Case Study: Cisco achieves scalable employee-driven innovation and a multi-million-dollar opportunity with Brightidea

Cisco - Customer Case Study

Cisco Europe wanted to convert its employees’ knowledge into measurable, sustainable business impact. In 2008 the business faced the challenge of scaling ideation beyond R&D—creating clear ownership, cross‑functional engagement and tools to drive productivity, competitive advantage and improved employee, customer and partner satisfaction.

The company launched the Innovation Europe program and the i‑Zone idea portal (powered by Brightidea), backed by a steering committee, category owners, a staged evaluation process and executive support. The initiative generated hundreds of ideas, grew the community to nearly 5,000 users with thousands of comments and votes, produced 10 executive‑approved projects (several in prototype), and yielded at least one idea with multi‑million dollar revenue potential, with further partner rollouts planned.

Cisco

Matt Asman

Innovation Manager, Cisco