Partnership for Growth
We are happy to welcome Tom Stefels to the EdgeLeap team. As partner at BEACON, Tom’s exquisite expertise in innovation processes at large corporations qualifies him as an ideal advisor for translating EdgeFlow capability into a value for our clients. This partnership further reinforces the opportunity of EdgeFlow to fulfill the industry needs.
Read BEACON’s take on EdgeFlow (original in Dutch), or check the translation below.
Nice tool: EdgeFlow
BEACON spoke to the inventors of this ‘find machine’ for innovation.
The innovation process itself is also subject to innovation. Our eye fell on EdgeFlow: smart software that helps determine the right direction for innovation. Especially if you do not know what exactly you are looking for. EdgeFlow is an online find engine that continuously scans the web, links data from all kinds of information sources and sorts it with Artificial Intelligence . As a user, the results inspire you on a daily basis in your specific field. Co-founder Marijana Radonjic: “We often heard the question from customers: “We make strategic decisions every day, but how do we know for sure whether we are heading in the right direction?” Do you base that on ‘gut feeling’ or are you going to bring the world in to make fact-based decisions? ‘
EdgeFlow is ‘Software as a Service’ , developed by EdgeLeap. This tool, the makers claim, serves both to inspire and to prioritize innovation-based innovation leads in a smarter way. BEACON wants to know more about it. Project managers Christel van Dijk and Laurien Wolfswinkel spoke with founders Marijana Radonjic and Thomas Kelder. “There are millions of developments in the world, both technological and market developments. A huge amount changes every day. How do you ensure that you stay informed and stay ahead? To solve that, we have developed EdgeFlow. On this online platform, all information sources that are relevant to the customer come together in real time at one point. We prefer to look at sources as broadly as possible. For example, to patents, scientific literature and news sites. The idea is to put in as much information as possible. The data is then, with the help of AI, so with a kind of robot, quickly read, sorted by relevance and forwarded to the user. Unique is that these robots are controlled by the customers themselves in a simple way in order to obtain specific insights relevant to that customer. ‘
EdgeFlow is particularly valuable at the start of the innovation process. ‘It helps to get ideas for which direction you want to take with your projects. It is important that you do not have to define your search term exactly, you can indicate an area of interest as a search field. ‘ As a user you assess the information provided on relevance. Based on this and with the help of AI, the software itself defines the search field better and better. ‘This way you can find things that you have never thought you should look for. Because if you know what to look for, for example if you have a very specific problem that you want to solve, then you can also Google it. ‘
The vision of EdgeLeap is that EdgeFlow can be widely used. ‘We think it is very useful for everyone in the organization if they stay up to date with what is going on in their specific area of expertise. Not only for people from R&D, the marketing and innovation departments, but also for people in production. They are not busy every day with the search for new ways to organize the production process. Their source of information is the offer coming from of suppliers. If something innovative happens in the world that can help them save costs, they will never know. EdgeFlow is an easily accessible way to bring information to all sorts of places in the organization. ”
What do we think of EdgeFlow? It seems to be a valuable tool to come up with promising innovation projects, as a supplement to or even replacement of traditional activities at the ‘front end’ of innovation. How great it is to only receive relevant information instead of the having to search for yourself through abundance of information, which is often not achieved in the daily bustle. Of course there are points of attention to keep in mind. Artificial Intelligence – no matter how beautiful and user-friendly – will not make the right decision for you. You will have to keep doing that yourself, but EdgeFlow does offer you the information to decide on.
More information: www.edgeleap.com
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