Enterprise Open Innovation Platform

Traction is an enterprise open innovation platform — part of our broader innovation management platform — that helps organizations systematically engage with external innovators, startups, partners, and internal teams to solve strategic challenges and accelerate breakthrough solutions.
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Rather than managing open innovation in spreadsheets or disconnected tools, Traction provides a governed, structured platform to capture submissions, evaluate contributions, and track outcomes as part of your full innovation lifecycle.

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What Is an Open Innovation Platform?

An open innovation platform is software that enables organizations to source ideas, technologies, and solutions from external communities — including startups, universities, partners, experts, and customers — and integrate them into the enterprise innovation process. It provides structured workflows for challenges, evaluation, collaboration, and outcomes tracking, all within a secure, measurable framework.

Traction’s open innovation platform is part of a comprehensive enterprise innovation management platform built to scale collaborative innovation at the organizational level.

Built to Power Open Innovation and Collaboration

Traction gives teams the tools they need to manage open innovation end-to-end:
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Startup-Focused Challenges

Create and manage challenges that attract innovative startups and subject-matter experts to address your organization’s strategic needs.

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Seamless Application Process

Design custom application forms, shareable links, and branded submission portals that make it easy for external innovators to contribute solutions.

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Structured Evaluation & Prioritization

Use configurable evaluation templates and scoring systems to assess external submissions and identify the most promising solutions.

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Real-Time Insights & Reporting

Build dashboards and generate real-time reports to track open innovation performance, trends, and strategic impact.

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Live Virtual Engagement

Host virtual demo days, pitch sessions, and collaborative events that bring innovators and internal stakeholders together.

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Live Virtual Demo Days

Host engaging live virtual Demo Days on the platform for startups to showcase their best ideas, pitch to stakeholders, and network with potential partners and investors.

These capabilities support collaborative innovation —
integrated with your broader enterprise innovation workflows.

We Deliver Real-World Results

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3x

faster

evaluation and deployment of new technologies

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30%

fewer

internal resources needed for innovation management

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6x

more

products considered for pilot or full implementation

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50%

less cost

than running multiple point solutions

How It Fits with Enterprise Innovation Management

Part of the Full Innovation Lifecycle

Open innovation is a strategic approach that complements internal ideation and execution. While idea management captures insights from internal stakeholders, open innovation brings external perspectives and solutions into your innovation pipeline.

Traction’s platform allows organizations to:
  • Combine internal and external inputs within a unified workflow
  • Evaluate external opportunities alongside internal initiatives
  • Govern collaboration with partners and startups securely
  • Link open innovation outcomes back to pilots and execution
This ensures that external contributions are not siloed but become actionable parts of your enterprise innovation strategy.
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Benefits of an Open Innovation Platform

An effective open innovation platform helps you:

  • Access diverse expertise beyond internal teams
  • Accelerate time-to-solution and reduce R&D cycle times
  • Drive innovation outcomes with measurable governance
  • Engage broader communities of innovators
  • Capture and scale breakthrough technologies

Because open innovation is collaborative by design, a structured platform ensures contributions are captured, evaluated, and integrated with clarity and accountability.

Designed for Teams Responsible for Collaborative Innovation

Traction’s open innovation platform supports enterprise teams including:
  • Innovation and open innovation leaders
  • Corporate venture and startup partnership teams
  • Strategy and R&D leaders
  • Digital transformation and ecosystem teams
Whether you’re running challenge programs, scouting startups, or co-creating with partners, Traction brings structure and visibility to your open innovation efforts
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FAQs

What is an open innovation platform?
How does open innovation differ from traditional innovation?
Can open innovation be part of broader innovation management?

Experience Collaborative Innovation That Scales

Explore how Traction’s open innovation platform helps organizations tap external innovation, connect with startups and partners, and bring breakthrough solutions into their enterprise innovation strategy with structure and confidence.

Schedule a Demo
Our Customers

Innovation Leaders Trust Traction

4.5 out of 5 Stars
"A helpful tool to keep track of our Vendors and selection efforts"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The software is fairly intuitive to use. The product team is very supportive. We are able to easily add vendors to our database and setup custom fields to track the key information we need. The tool also allows us to send out requests to the vendors to keep the info up to date. "
4.5 Stars out of 5
"Great tool that can be leveraged for efficiently organizing and tracking startups."

