In today's competitive scenario, the ability to innovate has become imperative not just for driving business growth but also to stay relevant for changing customer needs. Forward-looking organizations have realized that opening up innovation ecosystems by involving both internal and external stakeholders is the way of the future. A free flow of knowledge across all boundaries within the organization as well with external entities like customers, partners, universities makes for a fertile environment best suited to address problems of any nature.

The recent past has seen drastic 'disruption' both on the technology and business fronts. Over the past few years, we've witnessed cloud-enabled apps and subscription-based monetization models triumph over traditional build-and-own solutions. The emergence of cognitive services provided by big technology vendors has further democratized access to technology and accelerated digital businesses. This is the New-Normal that we live-in today.