Joint Open Lab, TIM

Joint Open Lab   With its JOL project TIM anticipated the diffusion of the Open Innovation model across the main university campuses in Italy, promoting an interaction between ideas coming from different sources, sometimes external to the traditional organizational model. This direct and constant contamination involves a complex ecosystem of subjects, opening up a field to creatively process value: a key vessel to develop intra- preneurelism and generate new opportunities for a business. The diffusion of these innovative spaces across a whole national territory enables daily contamination: a new modus operandi is introduced and new ideas are generated, facilitating the development of territorial ecosystems. The multidisciplinary approach we adopt in all our partnerships has fostered an exchange of knowledge and work attitudes, which can bring a positive spin to new business ideas. Over the last three years 50+ young people have joined our JOLs, and are now working for TIM, alongside 60+ PhD students and 30+ interns, all engaging with the territorial ecosystem. Thanks to its success of results, participation and ecosystem engagement, the JOL scheme will continue into the next three years (2016-2018), expanding to include three new universities. Over the last three years (2013-2015) TIM has achieved important results across 6 different evaluation axes, thanks to JOL: 1) Market Proposition: 10+ innovative ideas which have turned into fully- formed business proposals and commercial opportunities for Telecom Italia 2) Financials: 5+ million euros funding received by Telecom Italia, 2 million euros funding offered to the university ecosystems JOLs partakes to by Telecom Italia 3) Knowledge: 27 patents filed; 4 MPEG-standard patents filed, 1 SpinUp- eligible patent 4) International Footprint: a collaboration with 30+ top ranking academic institutions abroad; 15 different nationalities participating to JOLs 5) Way of Working: exchanging new work methodologies applied to innovation (Kanban, Agile Programming, Design Thinking, Lean Start-Up, Spin-Up, Lining Labs...) to increase the number of skills available within the company. 6) Brand Reputation: 250+ papers, 20+ events, 40 training seminars with JOL, 30+ articles on JOL blogs, 2 Big Data Challenges involving 1,100+ people, 650+ international teams, 40+ university teams. Scenario The role played by innovation is ever so important in determining the growth, performance and sustainable renewal dynamics of a company. Innovation transposes advanced technologies into the market, systematically enhancing products and services and radically improving a business and its strategies. The degree to which a business is able to innovate and invest in innovation is ever more crucial in determining its competitiveness on the market, particularly at times of financial and industrial turmoil. Our target " We want to attract talent and generate new job opportunities, promoting technological innovation and diffusing it at a local and regional economic ecosystem level.” – TIM Joint Open Labs play a key role in this new landscape. Their ‘company on campus’ model encourages a spontaneous contamination between academia and the industry, which puts co-planning and co-developing innovative solutions first, not as an end-result. Co-location is also an important factor: an open space for open minds, in which researchers from different fields come together to combine their diverse skills (both internal and external to the company) acquire know-how, develop new business strategies and open up new avenues for financial growth. What we do " Approximately 150 young people and 5 of the most important Italian universities are involved in the creation of 8 Applied Research and Innovation labs, working within specific fields of scientific and technological development, as per Telecom Italia’s business strategy." – TIM As part of its Innovation & Industry Relations function, TIM has promoted the inception of numerous Joint Open Labs within a number of university campuses across the whole Italian territory. TIM has signed off collaborations with some of the most important academic institutions and research centres in Italy with a view to promote a spontaneous contamination between industry and academia: Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Trento con la Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Università degli Studi di Catania. In this context, universities open up a dialogue with society at large, endorsing the direct application, promotion and use of knowledge as a contribution to the social, cultural and economic development of the country.