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Pros
The solution Planbox offers is very easy to use and provides many benefits to our innovation process. We have many reports that help us identify all of the activity in our innovation pipeline.
Planbox's team is great to work with, very responsive and provide an excellent level of support and service.
We love using Planbox's innovation management platform, its easy to use, it can really adapt itself to our specific needs which we love.
We love the solution and enjoy the best practices expert advice we receive from the Planbox team to help us achieve better innovation results.
Cons
For many groups the system is utilized well, but some groups begin the effort and then abandon it. This relays more on how we are applying it than the system itself.
Expanding its use beyond what it is intended to do is very difficult.
The way they are changing the game is transformational. We, as an industry, can no longer ignore these active threats.
Planbox's tool features only limited built-in scoring and funneling features. As a result, scoring according to a matrix that reflects the company's overall strategy and focus areas is difficult.
Showing Most Helpful
Showing 25 of 31 reviews
"System Specialist"
Overall: We use this tool for a few different reasons: 1) collecting ideas for collaboration - great for allowing threaded discussions with other users. 2) using the flash form has enabled users to use this tool for collecting ideas during various meetings and gives the opportunity for commenting on the ideas submitted. 3) Results Engine has proven useful for a few groups by putting their spreadsheets into this tool they can now run reports and see the information at a glance instead of scrolling through spreadsheet columns.
Pros: I like the fact that it is user friendly, it doesn't scare users to come in and submit ideas/comments or search for ideas. I also like the Results Engine module for the same user friendly experience, but with this it's so easy for the users to run reports that they can get their information how/when they need it. Also, the support team is quick to answer questions or problems.
Cons: I do not have any "cons" I've basically been able to manipulate Innovation Central and Results Engine to meet my companies needs and make it easy for the users. It would be very nice if there could be standardized reports created, that would contain a company logo and updated information monthly, instead of having to export a spreadsheet monthly and manipulating it to run graphs.
"Comprehensive ideation platform "
Overall: Good experience overall - responsive team to our needs. Quick to action when thing do not work, and always introducing new features
Pros: The flexibility of being able to manage our program the way we see fit. The workflow is in the eye of the beholder, allowing you to configure it to what works best to your needs. The data collection throughout the process with a wide range of data points is also a huge plus
Cons: With the flexibility comes with it having to learn and manage more about the platform. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just the nature of any platform that gives this more flexibility to do what you want
"Flexible tool. Supportive company."
Pros: Planbox's tool is self-explanatory and easy to use. It also brings quite some flexibility and possibilities for customization. The fact that is white-labeled is great as well.
Cons: Planbox's tool features only limited built-in scoring and funneling features. As a result, scoring according to a matrix that reflects the company's overall strategy and focus areas is difficult.
Vendor Response
"Intuitive UI"
Pros: The user interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy for team members to get started and stay engaged.
Cons: Customization can take time but the implementation consultants are always readily available to give us a hand
"Crowdsourcing with Analytics"
Pros: Innovation Central does exactly what it's supposed to do, and it does it well. If you're looking to solicit ideas from across your organization easily, manage the funnel of the best of those ideas (as picked by experts), and have people collaborate on those ideas, then you definitely should include Imaginatik's portal in your short list. The analytics and features for evaluating ideas are excellent. Licensing really varies in this space: Innovation Central is licensed by "instance," or how many concurrent challenges you can run, and is independent of the number of users. This works for some and not for others, and Imaginatik will likely work with you to help you find the model that works best for your organization. Customization of what it does -- as a crowdsourcing tool -- is good. It's not amazing but it doesn't pretend to be, either. There's only so much you can, or even *should* do with a SaaS tool; keep this in mind!
Cons: Expanding its use beyond what it is intended to do is very difficult. For example, if you'd also want to manage the running of a hackathon within the tool, that's not going to be an easy thing to do. You can manage portfolios of work, there is some blogging, and other features as well, which it does an 'adequate job' doing but nothing like the outstanding work and effort they've put into the crowdsourcing and analysis. In other words: don't try to fit round pegs into the square hole.
"PlanBox has been an easy to use and effective tool to solicit, gather and track ideas."
Pros: 1. The PlanBox software is easy to use from both an end-user perspective and an administrator's perspective. 2. Excellent value proposition.
Cons: 1. Time consuming process to score challenge ideas. On average each idea took our users 2-3 minutes to score. When coupled with 75-100 submitted ideas, each person responsible for scoring a challenge idea can take between 2-4 hours of time on top of their day jobs. Solution: A user interface listing each of the ideas and the respective scoring criteria along with a link to the idea to be scored would be most helpful in tabular format. Enhancing the Idea Manager feature to include more fields for selection, filtering and managing ideas would go a long way as a list view with links reduces the amount of user interface clicks/navigation. 2. Enhanced data visualization (e.g. control charts, sliders, etc.)
