October 6th, 2008
Crowdsourcing? Try expert sourcing
Corporate America has hopped on the crowd sourcing bandwagon, but they may want to start considering another option: Expert sourcing.
That’s one of the big takeaways from a report by Forrester Research. Forrester analyst Chris Townsend writes:
Corporate use of Innovation Networks is rapidly expanding as many fast followers adopt them. The result? Organizations are now managing diversified portfolios of innovation sources that include not only in-house engineers and product managers but also external customers, suppliers, partners, and investors. Thus far, only crowd sourcing — sourcing innovation from the undifferentiated masses — has taken its rightful place as a source of ideas within the Innovation Networks tool kit. It’s now time to add expert sourcing to the portfolio of innovation sources. Expert sourcing is the practice of tapping specialized, professional-grade know-how and talent.
In other words, crowd sourcing can get you the idea, but it can only go so far. Companies need to think about rallying experts to actually execute on various concepts. Forrester names companies like NineSigma, CG squared, NanoCoatings and Techshot as players in expert sourcing.
Also see: The Forrester Research blog
Overall though, companies need to think about innovation sources as a portfolio. Someday your company will have an innovation procurement department. Here’s a look at the building blocks:
And how it all fits together:
For now, this expert sourcing concept sounds very whiteboard-ish. It’s hard to pull off and there are probably few companies actually doing expert sourcing. But the benefits–ability to respond to the market quicker, launch products and expand into new markets–are clear. Good luck getting this one past the CFO and CEO though.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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