The tool, called Innovate, has drawn interest from NASA, the CSIRO and financial institutions, and will be launched soon in the U.S., Europe and South Africa.

Eclipse Chief Execitive Officer Peter Williams said Deloitte ran a demonstration for Qantas Airways Ltd. where staff used the application to brainstorm innovation ideas.

"We held a 'breakthrough cafe' where we worked with a mixed group of Deloitte staff, entrepreneurs and experts on a topic chosen by Qantas. Using Innovate, we returned 939 ideas [which] Qantas has shown interest in implementing," Williams said.

"The primary fault with innovation is that business invests big money in lengthy and tedious market research, when all that is needed is smaller investments in things like focus groups - ideas need exposure to diverse opinions to get into the marketplace quickly.

"Most large organizations only consider a small number of ideas from a narrow group of people, [when] they need to capture thousands of ideas and focus their efforts, resources and investment in the gems that can quickly deliver value."