The vault behind an open innovation network: IXC Australia
IXC put intermediaries inside its member organisations so one member's confidential need could be matched to another's capability without either side disclosing first. We built the vault they worked in, and the progressive disclosure that made it usable.
The network
IXC, the InnovationXchange Network, was started in 2003 by the Australian Industry Group and became an independent not-for-profit, IXC Australia, in 2006. It describes itself as the first knowledge exchange network to give firms, universities and governments a secure, managed place to exchange insights and opportunities, and it runs on subscriptions rather than grants.
The membership is the point. It includes IBM, Johnson & Johnson Research, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, SingTel-Optus, Electrolux and Tenix, three quarters of Australia's universities, research institutes including CSIRO, WEHI and NICTA, and hundreds of smaller technology companies. The network lists more than 1,300 solutions and opportunities.
What IXC does
Its people are the service. IXC places intermediaries, who are scientists, researchers and business development specialists, inside member organisations. A code of ethics lets an intermediary see a member's intellectual property and research base, learn what it needs and what it can offer, and then look across the rest of the network for the other half. Because the intermediary is a neutral party, two members can find each other without either one exposing its position first, and without the risk to their intellectual property that a direct conversation would carry.
The model was written up as research in its own right, in InnovationXchange: A Case Study in Innovation Intermediation.
The vault
We built the system they work in. It is the core of the model rather than a tool beside it: the vault where each member's confidential material is held, and where intermediaries link one member's need to another member's capability, so that an opportunity can be recognised before anybody has disclosed anything.
Disclosure is progressive. A link surfaces an opportunity; only as the opportunity becomes real does more of each side become visible to the other. That is what lets a network of competitors work at all.
We delivered a first release, with the material from what came before migrated into it, and a second release built in three blocks, which added reporting for the people running the network.
What this involved
The vault behind IXC's intermediary model: the core system holding members' confidential needs and capabilities
Linking, so an intermediary can put one member's need against another member's capability and see an opportunity
Progressive disclosure, so a connection can be recognised before either side reveals its position
Built for a not-for-profit network started by the Australian Industry Group, with members including IBM, Johnson & Johnson Research, Procter & Gamble and Nestlé
Three quarters of Australia's universities in the network, with CSIRO, WEHI and NICTA
Delivered in two releases, with existing material migrated in, and reporting for the network's own managers