Atizo: Letting Companies Stir Up an Idea

February 27th, 2009 in News, by Head Honcho

Innovation is essential in any company in order for it to survive. A cash cow for a company, no matter how profitable in the present, will eventually reach its maturity and saturation. If there is no innovation introduced, other companies will take the opportunity to improve on the product and take away market share.

But introducing innovations is easier said than done. It entails huge costs in order to introduce improvements even on a product’s minutest detail. Moreover, the effort and brainpower to come up with a great yet plausible idea can drain the company’s resources.

Atizo, an innovations website, offers an alternative for forward-thinking companies to set up innovation challenges for the crowd to mull over. And it is a good alternative - a company can get fresh ideas from people outside looking in, at a fraction of the normal cost.

Atizo launched its first phase last year, where companies come up with a challenge and give rewards. Members of the site then give as many ideas as possible. The company then assesses the ideas and divides the rewards to those members who gave great ideas.

Atizo is now in its second phase, where companies can set up their own teams. A company can prepare a brief what is to be tackled. It can then pick the members of its team from among registered Atizo users. The members can then collaborate with each other to come up with new concepts acceptable within the parameters set up by the company. The companies then asses the ideas formulated and reward the team members according to the agreement.

For companies, Atizo’s service can bring great benefits. Companies can have a fresh take on an idea from people with diverse backgrounds. It is an opportunity to get fresh ideas from users, who may offer innovative ideas that company employees may have overlooked. Companies can then focus on day-to-day business operations, while ceding part of their product or service development at a fraction of the cost. In effect, it’s like having a think-tank without the accompanying costs of hiring a full-time staff. For members, it is an opportunity to work in fascinating teams and earn money for great ideas as well.

While there are many other innovation-crowdsourcing websites, Atizo can create a niche, as it can give more control to the companies, while giving incentive to the members at the same time.