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The founders have been very active in engaging with our company to develop new features for specific use cases.
4.5 Stars out 5
"Wonderful system backed by great people"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is a flexible solution for many reverse CRM needs in my organization. The custom solution they added for our needs has become an invaluable tool for GSK R&D!
5 Stars out of 5
‍"An important partnership!"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? We have been working with Traction Technology for several years, especially for technology sourcing and progress management of collaboration with startups. They are attentive to understanding our needs, and the outputs are always gratifying.
5 Stars out of 5
"Central product for our Innovation strategy"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is the perfect tool to bring all our innovation activities together. Allowing us to collate, review and assess the latest companies on one platform as a team.
5 Stars out of 5
"Great experience with Traction Tech"

‍What do you like best about Traction Technology? The ease of use of the platform and the team works well with our needs and innovation team.
"
Traction Technologies helped launch an expansion of a corporate venture scouting effort with a brilliant analyst, a customizable data platform and the personal engagement of their co-founders. It is one of the best professional services engagements I’ve experienced."

Louis Kim

VP, HP Inc.

"
I think what you are doing is important to the entire corporate innovation community. We still use spreadsheets. We need this."

Chief Innovation Officer

Consumer Goods Company

"
We were looking to combine our Ideation tool and startup management process. Traction is the perfect combination."

Head of Emerging Technology

Startup Liaison Officer

"
We threw our hardest problems at Traction. Whether it was machine learning, spatial search, or predictive analytics, Traction always delivered."

SVP

Emerging Technologies, Fortune 50 company

"
Traction introduced us to AI robotics startups from the manufacturing world that we could apply to our industry. We would have never found them on our own."

CIO

Restaurant chain

"
You guys think about the problem the same way I do"

Startup Liaison Officer

Defense Contractor

Our Customers

Innovation Leaders Trust Traction

4.5 out of 5 Stars
"A helpful tool to keep track of our Vendors and selection efforts"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The software is fairly intuitive to use. The product team is very supportive. We are able to easily add vendors to our database and setup custom fields to track the key information we need. The tool also allows us to send out requests to the vendors to keep the info up to date. "
4.5 Stars out of 5
"Great tool that can be leveraged for efficiently organizing and tracking startups."

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The founders have been very active in engaging with our company to develop new features for specific use cases.
4.5 Stars out 5
"Wonderful system backed by great people"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is a flexible solution for many reverse CRM needs in my organization. The custom solution they added for our needs has become an invaluable tool for GSK R&D!
5 Stars out of 5
‍"An important partnership!"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? We have been working with Traction Technology for several years, especially for technology sourcing and progress management of collaboration with startups. They are attentive to understanding our needs, and the outputs are always gratifying.
5 Stars out of 5
"Central product for our Innovation strategy"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is the perfect tool to bring all our innovation activities together. Allowing us to collate, review and assess the latest companies on one platform as a team.
5 Stars out of 5
"Great experience with Traction Tech"

‍What do you like best about Traction Technology? The ease of use of the platform and the team works well with our needs and innovation team.
"
Traction Technologies helped launch an expansion of a corporate venture scouting effort with a brilliant analyst, a customizable data platform and the personal engagement of their co-founders. It is one of the best professional services engagements I’ve experienced."

Louis Kim

VP, HP Inc.

"
I think what you are doing is important to the entire corporate innovation community. We still use spreadsheets. We need this."

Chief Innovation Officer

Consumer Goods Company

"
We were looking to combine our Ideation tool and startup management process. Traction is the perfect combination."

Head of Emerging Technology

Startup Liaison Officer

"
We threw our hardest problems at Traction. Whether it was machine learning, spatial search, or predictive analytics, Traction always delivered."

SVP

Emerging Technologies, Fortune 50 company

"
Traction introduced us to AI robotics startups from the manufacturing world that we could apply to our industry. We would have never found them on our own."

CIO

Restaurant chain

"
You guys think about the problem the same way I do"

Startup Liaison Officer

Defense Contractor

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The Traction Innovation Guide

The Traction Innovation Guide is a practical framework for identifying and scaling technologies that deliver real business results. It helps enterprise teams stop chasing ideas and make confident, high-impact innovation decisions faster.
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