Innovation Management Systems: A Modern Approach to Sustainable Innovation

The way corporate innovation is done is constantly evolving. As organisations face increasing pressure to innovate consistently and efficiently, Innovation Management Systems (IMS) have become one of the most prominent solutions for sustainable innovation.

So, what makes a truly effective Innovation Management System in today's AI-driven world?

What is an Innovation Management System?

A proper IMS isn't just a set of guidelines and templates. It is a well-built framework that enables organisations to systematically capture, evaluate, and implement innovation opportunities. Modern IMS platforms combine traditional methodologies with advanced technologies and AI automations to create a repeatable and scalable innovation process.

Key Components of a Modern Innovation Management System

Business Need Analysis

• Systematic capture of problems, bottlenecks, and opportunities across your company's business lines requires setting up the right tools and processes.
• AI-assisted Problem definition. Making the problem definition process as frictionless as possible by providing AI assistance at every step.
• Deep understanding of market context. Of course, your line managers and subject matter experts know their domain, but having an up-to-date market context not only helps them to provide a complete description of the problem but also helps you (the innovation manager) to quickly understand the market landscape.

In my opinion, having an efficient and consistent business need capture process set up in your organisation is crucial and shouldn't be overlooked; let me explain why this matters in the next step.

Challenge Management

• Structured approach to innovation initiatives. As in many other things in life, innovation needs to determine which problems it needs to solve before jumping into solutions. What I've seen after talking to dozens of innovation managers is that it isn't always the case. In many cases, people start to explore solutions just to see if something sparks their attention or start scouting with only a vague idea of what opportunities they need to pursue for the company. A solution to that is first having a structured and easy-to-analyse repository of business needs (some people also call them ideas, problems or opportunities). After having this step resolved, all the next steps become easier, more efficient and more meaningful.
• Clear success metrics and KPIs. Companies innovate to stay competitive and ahead of their competition, to be more efficient, spend less and gain more, and provide a greater value while leaving a smaller environmental footprint. And you can find many other reasons to innovate, but there's always a reason. And to innovate consistently and successfully, the outcomes of your efforts need to be measured systematically. On the other hand, innovation must align with the company's strategy and KPIs.
• Efficient resource allocation. Especially in bigger organisations, running many projects simultaneously can be extremely hard. It can also be extremely hard to control them all at the same time and allocate the scarce resources between them to avoid bottlenecks, missing deadlines, and running over the budget.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that combines this all under one hood?

Solution Discovery

• AI-powered market scanning & smart matching. AI-enhanced scouting tools along with pay-to-access startup databases with their insights have been around for quite some time already. But wouldn't it be great to match the solutions with your company's specific business needs especially those which could impact your KPIs in the most significant way and which also align with your company's strategy and values?
• Comprehensive market intelligence. Before going further in your pursuit to match a potentially impactful business need with a solution that covers all the requirements, take a moment to explore the market trends and analyse a market intelligence report prepared for you for the specific business niche you're working on. Taking this step will save time and ensure that you're betting on a solution with a high growth potential and not on something that will decline in a couple of years.
• Efficient Solution Evaluation. So let's say we've selected a short list of solutions that cover our requirements, which are based around emerging technological trends and are aligned with our company's strategy. Now we should be able to compare their unique value propositions, contact the finalists of this process and then hopefully launch a PoC with at least one of them.

Implementation - Proof of Concept

• Structured roadmaps. Each challenge is different, and depending on the specifics of it, you might want to use different project plans for implementing a PoC for each of them. In some cases it is better to integrate a solution that already exists on the market, in some others go for an Open Innovation approach or even build a custom solution. There can be a number of different strategies you'd usually consider and for each of them, it is helpful to follow a specific project plan template, which would not only help you guide the implementation but also will make the project management easier to handle.
• Progress tracking and reporting. Imagine having one place to consult the status of all your active challenges, being able to get a snapshot of all the innovation activities across your organisation with one click and seeing where you are with each project with one simple view. Well, actually that's something we're currently building at Lowerton.

Why Traditional Approached Fall Short

While the ISO 56001:2019 (Innovation Management System) standard provided a solid foundation for innovation management and the currently developed ISO/AWI 56002 consolidates the recommendations and helps innovation managers systematically guide their efforts, today's business environment demands more.

Legacy systems (or we could also say "pre-AI" systems) often:

• Rely on periodic reviews rather than continuous assessment
• Miss market opportunities due to their long cycles
• Struggle to scale across organisations and require constant manual coordination and pursuit of the business areas to provide inputs, which later need to be categorised and systematically recorded
• Fall short in connecting the problems to solutions

The Future of Innovation Management

As we see it from Lowerton, modern Innovation Management Systems should evolve to offer:

• Data-driven decision-making through AI analysis of business needs, market trends, and potential solutions
• Organisation-wide deployment that maintains consistency while allowing customisation for different departments
• Structured methodologies for capturing and analysing business problems before jumping to solutions
• Seamless connection with existing corporate tools like ERPs, CRMs, and project management systems
• Continuous monitoring and adjustment of innovation initiatives and PoC implementations based on real-time feedback and results

Measuring success

Effective Innovation Management Systems should demonstrate clear results in:

• Faster innovation cycles - reducing the time from problem identification to solution implementation
• Higher project success rates - increasing the percentage of innovation initiatives that achieve their defined goals
• Efficient resource allocation - maximizing return on innovation investments through better prioritization
• Quantifiable business impact - tracking cost savings and revenue generation from innovation projects
• Active participation - increasing engagement from key stakeholders across different business areas

Looking Ahead

As innovation management continues to evolve, we're seeing increased focus on:

• Real-time collaboration tools that connect innovation teams across global organisations
• Enhanced data analytics for better decision-making
• Integration of sustainability metrics into innovation evaluation
• Automated progress tracking and reporting
• Usage of Specialised AI Agents

Conclusion

As organisations continue to face unprecedented challenges and opportunities, having a robust Innovation Management System becomes not just an advantage but a necessity. The key is choosing or developing a system that combines proven methodologies with modern technologies to create sustainable innovation processes.

At Lowerton, we focus on building the Innovation Management System of the future that encompasses all the points described in this article. Our current platform already provides over 60% coverage for ISO 56001 compliance simply through normal usage, making it easier for organisations to manage their innovation processes systematically.

‍