Middle-Market Companies from Ohio Choose Open Innovation to Achieve Competitive Advantage

CLEVELAND, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- NineSigma, Inc., of Cleveland, the leading innovation partner to organizations worldwide, today announced several new clients they will work with under the Ohio Third Frontier Open Innovation Incentive (OII) Program. As part of the program, NineSigma received a grant from the State of Ohio to help middle market companies, with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion, leverage Open Innovation strategies.

The Ohio Third Frontier OII Program was established to foster growth that will lead to job creation and build a competitive advantage for Ohio companies. Through Open Innovation, organizations reach beyond their own four walls for technologies, solutions, partners and ideas to accelerate the development of new products and services, speed time to market, and reduce development costs.

Ohio companies in industries spanning from chemical to food services have recently chosen Open Innovation as their path to success, and NineSigma as their partner. They include:

• HDT International Holdings, Inc., Solon
• JTM Provisions Company, Inc., Harrison
• Keithley Instruments, Inc., Cleveland
• Master Chemical Company, Perrysburg
• Spartan Chemical Company, Toledo
• Therma-Tru Corp., Maumee
• TimberTech, Wilmington

"Open Innovation empowers companies like ours to better achieve technology breakthroughs, because it connects us with solutions and innovators all over the world. In this way, we're now on the same playing field as larger and more global organizations with distributed teams worldwide.  This is a proven strategy and we're excited about how it can support our continued growth, create new job opportunities and facilitate obtaining our business goals, no matter how ambitious they are," said William J. Schalitz, V.P. of Research & Development, Spartan Chemical Company, Inc.

Through the Open Innovation Incentive, NineSigma is working closely with middle market companies to complement their internal R&D capabilities and create custom external innovation networks to directly address their technology needs. The State is assisting these middle market companies by funding half of the transactional costs of engaging an open innovation company.

NineSigma CEO Andy Zynga said, "Open Innovation is a powerful strategy that market-leading global organizations have leveraged for years. We are seeing a strong demand among the state's middle market companies for OI as a means to perfecting their technologies and expanding their markets. What's exciting is that we are already creating new connections that wouldn't otherwise exist between these middle market companies and large and small solution providers around the globe."

To learn more about the technology solutions being sought through the program, visit the Ohio Third Frontier Gallery on NineSights, NineSigma's global open innovation platform for solution providers and solution seekers.

About NineSigma
 
NineSigma connects organizations with external innovation resources to accelerate innovation in private, public and social sectors. The company provides open innovation services to organizations worldwide, including Kraft Foods, Philips, Siemens, and Unilever, to solve immediate challenges, integrate new knowledge, fill product pipelines, and stay ahead of the competition. Named to the 2012 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private U.S. companies, NineSigma's proprietary process has produced billions of dollars in value for its clients. NineSigma has the largest open global network of solution providers and an extensive database of existing solutions spanning numerous industries and technical disciplines. NineSigma's online innovation community, NineSights®, is the world's first open innovation social media destination, connecting innovators of all sizes with resources and relationships to drive growth. Learn more at www.ninesigma.com and www.ninesights.com. 

Media Contact: 
Jackie Lucas, Warner Communications — [email protected], (978) 255-1159 

SOURCE NineSigma, Inc.