Arkansas Innovation Marketplace Opens To The Public

Monday, Apr 20, 2009

Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (a program of the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority) is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Commerce and Merwyn Research, Inc. to launch Arkansas Innovation Marketplace (Arkansas IM) – a new, interactive state market that partners Arkansas innovators with potential buyers, investors, distributors and manufacturers seeking breakthrough technological advancements.

“Technology is the driving force behind today’s economy, and to remain in competitive on all levels, from local to global, businesses are constantly looking for new ways to revolutionize their industry,” said Dan Curtis, director of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions. “Some of the most cutting-edge technology is occurring right here in our state. Arkansas Innovation Marketplace is a way for businesses to discover these breakthroughs, and provides the state’s inventors with access to the tools, finances and connections they need to turn their developments into marketable products.”

Differing from other interactive marketplaces, Arkansas IM helps determines an innovation’s probability of success by running a series of tests adopted by top Fortune 500 companies and counsels local inventors on how to better market their developments and builds business relationships.

Arkansas businesses can participate in the new marketplace at no cost by registering their needs for growth and development at PlanetEureka.com.

Inventors should contact Tovia Chan, Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions – 501.683.4410, tovia.chan@arkansas.gov.

Arkansas IM is part of a national initiative, the USA National Innovation Marketplace. Specific details on Arkansas IM are included below.

WHAT IS THE ARKANSAS INNOVATION MARKETPLACE?

The Marketplace uses an open innovation strategy, which involves partnering, licensing, and co-developing innovations with partners outside of a company instead of traditional, internal research and development. It connects innovation sellers, buyers, investors and distributors in all industries through:

1) Translation Training
2) Valuation Forecasting
3) Access to Buyers, Investors & Distributors

Specialty marketplaces are provided for Green Economy Ideas and New Business Start Up Ideas as these areas offer the greatest potential for creating new jobs.

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT?

For inventors or “sellers”, the Marketplace enhances credibility by providing a fact-based innovation research report and sales forecast that investors or “buyers” can understand in 60 seconds. The National Marketplace web site also provides access to manufacturers via the NIST/MEP network across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, similar organizations in Canada and the UK and the publishing of innovation listings to other web partners such as the Kauffman Foundation’s I-Bridge network.

For Buyers, the Marketplace provides a virtual R&D resource that can triple innovation success rates and speed to market. Studies show it can also improve R&D productivity by up to 85% while cutting capital spending needs by 50%.

HOW IT WORKS:

1) Translation of innovations and technologies into easy to understand product & service opportunities.

A Merwyn Business Translation workshop – available both on-line or as a half day live workshop – teaches innovators how to translate their innovation or technology into a customer focused product or service description that can be easily understood by a businessperson who doesn’t have scientific training.

2) Valuation of the bottom line business opportunity – sales, profits and fair market royalty.

A five-page Merwyn Business Simulation research report details everything that buyers need to know – What’s the big idea? How much might I sell? What stage of development is the invention? At what stage of proprietary protection is it? It includes sales forecasts for 60 different development marketing support scenarios plus details on development and proprietary protection status and fair market royalty rates.

The report was designed with the ideas and advice of an advisory board that included large companies (P&G, Lockheed Martin, Kraft, Best Buy, 3M), inventors/small companies (Inventors Digest Magazine, Kauffman Foundation, Balm Innovations) and universities/federal labs (University of Cincinnati, University of Maine plus over two dozen universities & labs).

Listings are powered by Merwyn Business Simulation Research using the same Fourt-Woodlock, sales forecasting algorithm that is used by leading corporations. Merwyn is unique in that it has been designed for use early in the process, when there is high uncertainty, and it’s been engineered to drive down forecasting cost by up to 98% by leveraging WEB 2.0 technologies and patent pending input and output systems.

3) Access to Manufacturer connections by the 1,600 members of the NIST/MEP network.

The US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Network of 1,600 staff members across the USA drives connections between inventor’s offerings and the needs of US manufacturing companies. In 2008, companies working with the NIST/MEP network of manufacturing experts reported $6.25 billion in new and retained sales as a result of NIST/MEP training and coaching services.

The Arkansas MEP’s primary focus is on small and mid sized manufacturers – the companies who are most likely to accelerate innovation success. Large companies can register their innovation requests and set up innovation alerts that automatically notify them when an idea matches their needs.

In addition to responding to innovation offers, the Marketplace also makes it possible for innovation buyers, investors or distributors to post their innovation requests to accelerate innovation pull. The importance of pulling market-focused innovations is the reason why Arkansas has developed a state specific marketplace to help accelerate innovation driven business development in its own backyard.

While US Companies are given priority access to all listings for the first 100 days, ideas are then published world wide through the PlanetEureka.com network of international innovation marketplaces. International connections are becoming increasingly important as more USA patents are being owned by companies outside the US.

USA National Innovation Marketplace Details:

The USA National Innovation Marketplace is located at www.planeteureka.com. There is no charge for inventors who would like to participate in the on-line version of the business translation workshop, or “buyers” registering requests for innovations. The five page, Merwyn Business Simulation Research report costs $2,000, however there is no fee for listing the report on the marketplace website.

Test pass codes are available to approved writers and reporters by contacting kriordan@tentpoleny.com.