What is Ideas Management in Salesforce and What are its Limitations?

We all have ideas, however, only a few come to life, and even fewer turn into something actionable.

Do you know why? To create value out of ideas, they need to be analyzed, refined, and managed.

Many organizations struggle with this. It is because the journey of an idea to become a full-fledged concept is challenging.

Ideas come in all shapes and forms and take time to be practically applicable and turn into an innovation. Therefore, idea management is not only important but necessary for organizations to stay competitive.

As per a recent survey, 84% of top business executives believe that innovation is critical to organizational growth. And ideas serve as a basis for all sorts of innovations within an organization.^[I]

So, in this blog post, we will discuss idea management, how it leads to innovation, the limitations of the Ideas component on the Salesforce Experience Cloud, and how to surpass these limitations.

Understanding Ideas Management in Salesforce and its Limitations

Ideas management is beneficial for businesses as it helps them make full use of their employees’ creative potential. It can be decoded as systematically managing the process of collecting and developing ideas to make the most out of them.

The Ideas component in a Salesforce Experience Cloud, provides employees as well as the customers of an organization the freedom to bring their ideas on board. Users are allowed to post ideas, subscribe to their favorite ideas, and even vote for the idea that they consider to be helpful.

However, there are a few limitations when it comes to ideas management on Salesforce Experience Cloud:

• You will be unable to perform an advanced search to find relevant ideas.
• Salesforce Ideas component is currently incompatible with the Lightning Experience (LEX).
• “Email-to-Ideas” conversion is also not enabled in LEX.

What is Idea Management Software and its Benefits?

Earlier businesses relied on collating ideas through suggestion box systems, which weren’t effective due to structural flaws such as:

• Lesser participation from employees and customers
• Irrelevant suggestions
• No system of feedback on suggestions
• Difficulty in managing paper-based suggestions

On the other hand, idea management software creates a well-defined process that enables employees and customers to bring their business ideas and suggestions to communities, ensuring a side-by-side evaluation and feedback process.

Benefits of Idea Management Software

An idea management software offers various benefits to businesses. Some of the key benefits are:

• It aids in faster and more efficient evaluation of ideas by identifying, implementing, and reviewing the best of the lot ideas.
• It encourages employee and customer participation, simplifies collaborations between teams, and enhances productivity.
• It helps foster innovation by bringing relevant ideas onboard.

Built by Grazitti, IdeasPro is a Salesforce-native and Lightning-ready solution that enhances the standard capabilities of the Ideas component in Salesforce. It allows secure access to both Salesforce Lightning and Classic versions which is currently unavailable with the standard Ideas component in Salesforce Experience Cloud. Additionally, with its 20+ out-of-the-box functionalities, it prevents profane comments from community members, puts ideas into categories, converts emails to ideas, and more.

We have covered the whole nine-yards about IdeasPro in an exclusive brochure. Should you want to know more about managing ideas using IdeasPro, check it here.

Conclusion

Businesses utilize creative ideas to be at par with their competitors. And online communities serve as a great platform to help them make use of innovative ideas shared by their employees as well as customers.

With the help of Ideas management software, organizations can foster cognitive stimulation, encourage employee and customer participation, and follow a well-defined process to collect ideas and put them to practical use. This not only helps them enhance operational efficiency and productivity but also explores newer business horizons.

Want to Use IdeasPro in Salesforce Experience Cloud? Talk to Us!

Statistical References:

[i] Mckinsey