This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) research project will develop a software-as-a-service toolkit for innovation processes and service oriented educational simulation for the value innovation process, applicable to both business educational needs and to the crucial college and K-12 demographic, where the core of STEM education takes place and where the principals of innovation should be directed if they are to properly influence future business innovators. Innovation, even more than entrepreneurship, is crucial to US competitiveness in the current global business environment. However, the current education and business environment lacks both a formal set of deployable tools that can facilitate the innovation process and a means of providing outcome testable training and education on innovation. Both are crucial to not only implementing processes of innovation, but to facilitating an innovation culture in an organization. The education will leverage the suite of service oriented, web-based tools that can be used to support an organization's innovation efforts with minimal impact on the organizations existing innovation or information technology structure. Innovation is one of the hottest topics in business today, with CEO's understanding that it's the engine driving their company's organic growth. However, most organizations do not have the knowledge or skill base to apply the concepts of innovation to their business' practices. This lack can be attributed to two problems: first, the company's employees often lack a basic understanding of innovation owing to a deficiency during their formal education and, second, the company lacks a usable set of tools that make an innovation process easily adaptable to the organization's situation and needs. The Value Innovation Teaching Toolkit addresses both unmet needs. By providing an educational simulation applicable to both business training needs and the educational needs of students in formal STEM programs at the university and K-12 level, the toolkit will provide the learner with an innovation learning environment that is outcome tested. Additionally, our toolkit will provide a suite of web-based tools that will facilitate the innovation process with minimal impact on an organization's current IT infrastructure.
