Dell

Business type

Open Innovation

Service/product description

Dell IdeaStorm is a website launched by Dell to allow Dell to measure/keep track of which ideas are most important and most relevant to the public. The name is a take-off on the word “brainstorm” and it is a way of building an online community that brings everyone closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and collaborate with one another. The goal is for the customer, to tell Dell what new products or services people would like to see Dell develop. After registering, users are able to add articles, promote them, demote them and comment on them.

What does 'openness' mean in this case?

Ideastorm is a place for open innovation, where people are welcome to make suggestions and feedback. The good ideas are promoted via public opinion, and are thus prioritized amongst the developers in Dell. Unfortunately it looks like Dell plays around with the voting systems, and interfears with the prioritarization processes, which makes the platform less open then it might look like at first sight. Openness here should have been about using the public’s opinion when developing new products/services, but has become tool for Dell to mislead consumers.