“Games are the new normal” – Al Gore, 2011.
Al Gore describes a common impression, also becoming reality in enterprise software. Gaming will be part of any enterprise software to some extent anytime soon. This so-called gamification is about bringing gaming mechanics into non-gaming applications. In innovation management gamification is used to improve the users´ contributions regarding quality and quantity. In fact, it is expected that users of a gamified innovation management system will participate more often with high-quality contributions. Contributions can be ideas, comments and idea evaluations.
In the study Game:on, gamification has been applied to SAP Innovation Management. The cornerstones of Game:on are:
- Innovation Points – Users receive Innovation Points for activities in the system
- Leaderboards – Users are ranked in leaderboards based on their overall and campaign-specific activity measured by their Innovation Points
- Levels – Users can achieve level of experience based on their collected Innovation Points
- Badges – Users receive badges for exploring the system and achieving particular challenges (for instance receiving 20 comments in one day on his/her idea will result in the top story badge for the particular idea author).
These mechanisms will help to improve the quality of the contributed content and the users´ activity in the innovation management system. The central aspect of Game:on are the Innovation Points, which reward especially high-quality contributions. For instance users receive additional innovation points, if their idea has reached a new stage or if their idea has received a specific number of positive community votes. As the Leaderboards are calculated per campaign as well as for the overall system, every user is motivated to contribute and every user has a fair chance to be recognized on a campaign-specific Leaderboard. Badges and Levels encourage new users as well as experienced users to explore the system and to contribute to the system constantly. Finally, sharing the achievements in the company´s social platform such as SAP Jam will attract other users and keep their level of engagement high.
This is a post of the Let´s talk SAP Innovation Management, which shall drive discussion about innovation management inside and outside of SAP. We are very keen on getting your thoughts and feedback in all aspects of innovation management.
All articles of the Let´s Talk SAP Innovation Management Series can be found here.
About SAP Innovation Management
The SAP Innovation Management solution helps companies foster innovation, capture it, and effectively and rapidly turn it into value generating initiatives that deliver continued industry leadership.
Comprising unique products, services, processes, methodologies, and governance, the SAP Innovation Management solution helps establish a sustainable creative culture that overcomes departmental silos and unleashes the power of innovation.
For further information about SAP Innovation Management please click here