IMP³rove is a four year project which started at the beginning of 2006 with a clear plan to achieve tangible results:
2006: The results from benchmarking existing innovation management consulting approaches and self-assessment tools (SATs) are documented in the European Innovation Management Landscape, Europe Innova Paper No 2
2007: The IMP³rove online platform is available at www.improve-innovation.eu. IMP³rove provides the self-assessment tool, the benchmarking reports for SMEs, a client management tool for IMP³rove experts, a toolbox for innovation management consultants and case examples as reference
2007/08: IMP³rove is available in 7 European languages and is tested with more than 1500 SMEs from all EU Member States including more than 250 trained IMP³rove Experts leading to the European official pre-standard in innovation management assessment documented in the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA 15899). Special trainings on IMP³rove and Innovation Management in general have been developed and delivered. Academic institutions in Austria, Czech Republic, Finland adopted IMP³rove for broadening their offerings.
2009: IMP³rove is a pre-requisite for public funding such as in France and Poland. IMP³rove is adopted in countries outside Europe with Egypt leveraging it for developing their ICT sector, in Asia, and Americas.
The IMP³rove benchmarking database is the largest and most up-to-date database on innovation management at SMEs. More than 2500 SMEs completed the IMP³rove Assessment, and more than 300 IMP³rove experts have been trained across Europe and beyond to support SMEs in the IMP³rove assessment.
IMP³rove is an approach that is based on the "House of Innovation' (A.T. Kearney) and provides a wide variety of services for the different stakeholder groups
IMP³rove integrates efficient online assessment of innovation management performance with effective personal consulting services to overcome competitive disadvantages.
A wide range of industry sectors is covered by IMP³rove:
- Biotechnology, including Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
- Information/Communication/Technology (ICT) including Electrical and Optical
- Machinery/Equipment, Plant Construction
- Space and Aeronautics, Automotive
- Knowledge Intensive Services
- Textile
- Food and Beverages
In summary IMP³rove offers:
- An online (self-)assessment tool (SAT) that allows enterprises to benchmark their innovation management performance against other (European) enterprises.
- Detailed benchmarking reports that provide clear insights in the SME’s strengths and weaknesses in innovation management
- Quality assurance that is a pre-requisite for consistent and validated data in the IMP³rove database
- Consulting services provided by trained IMP³rove experts
- A toolkit in support of innovation management that can be used by innovation facilitators at regional and national level.
- A training scheme that will be the basis for innovation management consultant certification schemes. In addition, the project will lay the foundation for a European Innovation Management certification system for SMEs that builds on the self-assessment tool and the experience gathered from IMP³rove.
- A platform for innovation support providers to network and leverage the IMP³rove innovation management community
For more information please contact the IMP³rove European Coordination Team
Eva Diedrichs, A.T. Kearney GmbH, phone: +49 175 26 59 266; fax: +49 175 13 2659 266
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or
Sabine Brunswicker, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Tel +49 (175) 2679749, Fax +49 (711) 970-2299
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