Cooperation in a company across its structures and divisions, as well as with its external partners, will be a key part of the digital transformation of businesses, and, broadly, commerce worldwide, says market research firm International Data Corporation research manager Lise Hagen.

Broad collaboration enables many people and parts of a supply chain to provide data and input for innovation.

However, companies must consider their models for innovation in the context of their culture and appetite for risk.

“Ideas can come from many places and people – coworkers, business partners, suppliers and customers on the shop floor. More important is to identify these sources of ideas to be able to use them more effectively. Many good ideas that might have made a significant difference are lost because they are not recognised or captured. Including these sources in a company’s innovation model enables them to be leveraged,” Hagen explains.

She notes that innovation is “difficult and introduces change”, and is not only about “the new and shiny”, but also about “tweaks that create efficiency”.

The maturity of innovation models or initiatives in organisations is also an important consideration. Companies should consider a services strategy for their innovation initiatives and how outputs would be harnessed and executed, which also requires buy-in from everyone involved.

Collaboration structures in companies provide an opportunity for buy-in, and for employee interest to develop, and mitigate resistance to change when innovations are introduced. Similarly, a collaborative innovation model that includes external partners and suppliers also improves visibility of such developments and helps in the management of change during the implementation of innovations across supply chains.

“Collaboration is an agent for digital transformation. Companies cannot have their divisions operating in silos and should encourage collaboration, albeit in line with how mature the company believes its innovation initiatives to be,” emphasises Hagen.

“Companies can support innovation by creating an innovation laboratory or office, recognising and sanctioning pet projects of teams and considering employee reward and recognition initiatives. These should be noted for the purposes of human resources management and reviewed annually,” she says.

Information technology (IT) is often used as a medium for innovation, but that does not mean that innovation should only take place within or through the development of IT systems.

Skills challenges are also prevalent worldwide, especially for third-platform technologies, such as digital business systems, which make it difficult to find people in the organisation who can use these systems and evangelise their use in the organisation. Companies must, therefore, enable digital transformation through collaboration and innovation, she concludes.

Hagen spoke at the annual Innovation Day event held by global ICT solutions provider Software, in July.