An Approach for Assessment of the Success of Cloud Systems Usage in Innovation

Introduction

Innovation offers promise of dramatic improvements in productivity performance and is quickly becoming a vital component of competition. Soliman (2011) proposed a model of the innovation chain which is centred on the transfer knowledge from both internal and external organisational sources.

Although learning has become one of innovation imperatives (Soliman, 2011) still there is no published research that points to how to transfer knowledge and what tools would be required to conduct the knowledge transfer. Given that the learning organisation concept that requires the innovative organisation to ensure efficient and effective transfer of appropriate innovation knowledge, it would be imperative for an organisation to study and understand the important factors that could ensure the efficient transfer of innovation knowledge (Soliman, 2013a). The transfer of innovation knowledge could be facilitated by implementation of new technology tools such as cloud systems.

It widely accepted that the intensity of growing competition fuelled by the strength of rising globalization will continue to increase pressure on firms to be more innovative. Innovation may occur at any or all the three widely known innovation levels; namely:

• 1.

  Innovation in products including creation of new products and/or modification to existing products;

• 2.

  Innovation in the service to customers including supply chains and other service providers; and

• 3.

  Innovation in the managerial aspects of the firm undertaking the innovation including innovative firm structure, strategies, policies and procedures of the firm (Soliman, 2013b).

It should be noted that a number of authors have pointed to the link between innovation and learning. Most recently, (Soliman, 2013a, 2013b, 2012a, 2012b and 2011) argued that innovation is partly based on learning which in turn is dependent on knowledge and as such there are five stages of the Innovation Knowledge Transfer Process:

• •

  Knowledge Transfer: Identifying and transferring the necessary knowledge for the innovation (externally and internally).

• •

  Knowledge Scanning: Scanning the transferred knowledge to exclude knowledge that is not relevant for the innovation.

• •

  Decision on What Knowledge to Transfer: Regarding the scanned innovation knowledge in order to decide whether to adopt or reject the transferred innovation Knowledge with the view of weighing the advantages and the disadvantages of using that knowledge in its current form.

• •

  Implementation of Appropriate Knowledge Transfer Methods: Employing the innovation knowledge is to some extent is dependent on the situation and the usefulness of the innovation knowledge.

• •

  Confirmation about the Success of the Knowledge Transferred: Finalizes their decision to continue using the innovation knowledge and how to use its fullest potential.

Notwithstanding the type of innovation, the innovative firm need to rapidly innovate effectively and efficiently while sourcing and managing resources globally in the current high competitive business environments (Soliman, 2013a, 2013b). The inherent complexity of managing innovation becomes a serious challenge even for the most experienced innovation leaders (Soliman, 2011, 2010). This implies, getting the right knowledge in the right innovation process at the right timewill be challenging for many innovation leaders (Soliman, 2011 and 2010).