Planbox Acquires IdeaConnection, the Best-in-Class Open Innovation Expert Solver Network

WILMINGTON, Del., May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Planbox, a pioneer in cloud-based AI-powered agile innovation management platforms, today announced that it has acquired IdeaConnection, an open innovation platform and marketplace. This is the fourth acquisition for Planbox since 2015 as it continues to develop and lead with the most comprehensive agile innovation management solution in the market. Planbox, which recently received the highest scores in strategy and current offering in The Forrester Wave™: Innovation Management Platforms, Q1 2020, will now further extend and distinguish its solution by including IdeaConnection's open innovation platform and highly skilled, vast and far-reaching expert problem-solver network in its Agile Innovation Suite offering. 

"The world is facing unprecedented social, technological and global disruption which has caused massive turbulence and great challenges across all sectors. Companies face pressing demands for solutions to complex problems. We give businesses access to the world's most creative and innovative minds who work collaboratively to solve problems and develop innovations," said Scott Wurtele, CEO of IdeaConnection. "Our motto is multidisciplinary teams solve problems." 

IdeaConnection has a long-standing record as a trusted open innovation partner for some of the world's most recognized brands with a reputation for running completely confidential challenges with pre-screened candidates under NDA. Hand-picked teams of diverse experts are selected to develop innovative solutions and alleviate the burden on the client who has to choose from a select number of proposed solutions. This unique confidential challenge service provides the perfect platform for solving critical path problems quickly by de-risking a part of the discovery and research stages of problem-solving and new innovation activities.

IdeaConnection gives organizations the tools to discover, invent and explore the technologies and processes that will shape tomorrow's world. The virtual workforce of 20,000+ experts, thought leaders, scientists and innovators across 180+ countries is ready to help by working together and delivering the innovations that are needed right now. The emphasis is on the quality of the contributors in the network who are heavily screened, continuously vetted and reviewed by customers to ensure only top-notch solvers are invited to participate, all of which contribute to IdeaConnection's industry-best 80% solver rate, an unparalleled figure that speaks to the volume of challenges solved through the network.

"The global collaboration between public and private organizations all across the world to defeat this health pandemic is a great example of what can be achieved when the world's best minds come together to solve a problem," said Ludwig Melik, CEO of Planbox. "IdeaConnection has built its business on establishing the most impressive network of expert knowledge over the last decade based on this premise. Now, by combining IdeaConnection with Planbox, we are launching a unique innovation platform AND marketplace that can provide any organization with an end-to-end experience to discover the best opportunities, solve the toughest problems and deliver the most incredible solutions."

IdeaConnection has been solving problems since 2007 by assembling carefully built multidisciplinary teams led by world-class facilitators. These expert teams develop intensely researched and highly innovative solutions. Using this approach, IdeaConnection has achieved a best-in-class solve rate for thousands of problems ranging from food science, chemistry, engineering, biology, manufacturing, crop science, packaging, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, consumer products and hundreds of other areas of expertise. It has also built a network of networks with thousands of relationships for prior art citation searches on a contingency basis. Customers can gain unprecedented access to source emerging technology leads through a global network, actively and continually researching for potential opportunities that turn the conventional method companies pursue on its head. 

Planbox customers can now fully leverage IdeaConnection's range of open innovation services to:

• Solve the most difficult problems confidentially with prize-based challenges that include IP transfer
• Increase success by leveraging our technical writing and design services to help create a well-crafted and appropriately packaged challenge statement that breaks down the problem and greatly increases success rates
• Collaborate with the world through global crowdsourcing to find solutions through open innovation
• Augment the technology scouting team's reach and results through a worldwide network to identify emerging technologies that support desired business outcomes
• Boost the speed and efficiency for prior art citation search through a crowdsourced approach that goes beyond traditional digital search mechanisms
• Tap into the right skilled experts at the right time for staff augmentation 

Visit www.ideaconnection.com to learn how to better tackle and solve the next innovation challenge by leveraging the Planbox Innovation Marketplace with the new and unique IdeaConnection service that brings together seekers and solvers from across the globe.

Click here to view the official press release on Planbox.

About Planbox: 

Planbox's AI-powered Agile Innovation Management Suite is a modular platform for full lifecycle Innovation Portfolio Management, Emerging Tech Empowerment and Ecosystem Enablement. The AI engine mines your data for insights while your community collaborates to discover, develop and capitalize on the best strategically aligned ideas within your ecosystem of employees, customers, partners, academia and startups. Planbox accelerates business outcomes by pursuing breakthrough innovations, creating a sustainable continuous improvement program, building a framework for corporate venturing and actioning on consumer insights. Planbox is the comprehensive innovation management platform trusted by some of the world's most recognized brands, including Blue Cross, Cargill, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Honeywell, John Deere, Novartis, Ontario Power Generation, Sun Life Financial, Whirlpool and Verizon, with millions of internal and external users.

For more information, please visit www.planbox.com and join the conversation on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. 

About IdeaConnection:

IdeaConnection's mission is to give companies, large and small, access to the millions of brilliant minds that are eager to tackle difficult and exciting challenges with the following services: Prize-based theoretical problem-solving, crowdsourcing, technology scouting, technical challenge writing, specialized skilled staff augmentation and prior art citation search. Since 2007, IdeaConnection's open innovation service has successfully solved thousands of complex challenges in a wide range of industries for clients such as Bayer, Fujitsu, Kraft, Magna, Nike, Pfizer, PepsiCo, Syngenta and Wrigley. 

Learn more at www.ideaconnection.com. 

Contact Information
Lucas Potasso-Justino
+1 (855) 752-6269 ext 608
[email protected]

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SOURCE Planbox

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