US-based Synchrony Innovations, a software provider formerly known as Synchrony Venture Management, took advantage of the symposium to introduce its new iden- tity and preview its soon-to-beta Total Innovation Capital Returns (TICR) Innovation Analytics software-as-a-serv- ice (Saas) platform, which is a patent-pending system for quantifying strategic value.
Adam Caper, chief executive of Synchrony, said: “TICR is the first true enterprise innovation analytics platform. It provides a simple, systematic approach to measuring the strategic value of innovation across a firm’s various technology and market domains.”
Caper added that TICR first creates a “topographic map of client firms’ innovation needs, capabilities, strengths and weaknesses and then uses external innovation eco- system data to identify which investment have the poten- tial to confer meaningful strategic value, and then to track their performance over time”.
According to Caper, in addition to corporate venturing (CV) units, TiCR is generating great interest from corpora- tions’ research and development (R&D) teams as a way to analyse the value of internal projects across disparate technology silos.
“R&D managers have a very similar challenge to CV managers, in that while assessing the technical viability of a development project is well understood, it has until now still been quite difficult to analyse – and later measure – how well precommercial innovations may help advance a firm’s strategic goals.”
By providing this capability, Caper said TICR could help Global 2000 firms reduce the estimated 20% to 50% waste in their aggregate $750bn annual R&D expenditure.
“The key is that the software identifies projects which may seem quite interesting, but in actuality have a low probability of generating meaningful commercial value. If you think of innovation as akin to searching for needles in haystacks, the best thing you can do at the outset is to remove a good bit of the hay so that the needles are easier to find. TICR helps clear away some of that hay.”
TICR works by scoring “gapportunities” – gaps and opportunities – based on their ability to confer strategic value. Each innovation investment option – CV deal or R&D project – is scored according to the gapportunities it has the potential to fill. This builds a robust, quantified data- base of all deals and projects the firm has encountered.
Caper added: “This database and screening leads to feedback on opportunities that might have been otherwise missed, and analysis over time to take into account the potential for areas to fall in and out of favour. It creates institutional memory as well as a tool to easily test out theories.”
The TICR Innovation Analytics Saas platform is scheduled to enter beta testing in July.
