Where do your best ideas come from?

How do you encourage and harness good ideas within your organisation?

Some businesses don’t see the point of involving all their employees. After all, don’t the best ideas come from the boardroom? And aren’t there consultants for that kind of thing anyway?

Sometimes. But mostly not.

Asking all employees to step outside their day-to-day roles – for a few hours a week at least – can reap major business benefits. And surprises.

That’s what EGS discovered with EGS Labs, a unique opportunity for teams from across our company to create and showcase their own innovative ideas for new products.

Although we’re a software solutions company, each four-person team had sprinkling of talent from across the business. So that’s everyone reception to accounts, operations to sales, development to support. Senior managers provided mentoring.

The big challenge was to find a new or complementary product that EGS could launch within the purchase-to-pay (P2P) marketplace. But the scope was wide open. And Friday afternoons were set aside for two months before the final, which we called Big Thursday.

“At first, people felt quite daunted. But then the challenge become enormously enjoyable and the room was buzzing,” says Paul Massey, our Director of Engineering.

“The difficulty wasn’t trying to find a product, but choosing which of the brilliant ideas to pursue. However, each team settled on a single innovation after applying tough criteria for development time and cost, weighted against benefits and commercial returns.”

Interestingly, each team recognised that more exciting possibilities existed for the vast quantities of data that swims around within P2P systems. Some even created software prototypes at our Big Thursday competition final.

The winning team was EGstra, led by Richard Nduka, with Ping Lam, Elena Toma and Michael McLintock, who shared the £1,000 prize.

Their idea was an exciting, radical, dynamic dashboard that …. erm … well, forgive us if we don’t say any more just yet. Suffice to say that it exceeded our hopes for Big Thursday – and it’s now being nurtured very carefully in the EGS room marked ‘Top Secret’. Watch this space.

The evening ended with the whole company enjoying some well-deserved downtime at a local bar.

Pictured: The winning team (left to right) Elena, Michael, Ping and Richard

“The EGstra team did some amazing work. And their colleagues likewise devised some truly ingenious ideas. Our company would never have thought of these in the normal course of things – which shows the value of this approach,” says Peter Whent, EGS Chief Executive.

“Not only did this give us a wealth of R&D possibilities, but it revealed many hidden talents across the business – from project management to presentation skills. It also strengthened teamwork and enriched the culture of innovation that has made EGS so successful. It’s something we all have – and we must all use.”

Secret ingredient in Apple juice

What’s the secret behind Apple’s success? Super-cool design perhaps? How about amazing customer loyalty? Sealing the right partnership deals? Or perhaps it’s simply having oodles of cash to put behind its products?

The Internet has been awash with various theories since the company achieved two financial milestones this month. Its stock traded above $500 a share for the first time and the company's market cap exceeded $500 billion … putting it into an elite club of corporations.

If only someone could tap the source of this success – and bottle it. Perhaps they’d call it Apple juice? (Sorry about that.)

Seriously though, analysis of the company’s astounding success has made interesting reading.

One story caught our eye – featuring Apple designer Sir Jonathan Ive (dubbed the ‘iMan’). In an interview with the Evening Standard, he was asked “What makes design different at Apple?”

He pointed to a company culture of innovation and fanatical attention to detail. Sir Jonathan talked about the birth of a new idea being fragile … and then becoming a conversation among the design team … and then being turned into a 3D model when ‘everything changes’

“There’s a sense of being inquisitive and optimistic, and you don’t see those in combination very often,” he explained.

“Most of our competitors are interesting in doing something different, or want to appear new - I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better,” he told the newspaper.

And this is the crux of the matter. The best IT companies have a hunger to be better – and appreciate that the seed of an idea needs time and warmth to germinate. It’s something their employees understand too. And the company gives its people thinking space … real time … to see if a few flashes of inspiration can be turned into something truly market-leading.

It’s a question worth asking any IT partner: “When did you last provide serious amounts of time for your staff to see if they could come up with something good?”

If this is part of their company DNA, then you can expect good things from them down the line … whether you’re thinking about purchase-to-pay solutions or any other IT services.

Teamwork to overcome Olympic-sized procurement hurdles

With less than 150 days until the Olympic Games, some interesting procurement challenges have come to light.

We’re not talking about a shortage sand for the beach volleyball, chlorine for the swimming pools, chalk for the weightlifting or drug-testing kits.

It’s things like the number of security guards needed … by lots of organisations, all at once. Up to 20,000 more may be required when the Games start, according to reports. And this begs the question – will a sudden surge in demand of that magnitude have a knock-on affect on the market?

And (whisper it), elsewhere there’s also a rumour about a shortage of … portable toilets.

Only time will tell over whether there’s enough of everything to go round. But what’s really commendable is the approach being taken by key organisations affected by the games. As the Cross Programme Procurement Group (CPPG), they’ve teamed up to manage risk and get value for money.

Of course, the Olympic Games is a special case with unique pressures and immovable dates.

But in the wider economy, day-to-day collaboration among regional public bodies, special interest groups and business units can reap major benefits too.

Through joint marketplaces with the same purchase-to-pay (P2P) system, they can share and access larger open contracts that benefit from high-volume pricing – and make effective strategic decisions together. It’s happening across the UK already with great success.

Is there a Plan B?

How many of your suppliers will go under this year? And do you have too many eggs in one basket?

It’s a sobering thought. But information specialist Experian recently revealed that insolvency rates rose in 2011 – and issued a warning that organisations should address their exposure to any risks.

Over 21,000 businesses failed in the UK. Among the country’s largest sectors, the property industry saw a big increase in its insolvency rate, from 0.72 per cent in 2010 to 0.91 per cent in 2011, during which over 1,300 companies failed.

But firms with one or two employees saw the biggest increase in the insolvency rate during 2011 – from 0.63 per cent in 2010 to 0.71 per cent.

The news prompted a warning – of special interest to procurement chiefs. Max Firth, UK Managing Director for Experian’s Business Information Services division, advised businesses to “understand the risks they are exposed to and have strategies in place to protect themselves.”

The Spend Management Guru echoes this advice – and believes that having the right purchase-to-pay (P2P) system in place can help organisations to meet this challenge.

Firstly, prevention is better than cure. Often, buying organisations become aware that a supplier is experiencing financial difficulties. This may be through their own finance team doing credit checks. Alternatively, it could be through problems with service levels, word of mouth or via another channel.

Should this happen, then a P2P system worth its salt will allow a particular supplier to be ‘flagged’ and a workflow created that immediately indicates exactly what business is going in their direction – and a clear picture of the level of risk. Alternative suppliers can then be lined up as necessary during any ‘flagged’ period.

The right P2P should also allow for searches via an electronic marketplace for possible alternative suppliers. Public sector organisations may also have the added option of national contracts open to them.