The authors present their research results and practical experience regarding implementations of PLM systems in a set of companies. In detail, the very early stages of product planning and innovation management are considered. As most of today’s enterprises already operate PDMS (Product Data Management Systems), excellent foundations for a company-spanning idea and innovation management exist. An extensive analysis showed that idea management – if established – uses autonomous databases and data models which are not merged into or consistent with already existing PLM models. Potential is scattered due to disruptions in the information flow. Mostly, marketing and strategic groups have no direct access to relevant development and service data and thus lack customer feedback and stimuli for new strategic product ideas. Furthermore, strategic, technological and market boundaries have not been modelled yet to allow for an efficient handling of « postponed » ideas. The authors developed an extended data model in combination with a reference process model for innovation and idea management. Strategic data comparable to business intelligence information is consolidated with regular PLM information offering advanced opportunities and efficiency for innovation management. The paper also features an implementation of the introduced reference data and process models in a state of the art PLM system. Additionally, the approach serves as a guideline for SMEs and enables the set-up of professional innovation and idea management including presets for workflows, model attributes and open innovation functionalities.