Educational Resources - Process
An effective innovation program is ecosystem-oriented.
Process is about investing resources and growing ideas for implementation.
It is comprised of the Invest and Scale disciplines in the Utility Innovation Framework.
Invest
Provide resources to help grow ideas.
Time, funding, and skillsets are critical to
effective innovation programs.
Utilities must be able to provide space within the
daily activities of utility staff, funding for the
development of ideas, and engagement of
subject matter experts for technical coaching.
Toronto Water (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) has set
aside $100,000/year (0.032% operating budget) for innovation.
Funding can be used to develop
business cases for initial idea development.
There is also a pilot plant located at one of the treatment
plants to test new ideas before larger implementation.
This allows Toronto Water to test various treatment process changes.
Scale
Conduct disciplined testing and development
of ideas that manages risk through evaluation.
Scale supports the testing and refinement of
concepts in a relevant and scaled environment
that limits risk to the utility.
DC Water (Washington D.C., United States) evaluates
business cases to solicit ideas for investment based
on business goals, business strategy and innovation strategy.
These ideas are funneled through a phase-gate
model depending on anticipated impact.
This provides multiple channels of idea development
across the entire organization as well as opening
innovation to external resources.
Each gate requires an increasing level of
development for approval before moving to the next phase.
Success criteria are established with each team and reviewed by subject matter experts as the idea moves through the development process..
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