Businesses are always in pursuit of new, unique innovations and ideas. And ideas are something that can emerge from anywhere and from anyone. On many occasions, employees are in a better position to generate new ideas for their workplace as they have a first-hand experience of working on projects. On the other hand, the senior management may also come up with their views since they have a complete picture of the firm and its future in mind. However, processing an idea or innovation is not as easy as it may sound. Therefore, you need an idea management software for the same to aid the process.
Idea management software allows you to structure the process of generating, capturing, discussing, improving and organizing ideas. In other words, it helps in gathering all ideas in one place and selecting the ones that are worth implementing. The ideas can be of a wide variety including new products, methods to improve business operations, savings on expenditure, etc.
This article will introduce you to the three idea management software, their features, and pricing so that you can choose the one that is the best for your organization.
Idea Management Software
1. Acuvate
Acuvate offers its customers a software named Wave, which is a SharePoint based idea management tool. It has a portal on which employees can submit their ideas as well as comment on others’. You can use it to shortlist ideas. Moreover, you can conduct a voting procedure for the same as well. Its integrations include Yammer, Office 365 and SharePoint. Wave serves a wide range of industries including legal, finance and banking, education, NGOs and construction. 
Features
- It provides you with a dashboard which shows reports on the ideas and their performance.
- Gamification features provide interactive games and challenges to engage employees which can be highly motivating for them.
- You can reward your employees for their contribution to the idea management process. This way, you can encourage new ideas and innovation in your business operations.
- Idea ranking is available for you to be able to shortlist ideas according to your specific priorities or other measures.
- Acuvate Wave integrates into social channels, mobile and cloud environments easily.
Pricing
The information about the pricing plans is not available and you will have to contact the service provider for the same. You can put up your query through their website.
2. Crowdicity
This idea management software is a cloud-based solution for idea management and crowdsourcing. It is suitable for all small to large businesses in industries like retail, financial services, manufacturing, communication, and banking. Besides that, it has various integrations with social media websites like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook among others. Managers can also control user access permissions and privileges, and view trend analysis. You can access their support services via phone and email. Furthermore, it has a mobile-friendly interface which makes the software accessible through a wider range of devices. 
Features
- You can set your own questions and unique fields in order to extract the exact information you need from the idea author.
- Idea authors are able to support their suggestions and ideas by uploading images, YouTube embeds, videos, PDFs, MS Office documents and Zip files.
- Users can discuss ideas, comment, vote, and tag additional contributors to support their ideas. This increases user interaction, idea creation and implementation.
- The voting procedure is available in different forms including voting up and down, star rating, liking, and blind voting. So, you can choose the type that best suits your idea.
- You can sort ideas based on keywords and phrases which makes the shortlisting process faster.
Pricing
You can avail a free demo of the service. But, you will have to collect the pricing details of the service after the free trial from Crowdicity directly.
3. Wazoku
Wazoku’s Idea Spotlight is a cloud-based idea management tool which allows internal as well as external stakeholders of a business to contribute to idea creation. Internal stakeholders can be employees and the management whereas external stakeholders can be customers, partners or the general public. In addition to that, its interface is suitable for mobile users too. The key users of the software are innovation officers, HR directors, strategy officers, etc. You can get the service provider’s support via online videos and webinars.
Features
- Its gamification features include a leaderboard, rewards points and medals which are very likely to motivate employees and encourage them to participate in the idea management process.
- Users can rate ideas based on feasibility, strategic fit, cost, and time-to-market. Besides that, they can also discuss the ideas through forums, groups, voting and commenting.
- Idea Spotlight integrates with Microsoft Word and Excel, Yammer and SharePoint.
- Moreover, you can track ideas at different stages. For instance, it shows ideas under tags such as consultation, approved, rejected and in-review.
- The software sends personalized notifications to users including daily summaries and weekly digest emails to inform them about the progress on the ideas.
Pricing
You can try the product for free and make subscription-based payments thereafter. However, you will need to collect the details of the subscription plans from the service provider directly.
4. IdeaBuddy
All-in-one toolbox for propelling business ideas. There are tens of millions of people that have brilliant ideas and a drive to start their own businesses. But, most of them lack direction, guidance, and support on their journey, so they soon become overwhelmed, discouraged, and lost. Statistics say that on one person that starts a business, there are at least three other aspiring entrepreneurs that give up along the way.
All of this comes with a step-by-step guide and relevant examples. The tool is simple, easy, and fun to use. Our target customers are aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners, accelerators and incubators, business schools and universities, product managers and consultants and accounting agencies.
Features
- Structure your idea and cover all the major points on a business canvas, which lets you brainstorm easily with friends and partners.
- A step-by-step guide takes you through all the development stages, from initial idea to execution, so you don’t skip any important details.
- Forecast your performance and create realistic profit and cash flow projections for once the business is up and running.
- The algorithm calculates the final score for the idea and gives recommendations for improvement. Users can share the concept with friends, in a simple format, to get their feedback and rating.
- IdeaBuddy documents the entire idea and creates an internal business plan, which can be presented to partners and potential investors.
Pricing
IdeaBuddy pricing starts from:
- Dreamer plan - It is a one-page business plan with the cost of $9 per month
- Founder plan - At the cost of $16 per month you can get this most popular plan.
- Enterprise plan - This plan is available for larger companies and other organizations.
