizations are looking for trusted parties to offer ideation management as a SAAS. Therefore, we do intend to provide a SAAS solution soon. You’ve heard it here first!
The OpenideaL is 100% open-source. We love the community and we like to share our knowledge and experience and to contribute our efforts. The best part about being open-source is that Everyone can download and use it for free.
For a seamless, secure and supported deployment of OpenideaL on the cloud marketplaces, provided by Hossted, click here.