Several local and foreign organisations are supporting Kupoma, the open-innovation social network set for launch on October 1, Clever Solutions Ltd marketing manager Jeffrey Romano told The Times Business.
The St Venera-based IT consultancy company has teamed up with Nepako Corporation of Finland to create and operate the platform based on an ‘idea factory’ concept to provide prospective entrepreneurs with tools and resources to develop ideas into profitable ventures. A similar project was originally implemented in Finland and is currently being extended across Europe. The network includes an online marketplace and introduces collaborative technologies.
It also helps business people network to create commercial growth opportunities.
Open-innovation is a growing global trend within organisations of all sizes and Mediterranean business communities are warming to the concept. It allows ideas and resources from within firms and from external sources to produce new processes, products, partnerships and projects.
Mr Romano said Clever Solutions was in discussions with government and private entities with a view to roping them in a range of initiatives.
The Kupoma platform will be unveiled during an afternoon seminar on open-innovation at The Radisson Blu, St Julian’s. Other events, like workshops and university activities, are also in the pipeline “to reach down to grassroots levels and empower people by helping them innovate”.
Mr Romano said Clever Solutions was also seeking support from private entities in a bid to increase local entrepreneurship, openness, and innovation.
Nepako Corporation short-listed several Maltese businesses to partner in this project. Mr Romano said Clever Solutions made the grade as it understood the values behind the project, boasted expertise on social networks and an enthusiastic start-up culture.
He explained Kupoma was aimed at executives and managers in the business community, individual entrepreneurs, investors, students and academics.
“The platform offers opportunities to many different people in many different ways,” he stressed. “Entrepreneurs may share their ideas and attract valuable support, businesses can find ways to diversify their product portfolio or innovate their processes, academics can find ways to monetise their research, students can contribute to ideas and gain valuable work experience, while investors would be able to browse through projects that may well be worth investing in.”
Asked about the tools and resources available through the platform, Mr Romano said Kupoma was partly an open network and will allow people to freely contact each other.
“We believe in this openness,” he said. “However the main focus will be on promoting and developing ideas, not individuals. Apart from the communication tools, Kupoma will also provide free integrated project management tools. This means people can work on ideas through the platform and do not need third-party software to collaborate. In short, people can email, share files, network, work on wikis, and more all from the same website. This increases efficiency and makes life easier.”
Start-ups were ideal users of Kupoma, but the platform was also very useful for larger businesses and aimed to provide employees with the opportunity to be entrepreneurial.
“This is healthy for any business,” Mr Romano added. “Employees often have great ideas which their employers cannot develop and implement. Kupoma is the perfect platform which allows employees to be inspired by others and develop their own ideas further. Then the idea can be presented to the employer more confidently, or else it may be developed independently.”
An earlier version of the platform was launched in Finland and became profitable within the first year. The new international platform to be launched in Malta will be immediately accessible to users in other countries as it will be promoted through local partners: five have already been identified to help Kupoma’s promotion in their own countries.