????去年晚些時候，萊恩·赫頓想到一個他自認為極好的創意。這位IBM項目經理認為，開發一個基于云的網頁應用，幫助IBM員工實時了解其應用在公司內部的使用情況一定是個絕妙的主意。

????赫頓說：“我們希望人們能夠衡量自己開發的應用所帶來的影響，包括跟蹤應用的使用者和它們的使用頻率等?！?/p>

????如果是在今年之前，赫頓還要像其他許多大公司里那些渴望成為創新者的人一樣，先要把把自己的提案提交給評審委員會，評審委員花幾個月的時間決定是支持還是反對。如果項目獲得批準，還要再用幾個月時間來籌集資金，招募人手。而現在，通過一個最新推出的內部大眾籌資平臺iFundIT，赫頓可以繞過這些官僚主義制度，把自己的應用（名為Tap-O-Meter）直接展示給它的目標用戶——全球的IBM員工。

????這個平臺的創始人、IBM CIO Lab團隊負責人弗朗索瓦·雷古斯說：“我們模仿了Kickstarter和Indiegogo等公眾籌資平臺。我們首先想到的問題是，如何保證一切有好創意的人能夠有機會讓別人看到、聽到自己的創意？我們如何充分利用公司同仁的一切知識和創造力？”

????與Kickstarter一樣，IBM員工可以提交創意、評論同事的創意，也可以提出改進意見，甚至進行投資。而提交者可以設定一個融資目標，收回基礎編碼、架構和測試的成本。如果有IBM員工對項目感興趣，愿意利用自己的專業知識協助開發項目，提交者可以將他們吸收進項目團隊。員工可以投票支持自己喜歡的提案，每一票代表100美元（每位員工最高可支配2,000美元）。而這些資金均來自CIO Lab提供的300,000美元的內部投資基金。

????雷古斯說：“只要支持的總金額達到25,000美元，我們就可以出資推動項目繼續發展?！弊匀ツ暌辉路輎FundIT啟動以來，共有30個國家的1,000多名IBM員工參與了這個平臺的活動。到目前為止發布的160項提案中，共有20項達到了融資目標，而它們的融資金額從10,000美元到30,000美元不等。

????雷古斯表示，所有項目的初衷都是“完善我們內部的工作方式。他們解決各種問題，從提高供應鏈的效率，到改進銷售工具，以及各種不同用途的內部應用，涉及的范圍很廣?！?/p>

????眾多iFundIT項目所提高的生產效率能夠轉化成多少真金白銀？現在討論這個問題還為時尚早。她補充道：“到目前為止，iFundIT最大的影響是在文化方面。大家喜歡這個平臺， 因為它會讓他們的工作更加有趣，讓他們有機會針對困擾他們的業務問題找出解決方案?！?/p>

????萊恩·赫頓印象最深刻的是iFundIT的速度。他的Tap-O-Meter僅用一個月就獲得了批準，贏得六大洲40多名同事的支持。目前，他正在與五位志愿者組成的團隊一起構建這個應用的架構。

????三年前，24歲的赫頓大學畢業后就加入了IBM。他說：“我很高興這么快就能看到結果。我的職業生涯剛剛起步便能產生這樣的影響，真是不可思議。當初誰能想到在這樣一家大型跨國公司竟然會發生這樣的事。真是太棒了。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓???

????Late last year, Ryan Hutton had what he thought was a bright idea. The IBM project manager thought it would be great to build a cloud-based web application that would give any IBM (IBM) employee access to real-time data about how his or her apps were being used within the company.

????"I wanted people to be able to measure the impact of the apps they had developed, including the ability to track who's using them and how often," Hutton says.

????Until this year, Hutton would have followed the same path that would-be innovators take at many other big companies, submitting his proposal to a review board that would take months to give it a thumbs up or down and, if the project got approved, months more to fund and staff it. Instead, Hutton was able to bypass the bureaucracy and pitch his app, dubbed Tap-O-Meter, directly to its intended users -- IBM's employees around the world -- via a new in-house crowdfunding platform called iFundIT.

????"We modeled it on public crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo," says Francoise LeGoues, head of IBM's CIO Lab, who created the program. "The question we started with was, how do we make sure everyone with a great idea gets a chance to have it seen and heard? How do we make use of all the knowledge and creativity in the company?"

????As with Kickstarter, IBM employees can get involved by submitting an idea, by critiquing it and suggesting improvements, or by investing in it. Submitters set a funding target to cover the cost of basic coding, architecture, and testing. They can also enlist teams of IBMers who volunteer their expertise to help develop projects that interest them. Employee backers support proposals they like by voting in $100 chunks (up to a maximum of $2,000 per employee) that come out of a $300,000 fund supplied by the CIO Lab.

????"Once the total amount of support reaches $25,000, we fund the project and move forward with it," says LeGoues. Since iFundIT launched last January, more than 1,000 IBM employees in 30 countries have participated in one way or another. Of the 160 proposals posted so far, 20 have reached their funding targets, which range from $10,000 to $30,000.

????All of the projects are intended "to improve the way we do things internally," says LeGoues. "They address a variety of issues, from making the supply chain more efficient, to better sales tools, to internal apps for different uses."

????It's too soon to put a dollar figure on productivity gains from iFundIT projects, she adds: "The biggest impact so far has been cultural. People love it, because it makes their jobs more fun and gives them a chance to invent solutions for business problems that have been frustrating them."

????What has impressed Ryan Hutton most is iFundIT's speed. His Tap-O-Meter took just one month to get the green light, backed by about 40 fans on six continents. He and a team of five volunteers are now building the app's architecture.

????"It's great to see such fast results, and it's kind of amazing to have this kind of impact so early in my career," says Hutton, who is 24 and joined IBM three years ago, straight out of college. "That's not really what you would expect from a huge multinational corporation. It's very cool."??