How a Global Energy Leader Digitized Its Open Innovation Funnel
Discover how a global energy leader digitized its open innovation funnel with innosabi, turning fragmented processes into a unified, data-driven ecosystem.
A global energy company operating in over 60 countries and aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 needed to bring order to the complexity of its innovation ecosystem. Despite a sophisticated, CEO-backed open innovation model, execution was still buried in Excel sheets and fragmented communication tools.
To manage its complex innovation funnel process—from initial need collection to successful Proof of Concept (PoC) scaling—the company needed greater visibility, accountability, and scalability. The challenge was how to replace decentralized workflows with a strategic, data-driven model for finding and scaling external technology.
This case shows how the organization achieved that transformation with innosabi, moving from fragmented processes to a unified innovation ecosystem.
Managing a four-pillar innovation model across a global ecosystem proved difficult in practice. The company’s R&D and innovation strategy required intense collaboration with external partners, with startups accounting for roughly 90% of their targets—a deliberate focus on open innovation process. Each pillar played a distinct role in sourcing, funding, and scaling new ideas.
The interdependence of the four pillars meant inefficiencies compounded, and manual processes created friction across the ecosystem.
In practice, this friction manifested across the workflow in several critical areas:
The team wasted countless hours manually compiling data from disparate files just to report on the status of 163 scouting activities. Innovation managers were spending more time as data clerks than strategic brokers, struggling to connect R&D needs with the right external solutions.
The Proof of Concept, a key measure of success, was undermined. Paid PoCs that went untracked meant missed opportunities to scale innovations critical to the company’s energy transition goals.
Data standardization was non-existent. Information from the corporate venture capital arm and internal scouting resided in separate, incompatible systems. Inconsistent metrics made accurate reporting impossible. Furthermore, the lack of a unified digital audit trail created immense governance friction, complicating compliance and delaying critical diligence during external contracting.
In short, the existing system simply could not support the required level of global coordination or the integration of data from their vast network of innovation players.
What began as an operational challenge quickly became a strategic opportunity to rethink how innovation was tracked, measured, and scaled.
To truly act as an “internal Open Innovation broker,” the team needed a single, intelligent core to connect all four pillars of innovation. For that, they chose the innosabi platform to build their internal solution, which instantly solved the scattered data problem, ushering in real-time visibility across their ecosystem.
Implementation was both fast and effective, with measurable value achieved within months.
“Before 2023, our innovation funnel was managed using Excel and Teams — scattered information and no real-time overview. Today, we track everything in one place with dashboards, analytics, and AI."– Head of Scouting at a Global Energy Company
The success was driven not just by centralization, but by the powerful, structured functionality that supported the entire innovation funnel, essential for innovation teams.
For the first time, the company could quantify what worked.
The innosabi Startup platform now centralizes dozens of solutions that have completed a paid PoC and been successfully scaled within the company. Access is reserved for Business Unit stakeholders, keeping the information both relevant and actionable.
This searchable repository includes investment data, key contacts, and a collaboration checklist — making it easier for teams to identify proven technologies and understand their business impact. By clearly showing realized ROI, it also helps accelerate the internal adoption of externally validated solutions.
Manual uploads were replaced with automated, standardized processes that scaled effortlessly
The entire scouting and challenge process was migrated from scattered shared folders into a structured, searchable database. Startup intake was largely automated — around 80% of entries were uploaded by partners using standardized Excel templates.
This shift gave R&D and innovation teams immediate visibility into ongoing activities, project status, and workload distribution. The high level of standardization also laid the groundwork for future AI-based portfolio analysis by improving the overall quality and consistency of input data.
Within just seven months, the platform hosted 1,500 solutions — a figure that grew by 40% the following year.
Reporting moved from reactive to predictive, giving leadership real-time insight into innovation performance
The platform equips the Head of Scouting and team with on-demand access to key metrics, transforming reporting from manual to data-driven. Management can now analyze funnel dynamics in real time, identify the top five technology verticals, and evaluate the performance of corporate initiatives with precision.
This shift toward quantitative decision-making has made innovation oversight faster, clearer, and grounded in measurable outcomes.
This transformation revealed an important truth: the biggest obstacle to scaling R&D isn’t a lack of innovation, but the fragmented systems used to manage it. By digitizing their entire funnel, the company eliminated the risk of losing track of valuable PoCs and reduced the governance friction that once slowed progress. Today, they can centrally oversee and manage a growing portfolio of innovation activities.
The key takeaway for innovation leaders is clear: to achieve sustainable scale in a complex, multi-pillar strategy, every part of the innovation framework (from tracking to decision-making) needs to be digital, connected, and transparent.
The innosabi platform provided the definitive structure to turn complex open innovation efforts—which include corporate venturing, scouting, and incubation—into a measurable, high-performing strategic asset.
If your innovation framework feels complex or hard to control, the right structure brings clarity, direction, and measurable progress.
Discover how the innosabi startup platform helps centralize workflows, connect data, and turn innovation into measurable outcomes.
Request a personalized demo of the innosabi platform today and see the 'Pioneer' in action.
