Indra supports the ideas of its intrapreneurs to make an impact on the industry and society

Indra, one of the leading global technology and consulting companies, will support the development of the innovative ideas of three of its most entrepreneurial professionals, who aim to revolutionize areas such as the coordinated work of drones, through real-time monitoring of cooperative drones in a WiFi airspace, traceability and security in the acquisition of pharmaceutical products in public hospitals in Peru, through a cloud system based on IoT and blockchain; and sustainable mobility, thanks to a simple corporate App that makes it easy to choose a colleague with whom to share a car to go to work each day.

These three ideas have won in the third edition of Indra’s corporate intrapreneurship initiative, Innovators, a global call open to all company professionals around the world to respond to specific innovation challenges in areas where Indra wants to be a pioneer. In just three years Innovators has established itself as one of the ways to mobilize all the talent of the company, as a stimulus for the most eager professionals and as a flow of disruptive ideas for its new offer: it has been the seed of almost 2,000 new ideas and it has resulted in three projects that already develop new products for the company.

During the closing ceremony of Innovators 2019, the president of Indra, Fernando Abril-Martorell, recognized the high level of the proposals: "They are ideas which have an impact on society that solve specific problems. And that's the good thing about working at Indra, we make a real impact on society and on customers."

The president highlighted the "key role" of professionals to face the challenges and hurdles that the company faces "in a very competitive and changing environment, which forces us to be agile and flexible and, even, to generate the disruption ourselves." In order to also promote the cultural transformation that the company is addressing: "We are changing how we do things and we are demonstrating that we are a company with vitality, ambition and sensitivity towards environmental and social issues. I encourage you to join as protagonists in this transformation and continue contributing your inspiration to make Indra the best company in which to develop your life project,” he concluded.

More than 14,000 professionals have participated in Innovators 2019, presenting, commenting or voting on ideas; additionally, the international participation increased, especially in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Mexico.

From ideas to Indra products

Indraventures, Indra’s corporate vehicle to reinforce the relationship with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and finance initiatives, and the Indra Innovation Committee, made up of corporate units representatives, managers of all the business units along with technical experts, have chosen the winning ideas from among over 600 visionary proposals presented: the RAITAN System, by José María Pérez (Spain); Medichain Logistics, by Yasmin Gloria Escriba (Peru); and Carpooling by Vanessa Coullaut-Valera (Spain).

Each of the winners received a €5,000 prize for their initiative, a positive evaluation to their professional performance and work time to develop their business plan with Indra’s support, since the ultimate goal is for the ideas to become real products of the company. To achieve this, the various markets of the company will also be involved in the development of the business plan of the winning proposals together with their authors. 

Indraventures will also participate in this acceleration program, which will culminate in presenting the business plan to the investment committee, which will analyze it and, if approved, will give the chosen initiatives the necessary resources for their development.

Improving employee experience

The most voted idea by Indra’s employees has also received €5,000, the proposal Encuentra tu puesto ideal en Indra (Find your ideal position in Indra), presented by Jose Mariano Caballo.

Also, this year Indra has presented, as another challenge, the improvement of its own internal processes to increase efficiency, but above all, to improve the experience of the company's employees. And it has been a success, since in addition to giving rise to a winning idea and to the idea preferred by the professionals, it is the challenge that has generated more proposals, more visits and more votes, involving the professionals themselves in one of the main objectives of the major cultural transformation in which Indra is immersed: to become the most attractive and motivating company for global digital talent. Innovation and intrapreneurship are the protagonists of this transformation, together with a commitment to diversity, flexibility, young talent, and training.

Innovation Day at Indra

Indra wanted to convert the closing event of Innovators 2019 into the Innovation Day for the company. The winners of the previous edition have explained how they are already working to make their proposals a reality and the important leap that it has given to their professional career. Likewise, the winners of Hack Day, America Challenge, participated in a competition between professionals from the six main subsidiaries of Indra in Latin America to promote the young talent of the company. 

The event also included participation of guests such as the InVersion group, formed by two young entrepreneurs who create their own version of classical music to bring it closer to young people and which has had the support of one of the few artistic accelerators that exist in Spain promoted by the Paidea Foundation and the EOI.

Two people have also stood out in this celebration of innovation who Indra wanted to make known among its professionals as exceptional cases: David Sánchez de la Blanca, a student granted a scholarship by Indra within the framework of the Alumni program of the Carlos III University (UC3M), who has been awarded the university's prize of excellence for achieving the best grades; and Antonio García Vicente, a young 11 year-old programmer, who has developed more than 100 video games and who three years ago gave his first TED talk "Programar para aprender sin límites” (Programming for unlimited learning).

Indra has launched Innovators through Indraventures, its vehicle for corporate innovation. Innovators is part of Indra's innovation model, which aims to expand and strengthen its connection with technology innovation ecosystems globally: start-up companies, entrepreneurs, university research groups that are experimenting with emerging technologies and the professionals of the company, which make up a multidisciplinary network of experts from around the world.

About Indra

Indra (www.indracompany.com) is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers world-wide. It is a world-leader in providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defense markets, and a leading firm in Digital Transformation Consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive range of proprietary products, with an end-to-end, high-value focus and with a high innovation component. In the 2018 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €3.104 billion, with 43,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries.