Dell launched Storm Sessions in December 2009.

Background: Dell’s IdeaStorm was launched in early 2007 “as a way to talk directly to our customers“, and “to have on-line brainstorm sessions to allow you the customer to share ideas and collaborate with one another and Dell.”

The model is a simple one: users of the Direct2Dell site post suggestions and requests.  As these posts are promoted, by other users of the site, their score is increased.  Dell then uses this ranking to identify which ideas are the most important.  It has proven to be a very successful model with some “2,000 ideas submitted within the first few weeks,“  and, over the three intervening years of use, Dell claim to have “implemented almost 400 ideas.”

IdeaStorm is therefore an extremely successful example of crowdsourcing (and what a horrendous term that is!) – which Wikipedia (another model of crowdsourcing!) insightfully defines as “the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or community.”

So why has Dell changed this successful formula?  What does Storm Sessions bringing to the equation?

Vida Killian‘s (VidaK: Twitter Bio “Idea girl at Dell“) in her Direct2Dell blog post “Storm Sessions Launch on IdeaStorm” suggests that Storm Sessions is the “next level“.  Essentially, Dell will now be choosing the topics!  Driven by Dell’s current business needs Dell will post “targeted, relevant, and time bound ideas” and seek the users comments.  Dell even offer to provide, when the “time bound” is up, feedback on “how and when the idea will be put into action.”

Now this sounds like something worth monitoring …

IdeaStorm and Storm Sessions are powered by salesforce.com

See salesforce.com’s IdeaExchange.  On the IdeaExchange site salesforce.com users can “suggest new products, promote favorite enhancements, interact with product managers and customers.”  Similarly, all editions of salesforce.com CRM come with an in-house “on-line suggestion box” called Ideas – where “a community of users [can] post, vote for, and comment on ideas.“