Education Case Studies - "How do I find them?"
Quite often, in conversation with partners, I'm asked "Do you have a case study on xyz?". Often the answer is yes. So let me tell you how to find good case study materials that you can use with your customers in sales pitches, bid materials and presentations.
The Microsoft Worldwide Case Studies database is where all of our written case studies are stored - they are available to view online, or download in Word format. Currently, there are 93 UK Education case studies in the database, and 35 of them have been produced in the last 12 months. It is pretty easy to search - here's some subsets of the total base of case studies
How about that? When you are next pitching SharePoint and you want to produce some evidence of SharePoint's widespread use in Education in the UK, you can point them towards 16 written case studies...
"So, how do I use them"
There are many ways to use these case studies, and only one of them is "print them out and give them to the customer"...
- Print them out and give them to the customer (sorry, had to do that one!)
- Put the link to the search result, or a specific case study, in your PowerPoint presentation
Imagine how powerful that is - you're pitching SharePoint, and you then say "let's look at how SharePoint is used in other education institutions in the UK..." - click - 16 case studies. Or around the world - click - 46 case studies.
- Lift a quotation from the customer, and use it in your presentation. They are powerful to use in this way, because the strongest proof for somebody in education is to hear what somebody else in education thinks.
- Some of my favourites at the moment are:
- “If we are preparing children for the big wide world, we need to replicate that world by providing the latest equipment and software.”
Richard Vasey, Head Teacher, Long Eaton School
- “Our Learning Gateway is one of the few examples of a manageable extended school delivery model anywhere in the country. Individual schools can access shared ‘portal-level sites’ and improve partnerships with external bodies such as the Careers Service and Fire Brigade. Key personnel from these organisations can then log in, look after their own sites, and communicate with schools and families more effectively.
Sir Mark Grundy, Head Teacher, Shireland Language College
- In November 2006, talking at the Specialist Schools Conference in Birmingham, Tony Blair described Shireland’s Learning Gateway as “one of the most remarkable ICT systems in the country.”
Shireland Language College
- Use it to show that you're a valuable Microsoft partner
This option isn't open to everybody, but if you have case studies on the database, show your customers that they are there in your pitch. By being able to demonstrate that Microsoft have published your case study on our global site, it can help to build your credibility. For example, if you're a Teksys sales person, how would your customer feel when you click on this link in your presentation
- And if you're wondering "How do Teksys get 11 case studies, and I haven't", then it boils down to them providing us with good customer examples , with powerful customer testimonials, using the strategically important Microsoft products.
In 2007/8, we're on the lookout for great customer examples of people using SharePoint 2007, Office 2007 and Windows Vista.
- If you don't have case studies, you could also use the Microsoft Solution Finder in a similar way
- And don't forget to do all of the above in your sales proposal documents etc
