NineSigma, the leading provider of open innovation solutions, announced today it is partnering with The Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) to deliver open innovation services to companies and government entities throughout the Southern African Development Community1.
NineSigma and RIIS have formed the partnership to address a growing need among organisations in southern Africa to expand their innovation capacity and better leverage external knowledge and resources from the global innovation community.
“Open innovation has the power to transform the way companies in southern Africa innovate and compete in the global marketplace,” said Dr Matthew Heim, president of NineSigma. “The partnership with RIIS is a natural fit given their impressive track record, innovation solutions toolkit, and deep knowledge of the region.”
“It is essential for organisations in our region to look beyond their borders to find new knowledge and capabilities that will enhance their innovation efforts,” said Dr Audrey Verhaeghe, chief executive officer of RIIS. “Open innovation has immense untapped potential for our clients, and we are very excited to partner with NineSigma to deliver best-in-class services that will drive real business results.”
NineSigma has helped hundreds of companies reach beyond their traditional networks to find open innovation solutions to support their business development and sustainability goals. In addition to finding innovative solutions for its clients, NineSigma provides business and technology intelligence that support and validate the clients' strategic business decisions. “The presence of an open innovation platform is vital to our region's economy,” said Paul Bisogno, Manager, Business Development, for the Innovation Hub in South Africa. “Not only does it create growth opportunities for the large multinationals, it provides critical new channels of support for the young start-ups, which are the lifeblood of our region.”
1 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) includes member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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NineSigma
NineSigma helps Global 1000 companies and other innovation-driven entities engage with the global innovation community and enable their organisations to more effectively adopt external knowledge and resources. Companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft, Philips, Unilever and Xerox utilise NineSigma's open innovation services to solve immediate challenges, fill product pipelines and integrate new knowledge and capabilities into their organisations. NineSigma has the largest open global network of solution providers and an extensive database of existing solutions that spans all industries and technical disciplines. The company has operations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Learn more about NineSigma at http://www.ninesigma.com/.
RIIS
The Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) was born out of a passion for the successful and sustainable management of innovation and is situated at the Innovation Hub, Pretoria, in South Africa. RIIS offers a total business solution for sustaining and managing innovation in the working environment and helps organisations prepare for a new future. RIIS specialises in innovation strategy, processes, systems and structures, but also offers guidance in building an innovation culture, supporting innovation enablement and making innovation measurement a reality. The NOVIXO idea management system comprises an end-to-end innovation process technology tool. This tool facilitates and supports innovation and provides an innovation baseline measurement module. The associated Innovation Provocation Engine (IPE) is the first of its kind. See http://www.riis.co.za for more information on RIIS.
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