Vendor Response
"Outstanding Tool With Excellent Customer Support"
Pros: We have been using Planbox for several years now and I am extremely impressed with the platform. It has provided our organization with a central location to capture, track, and evaluate new ideas, making it easier for us to stay organized and focused on innovation. The ability to collaborate in different ways and gather feedback has also been extremely helpful for improving the quality and feasibility of our ideas.
Cons: A rich tool comes with some learning but the training provided to our team has been very effective.
"A Versatile Solution"
Pros: Planbox offers automation of complex and custom workflows. This is especially important to our organization as we have various business units use the tool, all with different workflows and approval processes. Not only does the tool accommodate each one of them, we never have to interfere to do something manually. Everything gets done for us which gives us the time to focus on the next project.
Cons: Like with all software that receive frequent updates, there will be the occasional bug but Planbox is quick to react and push the fix to our production environment.
"Planbox allows us to really manage our innovation pipeline and keep track of our innovation concepts"
Overall: We have the ability to accelerate our innovation concept development process Recognize our employees in the process Help build a culture of innovation Centralized innovation tool that is easy to manage new ideas and concepts
Pros: We love the flexibility of the solution along with capability of building a reward store within it to help recognize the innovation efforts our employees provide to improve the long term view of the company. We love its simplicity and the fact that we can operate Planbox in two languages, spanish and english. The team we work with provides great service and expertise, and helps us really get the best value out of our program. We have a very detailed process and one that is quite elaborate and Planbox was the only solution that would allow us to manage this effectively. The support team always provides us with great help and advice to make sure we are optimal
Cons: We like a lot of what the solution has to offer, sometimes configuration changes may be a little more detailed to complete, but we have a very rigid process that requires a lot of touch points.
"An easy-to-use innovation tool with a responsive and helpful support team"
Overall: We are solving innovation problems. We were trying to figure out a tool where everyone can present innovative ideas in one space and communicate amongst each other to figure out the best solution to implement. All ideas are crowdsourced and collaborated upon so the best ideas can ride to the top. For many groups the system is utilized well, but some groups begin the effort and then abandon it. This relays more on how we are applying it than the system itself.
Pros: This tool is very easy to use. I don’t need much help when using the system but if I do, help is an email away and support gets everything done very quickly. The support team is very helpful.
Cons: The guides on the Helpdesk can be updated with new settings such as Cobalt. Many of my questions could be answered with these guides so I wouldn’t have to rely on support. The documents define the purpose of the features but they don’t explain how an administrator would use it.
"A customizable, robust platform boasting an user-friendly intuitive design."
Pros: What sets Planbox apart from others is: Focus on collaboration (offering a multitude of customizable features/tools) Automatic workflow (promotes collaboration, advocates transparency, minimizes administrative burden). Idea evaluation (efficiently view/communicate the stacking and ranking of ideas. Extensive reporting engine (customizable reporting, analytics, dashboards)
Cons: There is no perfect platform/software on the market that optimally performs 100% of the time . When performance issues occur, Planbox has a dedicated support team that provides immediate support to effectively and efficiently resolve the issue. Additionally, Planbox provides a method to submit suggestions/ideas for features, enhancements, and/or tools, which are reviewed on a consistent basis for consideration. You couldn't ask more of company who is willing to listen to ("hear") its customer's voice; and take actionable measures to improve their product/offering.
"Planbox allows us to help centralize our innovation intelligence to make the best decisions"
Overall: Managing innovation, grouping innovation categories, centralizing innovation, managing collaboration and developing Innovation Pipeline and portfolio reports. To trigger innovation, we have to look outside of the company. Already there are cunning startups that have looked at each part of the supply chain of the insurance industry and disrupted them. The way they are changing the game is transformational. We, as an industry, can no longer ignore these active threats
Pros: We leverage Planbox which brings innovation management to the next level by putting intelligence right at the decision points that are critical to developing breakthrough ideas. We have a very positive experience using Planbox and we have achieved tremendous ROI. We needed a highly structured process of innovation to succeed and Planbox allowed us to do this inside the solution and deliver on our needs.
Cons: We go out to the business units, discern their needs, validate their needs and work to provide solutions to them that are innovative, Planbox allows us to work with specific experts and improve our ability to make better business decisions aligned with our strategy.
"Impressed by the highly configurable system. Black Box workflows are all done without customization."
Overall: Planbox is our system of record for IT innovation management.
