DLA Piper global co-CEO Simon Levine has launched a firmwide online crowdsourcing project to encourage innovation.

The crowdsourcing project, dubbed the 'CEO Challenge' was launched last month when Levine emailed all 6,500 staff in the international firm, inviting them to participate.

In the email, seen by Legal Week, Levine said that in order to "thrive in the future" the firm needs to "innovate both effectively and at pace".

He added: "Our people have told me we must also tackle the things that get in the way of us doing a great job, before we can start to drive more radical changes."

He said: "We've not always made the most of our collective creativity. To date, we've lacked the systems and support to do this at pace and at scale.

"We've now invested in processes and systems that will allow us to harness our best ideas and take forward the right ideas for the greatest impact. The first step in this journey is our CEO Challenge," he added.

Employees can use the online platform to anonymously share ideas, which others can then vote and comment on. In the first in what is set to be a series of CEO Challenges, the topic is: "What should we stop, start or do differently to tackle things that get in the way of you doing a great job and why?"

Levine concluded: "Join in, speak your mind – together we will make a real impact on the future of our firm."

Speaking to Legal Week, Levine said the response had been impressive, with 42% of staff participating and more than 28,000 comments and votes generated in the two weeks the portal was open.

The firm is now analysing the results alongside a third-party provider. According to Levine, the results have been broken down into eight main themes: culture; performance measurement; rewards, recognition and recruitment; health; service delivery; IT systems; knowledge management; and communications.

Levine said the firm will then look at the top five ideas in each of the categories and will commit funds and resources to develop the best ideas. The firm will report back to staff on the results of the exercise in the next few weeks.

The firm is also setting up a portfolio management office under Adam Hembury, its new director of innovation, who joined from Ashurst in January. According to Levine, this will be a "virtual office that takes ideas and works on how to integrate them into the business".

Levine said the firm may look to recruit project managers and analysts in order to get the right skills in place for its anticipated launch date on 1 May.

The office will be tasked with taking ideas, including those generated by the CEO Challenge, and turning them into reality.