i-Empresa: Diagnostic model of a company's innovation potential

The model analyzes the company's practices from two complementary perspectives: the operational one, referring to the degree of planning and systematization of the innovation techniques applied (whether or not they are documented as a procedure or instruction), and the instrumental one, referring to the ICT tools used to manage innovation processes and how well suited they are to those processes.

Based on this diagnosis and the follow-up support, i-Empresa pursues the following objectives:

• Introduce an innovation culture in the company and detect pre-existing informal innovation processes, making conscious and planned processes visible.
• Improve the management of innovation projects, as well as of the company's other projects.
• Promote the use of ICT as a knowledge management tool applied to innovation processes.
• Identify potential sources of funding, direct or indirect, for innovation projects.

The diagnosis focuses on the innovation culture existing in the company, formal and informal innovation processes, the creation, management, dissemination, and use of knowledge (with special attention to competitive monitoring and intelligence), the formulation, structuring, management, monitoring, and evaluation of innovation projects, and the use of funding sources.

CTIC developed i-Empresa with its own funds, as its own model for diagnosis and support in business innovation management.