Global Innovation Network Provides Entrepreneurs with New Growth Opportunities

CLEVELAND, March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovators live at all levels of organizations, and often run companies of their own. These are the brilliant minds that NineSigma taps to solve the biggest, most perplexing challenges in the world, from developing an effective AIDS vaccine to making electricity accessible in developing countries. In addition, as more businesses commit to innovation as a growth strategy, new doors are opening for entrepreneurs, inventors and researchers who can provide technologies, solutions, and ideas they need to grow faster.

"Corporations around the world are racing to develop breakthrough new products and gain a competitive advantage. They're looking for new technologies from the outside to speed the process," said Andy Zynga, CEO of NineSigma, the leading innovation partner to organizations worldwide. "This drive to innovate is providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to be matched with organizations from other geographic regions or industries who have an immediate need for their solutions, and are willing to pay for them."

This matchmaking is at the heart of open innovation, which involves "connecting organizations with the world" to accelerate the new solution development. Entrepreneurs are climbing onto the open innovation bandwagon to take advantage of new business development opportunities associated with this increasingly popular strategy. Indeed, a recent NineSigma survey shows that solution providers consider revenue growth to be the number-one benefit of open innovation.

For these innovators, NineSigma offers the chance to join the largest global innovation network of its kind, spanning 135 countries and diverse scientific and technology areas, from biotechnology to food science, and from energy to manufacturing. Solution providers register to be part of the network at no charge, and benefit from access to organizations with an explicit need for their technologies and solutions, and a transparent process that ensures protection of their intellectual property.

NineSigma solution provider Dr. Kevin Joback of Molecular Systems, Inc., said, "My expertise is in using computational techniques to design chemicals with specific physical properties. We have been awarded two projects because of NineSigma. Both were with companies we were not marketing to, in technical areas we were not previously focusing on. If not for NineSigma, there was no way we would have known such opportunities existed."

Another solution provider, Dr. Andreas Hofenauer of Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS), said, "In its capacity as a solution provider in the NineSigma Open Innovation platform, PTS has successfully prevailed over global competition in five instances. For example, an innovative paper was developed with resistance to very high temperatures that has already been industrially manufactured and converted. Another more recent project deals with residual material utilisation in the context of sustainable packaging materials. Through the NineSigma process, completely new and unusual ideas, innovations or projects can be put into practice with little acquisition expenditure and that is a great advantage."

Additionally, Rob Brooks, Group Leader, Advanced Engineered Materials at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom said, "Through NineSigma, NPL has engaged with a major international energy company. The NineSigma network increased their awareness of NPL's world leading advanced materials expertise, thermodynamic modelling capability and high temperature exposure testing. Engagement with this client on the first project led to further opportunities and a more strategic relationship."

Researchers, too, enjoy opportunities to put solutions into practice. For example, NineSigma recently connected the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) with world-leading biomedical researchers and helped identify two scientists who will receive a total of $875,000 to develop solutions for generating stable protein complexes for use in AIDS vaccines.

For organizations tapping into the rich resource of solution providers, there are rewards as well. NineSigma's recent survey showed the leading benefits of open innovation to solution seekers are minimizing risk and accelerating time to market. NineSigma provides services to these organizations every step of the way to maximize the potential value of every collaboration - from problem definition, to broadly accessing innovators with relevant expertise, to filtering proposed solutions for quality and fit, to supporting successful negotiations between seekers and providers. The company also provides a broad range of other services to help them develop the people, corporate culture, and infrastructure that will enable a successful innovation strategy.

NineSigma will roll out a new program in the next two months for members of its dynamic innovation community. Solution providers who are interested in becoming part of the company's global network can learn more at http://www.ninesigma.com/OurNetwork/JoinOurNetwork.aspx.

About NineSigma


NineSigma engages organizations with external innovation resources and enables them to share knowledge to accelerate the innovation cycle, whether they are in the private, public, or social sectors. Their proprietary and collaborative process has produced billions of dollars in tangible value. Companies such as Kraft, Philips, L'Oreal, Unilever, Denso and Suntory utilize NineSigma's Open Innovation services to solve immediate challenges, fill product pipelines, integrate new knowledge into their organizations, close development gaps, and improve financial performance. NineSigma has the largest open global network of solution providers and an extensive database of existing solutions that spans all industries and technical disciplines. Our team integrates professionals from a variety of fields, including business leaders, innovation consultants and Ph.D.-level scientists. Learn more at www.ninesigma.com.

Media Contact: 
Dawn Ringel, Warner Communications, [email protected], (781) 449-8456

SOURCE NineSigma