Qmarkets is an innovation management software ideal for mid-sized businesses to large corporations. It offers a digital platform for businesses that aim to catch game-changing innovations, integrate a dynamic culture of creativity and secure themselves against economic downturns. It focuses on customer success, which complements its value proposition.
This business solution system was founded in 2006 and inspired by the philosophy of “The wisdom of the crowds with the goal of creating a platform that will help companies harness a community of stakeholders’ collective opinion to make better business decisions.”
Through reaching out to groups based on teams, positions and designations, Qmarkets helps consumers to build ideation based on corporate priorities. The users can view the idea funnels enabling them to monitor approvals and the generated total value.
The software employs gamification techniques that use crowdsourcing like market research, token polling and mind maps. It also provides reminders and updates via e-mail on submitted campaigns and ideas. Everything is tailored to the unique specifications of the organization, both in terms of technical features and graphic design.
Qmarkets has four collective intelligence products that are built to solve some of the strategic business growth issues and can be deployed separately or incorporated as subsystems within a single architecture. A whole new level of innovation and permanent progress on activities can result from this robust collective intelligence solution.
The products are Q-ideate, Q-optimize, Q-scout and Q-open. Q-ideate is Qmarkets’ idea management system that helps C-suite decision-makers to harness their employees’ experience and collect suggestions for new products and services including changes and internal processes.
The gamification tools are found in this particular product, which allows companies to involve workers’ consensus, and create a sustainable creative culture.
Q-optimize was developed to help businesses adopt initiatives to facilitate quality growth as well as streamline the ideation processes of an organization. It can support companies trying to cut costs and reduce waste.
Q-scout helps multinational corporations to match their M&A operations efficiently with their goals and employees. The product is connected with internal crowdsourcing systems, making it easier to coordinate all creative efforts in companies in one location.
Q-open is designed to engage large numbers of external participants in an ideation process. Open Innovation is characterized as the use of external information sources to promote creativity within an enterprise. This involves the organization collecting feedback from consumers, investors, groups of academics, authors, or some other possible outside stakeholders.
Qmarkets Features
Qmarkets has a robust set of products with a good number of features and a five-stage process for the efficient completion of initiatives and projects. Q-ideate has Challenge, Brainstorm, Evaluate, Implement and Measure ROI.
Q-optimize has Gather Ideas, Evaluate, Approve, and also Implement and Measure ROI; Q-scout has Scout, Manage, Engage, Evaluate and Commercialize mergers and acquisitions; and Q-open has Invite, Engage, Evaluate, Identify and Deliver.
Q-base
This is Qmarkets’ self-admin application that provides innovation architects with a solution to configuring a workflow funnel or custom-build an idea using the pre-loaded tools.
Built-in project management
This feature helps with the whole project management process, from choosing the project leaders to delegating tasks and allocating budgets. It also allows users to track actual and expected costs.
Workflow funnel
This helps with the proper planning and implementation of a project from the start of the process stage until completion. There are available pre-made templates, while users can take advantage of the self-administration function to create a custom workflow suited for the organization’s requirements.
Gamification functions
This feature offers scoring techniques like badges, points and incentives that users can earn and collect. This helps guarantee a project’s success.
Role definition and permission control
This feature allows users to assign a task or an idea to a specific person so it can be properly addressed and appoint a manager to oversee the domain.
Crowd-voting applications
This provides users with the capability to reach out to the targeted audience and directly gather ideas from them through surveys and polls.
Alerts and notifications
The software is equipped with personalized automated communications that send out email alerts, reminders and even newsletters for the users’ continuous engagement.
Mobile platform
The engaging platform is available on any device and allows users to customize the branding on the homepage. It houses an intuitive interface and can be accessed in different languages using an auto-translate button.
Reports and analytics
The project management, system reports and summary dashboards are features that will assist users in tracking ROI, collecting data on the end results of implemented projects and evaluating user activity.
Integrations
Qmarkets collaborates with a number of applications to ensure seamless and efficient processes and project completions.
The software uses SAML, LDAP, SCIM and GSuite for user authentication; and Jira and Planisware for project management and PLM. Jive, Yammer and Salesforce help increase engagement for projects and display activities on users’ news feeds.
SAP Net Weaver and SharePoint are used for viewing personalized information on the platform while SAP and IBM Connections for updating the HR system for incentives and bonuses. For increasing social media engagement, Qmarkets is integrated with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Inno360, CrunchBase and Trend One fall under the category of content providers for database management, trend scouting and cognitive analytics. Google Translate and Google search aid in providing the users with the means to access past campaign ideas as well as updated information.
Qmarkets Benefits
Qmarkets boasts of two deployment options for the system. Secure Hosted and On-Premise. The former involves cloud-based services from Amazon AWS and Digital Reality. The latter involves the deployment of the scalable solution to the intranet network.
Information security
The software is equipped with Single-Sign-On authentication with strong password policies as a back-up in case SSO is unavailable. Only high-level system roles and roles per campaign are given permission to control data provided to users.
Productivity and efficiency
Employing the Kaizen methodology promotes continuous improvement through improved morale teamwork and suggestions for improvement. In addition, the LEAN method involves processes that can help identify areas to improve on in terms of time, resources and cost savings.
A consensus from employees is collected for evaluating ideas centered on customer success.
Open innovation
The platform encourages collecting ideas from experts outside of the organization to help address the challenges of the business. Also, the organization can collect ideas for new products and services from engaging with outside resources.
Employee innovation program
Innovations can stem from collecting suggestions from employees through suggestion boxes and brainstorming, as well as identifying potential new markets and opportunities.
Citizen engagement
Local governments can involve their citizens in open innovation for new ideas on developments and transformations. The citizens can participate in discussions or polls on project and policy implementations. The academe and the private sectors can participate in public hackathons and innovation labs to suggest ideas on government initiatives.
Qmarkets Pricing
Qmarkets offers a product demo and provides pricing upon request as it is entirely dependent on the organization’s needs. There are three editions to choose from: Start, Flex and Max.
The Start edition is intended for small and mid-sized businesses that require a system that they can begin with straightaway. Inclusions of the edition are custom branding and homepage; mobile user interface; automated communication tools; and organic gamification. Other perks worth mentioning are reports and KPI tracking; crowd-voting tools; built-in project management and ROI tracking; and full migration paths to Flex and Max editions.
In addition to the features of Start edition, Flex consists of advanced self-admin capabilities that help tailor-fit the system to address a business’s strategies. Inclusions are role and communication management; a workflow self-admin tool; out-of-the-box IT integrations; professional services and guidance; and multiple languages.
Max edition is for businesses that need a more robust plan. All Flex features are available in this version plus extended service packages; business rules for scaling innovation; custom homepage design and implementation; on-premise deployment; and advanced custom integrations.
Conclusion
Qmarkets is a comprehensive innovation management solution that addresses the business challenges of mid- to large-scale organizations through crowdsourcing or a collective intelligence system. The feature-rich platform helps businesses strategize effectively to retain a competitive edge resulting in continuous improvement and high success rates.
