The InnoCentive Insider – Introducing the InnoCentive Client Services Blog Series
Today marks the first in a series of blog posts written by the InnoCentive Client Services team. As the primary interface to both the Seeker and Solver communities, Client Services is in a unique position to understand what it takes to successfully write and solve an InnoCentive Challenge. We hope that these posts will be useful to you – and as always we welcome your questions, suggestions and feedback!
The InnoCentive Client Services Team – Who We Are
By Gabriel Eichler
InnoCentive Client Services
For many Solvers, the Client Services team is the virtual face of InnoCentive. We are involved in every aspect of the Challenge lifecycle, from working to define the crux of the problem with Seekers, to answering the questions of inquisitive Solvers and then making that exciting introduction between the winning Solver and appreciative Seeker. With such a wide variety of responsibilities, the InnoCentive Client Services team wears several hats, but that comes naturally to us.
We’re an experienced and diverse bunch. We have a combined total of over 17 years of Open Innovation experience and an average 13 years of R&D intensive industry experience. We have advanced degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Computational Sciences, Engineering and Business. The Client Services team has worked all over the world including Russia, Switzerland, France, Israel, Thailand, Japan, Germany, and even Alaska. On top of that, we collectively speak 7 different languages.
Even considering this diversity, we’ve joined InnoCentive because we believe in the promise of Open Innovation. We not only love to provide exciting Challenges for individuals around the globe but we also believe that the opening of innovation will lead to more and better innovation for all. It is precisely because of this passion that we’re launching this new series of blog entries by the InnoCentive Client Services team. We hope that through the next several months, you’ll get to know us better and our individual passions for Open Innovation will shine through. More importantly, we hope that you can benefit from the insights we share. We have after all seen over 700 Challenges on the InnoCentive Website, so we happen to know a thing or two about what it takes to get the most out of our marketplace. We encourage you to leave comments, ask questions and reach out to any of us if you’d like to join the conversation. Enjoy.
Tags: biology, business, chemistry, Client Services, computational science, engineering, Innovation, Open Innovation
November 4th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Innocentive is the future of innovation – pure and simple. It’s exciting to think about what directions this will take when creative minds build on this concept in the future!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Hi Michael,
Thanks for leaving the comment. As the blog post says, we here in InnoCentive’s Client Services couldn’t agree with you more. Thanks for contributing and I hope that you participate in some of our Challenges.
Cheers,
Gabriel
November 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I am a solver and submitted a few proposal but not selected. it is very disappointing. May I request you to write a few line when you closed the project room and let the solver gives a response that the project room was closed along with 1.) deficiency , 2.) room for improvement, 3.) my exact distress standing from the success line. So it will be better for me to guide my journey to the right direction.
Thanking you with warm and love.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Hi Subhabrata,
You are right that Solvers love to see feedback. We strive to provide as much feedback as possible for each of the submissions that we receive. Often times however, the rationale used for accepting or rejecting a solution is not provided by the Seeker, so we are unable to provide substantive feedback to the non-winning Solvers. We do urge Seekers to help us provide that rationale, but it is not always possible.
I would encourage you to take a look at the awarded Solvers page to see the identities of the winners. The bios provided on that page can sometimes help you appreciate the background of the winning Solver.
Good luck on your future submissions. Most of our winning Solvers experienced several losses before they were able to win their first Challenge.
Cheers,
Gabriel