Within the scope of the initiative “Future Innovation”, 3M Austria has launched an online innovation community. The Internet service provider Unic was responsible for conception, realisation and operation.

The platform brings together companies and innovators with the purpose of maximising the enormous potential of the Internet community – think “Crowd Sourcing” – for companies and institutions. Registered companies can post problems online and offer a financial reward for solutions. Innovators can submit creative answers from which the company can select the three best ideas and then give the innovator the opportunity to formulate them in more detail. This means that companies receive an average of 100 ideas and three completed innovation concepts for one question – and all this within a maximum of 45 days.

With this platform, 3M will make a considerable contribution towards enhancing the innovation culture. Even before the go-live, more than 1000 innovators and 400 companies had expressed their interest in the online community platform. On start-up, renowned companies immediately registered and placed their first questions, generating more than 300 creative ideas in the first two weeks.

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