Pros: - Flexible workflows can be tailored to match unique Black Box business processes - Cloud-based availability anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection - Improved communication of idea progress for both the idea submitter as well as product line owners - Simple yet effective dashboard with graphs, progress assets, and scoreboards which allow any user to quickly see the latest activity - A Challenges concept to focus idea generation around predefined issues
Cons: Business rule, form designer, gamification and reporting engines have a lot of power under the hood. A lot of effort has to go into user experience, reward and challenge design in order to stay away from unnecessary complexity and ensure a consistent high user engagement in the innovation program.
"Great innovation results delivered with Planbox"
Overall: Defining an Innovation Process for our company Employee engagement Innovation ROI
Pros: Planbox software met our criteria of capturing and managing idea submission, automatically generating reports to monitor the innovation process, and the flexibility to customize business rules and automate communications. This has been a huge advantage for us to manage our innovation process and become really efficient at developing new concepts. We believe that Innovation cannot come from a single voice and using Planbox software invites many perspectives and input into each idea. As such, ERT will first release the software to its global employees, and in a second phase it will release custom communities for ERT clients to submit their ideas.
Cons: Understanding which concepts should receive funding has been a challenge, but the solution helps us identify the best ones which is great. Building a higher level of engagement requires focus and a lot of marketing.
"Planbox- A powerful innovation management solution that effectively manages our innovation process "
Pros: Planbox has very configurable reporting engine that allows us to create rich visualizations of all of the data in our system. Setting up challenges inside the system is simple and easy to do. We love the scalability of the platform
Cons: Unclear lines between what falls under support and services. The company constantly updates the solution and I feel that there should be more information on the new features being launched and some training around it. Reporting is very powerful but requires a good understanding of how to configure it.
Vendor Response
"We couldn't be more excited about our decision to partner with Planbox!"
Pros: The selection process took approximately two months and several other products were considered. Ultimately, Planbox Innovate was selected for its ability to track and report on the implementation of ideas, its ease of use and turnkey deployment plan. We are looking to foster a culture of change and continuous improvement, and to encourage collaboration on ideas about how to better deliver our legal services to our clients. We want an idea management platform that makes it both inviting and easy to do. Planbox's Innovate solution provides us this platform with powerful and easy to use reporting.
Cons: During the implementation we received excellent support. Post implementation support response time has been acceptable. However, in the past the Planbox support response to my issue has been slow at times.
"Great support and very customizable software"
Pros: Workflow customization, easy of deployment/maintenance, user friendliness
Cons: UI customization is limited for some features, reporting could be improved
"Planbox, an incredibly customizable and robust platform. "
Pros: Platform is robust, no downtime during our first challenge. Platform is incredidly customizable, we can adjust pretty much what we want. Access to people at Planbox is easy and fast. Intengration between our corporate systems and Planbox has been done quite easily.
Cons: Configuring the platform for our first challenge has been a bit more challenging than we thought it would be but we made it through thanks to good support staff availability. There's some many things we can customize that some features could gain from being pre-configured.
"Excellent experience with the Innovate product and Planbox team."
Overall: Up and running quickly and ability to meet our business needs in a cost-effective manner.
Pros: Ease of use and ability to support the unique needs of many communities within Innovate. Support from the Planbox team is great.
Cons: Enhanced user interface admin support would be beneficial to assist with creating challenges faster.
"Very effective solution to manage the development of ideas and new concepts"
Pros: The solution Planbox offers is very easy to use and provides many benefits to our innovation process. We have many reports that help us identify all of the activity in our innovation pipeline. Planbox helps us unite our employees and brings many new concepts to light that have a deep impact on our organization.
Cons: The collection of ideas requires a process to be well defined, sometimes we lose track of priorities and we need to focus on building a process that embraces the collection of ideas. We appreciate the service and quarterly progress Planbox provides us to help us improve our efforts and results.
Vendor Response
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"Easy to use and very engaging"
Overall: great product and support
Pros: easy to use, colleagues really like it and it encourage idea collaboration
Cons: not covering complete idea management process
"Planbox Innovate is a powerful innovation management tool"
Overall: Great professional service team who provides great attention to detail and always delivers great results, excellent product with a great feature list that is geared for innovation programs, strong reporting capabilities. I have been an admin inside the tool and it is very easy to use and to set up different communities and workflows for each of them.
"Exciting software and AI capabilities"
Overall: Our team really enjoys testing the AI capabilities within the software to streamline our work and improve efficiency.
Pros: The AI powering behind the scenes is useful and intelligent aiding in making workflows streamlined and seems to be a couple steps ahead of us oftentimes. The change tracking features also are helpful to keep everyone on the same page.
Cons: We need a helpdesk feature for most of our work and it does not have all the features we need.
"An all-in-one Continuous Improvement solution!"
Pros: Planbox has all the features from idea aggregation, project management, to reporting that makes it a great solution for your Continuous Improvement program.
Cons: Room to roll out a more structured onboarding program.