Since the idea of improvement software is pretty new, it’s probably helpful to begin this blog by explaining what it is. Improvement software is a technology platform designed to capture the best ideas about how your organization can improve, support the process of assigning ownership, and manage the selected ideas through completion. It is a simple but powerful way to harness the energy of your organization to address issues around efficiency, customer satisfaction, safety, cost reduction, and your other most difficult challenges. But, as you might expect, all improvement software is not alike. Here are a few things that you should look for when evaluating solutions for improvement.

Ease-of-Use and Deployment

Let’s be honest. Implementing improvement software is giving your team one more technology tool to learn and use. Your improvement efforts will be limited if adoption is hindered by a clunky interface or difficult installation procedure. Look for solutions that are drop-dead simple to use and install. Better yet, choose a cloud-based solution with nothing to install at all. Also, keep in mind that ideas happen anywhere, and choose a solution that can be accessed from a mobile device so that ideas aren’t lost in transit.

Structured, Yet Flexible

The whole idea of improvement software is to organize your quest for excellence. That means it has to have some structure, but there are many methodologies that companies use for continuous improvement efforts, so you want one that is flexible enough to match your business process method whether it be Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen or something else.

Active Notifications

People get busy and you can be certain that there will be days when preoccupied managers and staff don’t log into your improvement software. So, you’ll want to select one that will notify your team through email when a task is waiting for their action or one has been completed by someone on their team. 

ROI Calculation

Business is run by the numbers, so it is important to be able to calculate the impact and ROI of each opportunity for improvement that is implemented. This important feature will make it easier to justify continued investment in improvement and identify positive changes that might be applied to other problems for even more return.

Built in Recognition for People and Projects

When successful improvement is achieved, it is important that it be shared with the entire organization.  This helps empower and encourage employees to suggest even more innovative ideas. Recognizing and rewarding employees who contribute to change is essential for employee engagement.

Leading your organization to the next level of success isn’t easy, but improvement software can be a powerful ally in finding, implementing, measuring and broadcasting your employee’s best ideas.  Be sure to select on that will be the right fit to further your quest for continuous innovation.

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