INPAQT NEWS ARCHIVE

Inpaqt has become member of the EIRMA! The EIRMA is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which deals with the effective global management and organisation of business R&D and innovation within a European perspective. EIRMA engages over 150 major companies which are based in over 20 countries and operate in a wide range of sectors. Their aim is to help companies to improve the performance of their R&D and enhance innovation. Their unique features are the networking and personal contact that the Financial Times recommends. They have been offering this for more than 40 years.

Since January 2010, Inpaqt has a representative in the USA: Marcel Wijma. Marcel is a specialist in valuation of innovative life science enterprises and complex innovative projects. He will explore the USA markets for the Inpaqt tools and services. More information? Please contact M. Wijma by: vlr@inpaqt.com

Inpaqt CTO prof. dr. Felix Janszen and partner Dr Murhty Halemane have given lectures about Inpaqt’s Innovation Management Suite to MBA students at the University of Lanzhou, for executive MBA students in Shenzen and Shanghai and for a group of 50 entrepreneurs in Lanzhou. These lectures were a huge success and very much appreciated by the participants. From the discussions it became clear that innovation is seen as the next big challenge for China’s companies. At this moment they are the production place for the world, making product according to the requirements of their western customers. However this will change when prices will increase. At that moment they have to rise in the value chain and develop and commercialize their own products. Therefore the students and entrepreneurs were very eager to acquire the relevant innovation management competences. Everybody expected that this next stage of development will take place in the coming decade.

In September a new release has been launched of the Innovation Management Suite (version 5.6). Inpaqt has developed in this release new functionalities for the Portfolio Management module and state of the art visual presentation.

Now Inpaqt started in South-Africa. Freda Gray and Katherine Rutherford are developing the African business. Freda & Katherine are Innovation Management experts for many years. More information available via e-mail: mindstir@inpaqt.com. They are pleased to serve you.

Inpaqt has opened offices in India. Early 2009 Inpaqt has started with Innovation Management classes for e.g. the India Business School in Bangalore. Murthy Halamane Phd. is in charge of the Indian activities.

On June 9th all participants of the IPOB project will discuss their contributions of the interviews held early this year in the Netherlands and Finland. The event will take place in Amsterdam. The objective of the IPOB project is to increase the efficiency of business renewal and innovation process management by means of future research, technological forecasts and risk management. The project will develop an operational model, which will including the process and tools with which companies can efficiently utilise the forecasts of the future and technology, and apply comprehensive risk management throughout the innovation and strategy process aimed at renewing business operations. Participants are: e.g. Corus, DSM, Philips, Nokia, ThyssenKrupp, Rabobank, Imtech, Vebego, etc.

In December a new release has been launched of the Innovation Management Suite (version 5.5). Inpaqt has developed in this release new functionalities for the Idea Management module and new functions are added to the application of valuation of innovative projects.

VTT Innorisk Finland and Stichting Centrum voor Innovatie Management (CIM) Netherlands have signed a partnership agreement for the corporate research of Innovation Management methods, tools, and best practices. The research projects have a parctical characteristics, whereEuropean companies and research agencies are involved. The INNORISK is a 3-year joint project of CoFi/ÅA and VTT; its first stage was launched in Tekes' LIITO technology programme on 1 January 2006. The objective of the INNORISK project is to increase the efficiency of business renewal and innovation process management by means of future research, technological forecasts and risk management. The project will develop the INNORISK operational model, which will including the process and tools with which companies can efficiently utilise the forecasts of the future and technology, and apply comprehensive risk management throughout the innovation and strategy process aimed at renewing business operations. www.vtt.fi. The Stichting Centrum voor Innovatie Management (CIM) is a knowledge Center and aims to improve and professionalize the Innovation Management level in the Netherlands. CIM is a local platform where professionals share their knowledge and experiences about Innovation Management. www.innovationmanagement.org. Contact information: Stichting Centrum voor Innovatie Management Martinus Nijhofflaan 2 2624 ES Delft. Contact person: dhr. W. Suijkerbuijk; e-mail: info@innovationmanagement.org

Inpaqt has developed an e-learning module to explore via Internet ideas into a business plan. Users will receive a weblink, where they get access via Internet to the e-learning module. The e-learning module consists of theory, several cases, access to Innovation Management tools, and templates. On a pratical way users can explore their own ideas into a business plan. Additionaly users receive a link to the special innovation management wiki, so one can share and enrich their innovation management knowledge. Also 1 hour telephone support for the exploration of your business plan is provided by the Inpaqt Innovation Management specialists. The costs of this electronic learning module are € 200,- exclusive VAT.

During the second half of 2007, Inpaqt facilitated 12 construction enterprises for their business development of new products and services. The participating companies are various, e.g. architects, intallation, construction, designing, consultancy and project development companies. All of them have the ambition to work out the theme: Integrated designing. The 12 companies participate a serie of 4 workshops about Integrated designing. In 2008 this initiative will be continued and this will lead to new innovative products.

In Augustus a workshop was organized in Finland by VTT and Inpaqt. The program consisted of: idea management, exploration of ideas to concepts and business case, portfolio management and roadmapping. The synergy between VTT and Inpaqt is severe, therefore they decided to develop a cooperation between both parties.

A group of pepper growers in the Western part of the Netherlands started in early 2007 a new innovation project, supported by INPAQT. Almost 100 new business ideas were generated using TRIZ. The most attractive ideas were selected and explored to a new business concept. New products and services are expected to enter the market end of 2008. The Rabobank Innovation funding was one of the partners in this innovation project.

In the Design Factory in the Caballero fabriek in The Hague, the Netherlands, a group of designers and managers from the Dutch packaging industry, generated new ideas for packing fruit and vegetables to improve freshness. The participants scored and selected their ideas and eleborated one idea further using the Inpaqt toolset. It became clear to the participants that, a structured methode using the Inpaqt tooling accelerate and improve the quality of business planning.

In Lithuania en Letvia a special project has been started to improve entrepreneurship of students on the local Universities. The back bone of this project is an Innovation Management course, given by Siemon Smid of Assystems. Siemon Smid used Inpaqt tools to structure the path from idea to business plan. Students used via Internet the Inpaqt Innovation Management Suite to built their business plans. The participants worked in groups during these course and learned that group discussions are important to articulate their thoughts. At the end their business plans became more solid and contain more business alternatives.

Inpaqt demonstrated a new process for Innovation Management supported by the Inpaqt Innovation Management Suite on the exhibition: Open Innovation & New Products, October 5th 2006 at the Campus Area in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. During the Exhibition, Prof. dr. Felix Janszen, CTO of Inpaqt, presented a lecture about a new approach to structure the innovation processes. There was a lot of interest for the lecture, especially the case study gave the participants new insights.

On initiative of the Stichting Food Valley, the Netherlands, Inpaqt gave 4 innovation management workshops to 5 companies, active in the food business. In the workshops the management of the participating companies worked out in groups their company strategy. They defined for new and exsisting products and services, a customer value proposition and the translation to organisation competences and technologies. The product life cycle of the products and services was analysed as well. Some participating companies conclude that it is better to stop several exsisting products and start to develop new products on the market. The participants learn how to work out their new ideas to solid business plans. The participants were enthousiastic about their learned lessons. Due to the succes, Stichting Food Valley decided to organize more similar workshops. The next workshop will be held during Spring 2007. For more information about these workshops, please contact Stichting Food Valley, Mr. R. Witvoet: +31(0)6267501700