Partner Company - Manage Case Studies

Partner Case study

Introduction

A case study is one of the better marketing tools you can use to draw attention towards your business. While testimonials and customer ratings do the job of building trust and reliability, an evidence-based case study provides further reinforcement. You can use case studies to isolate and probe individual customer problems you have solved and highlight your technical capabilities and Zoho expertise in the process.

How does a case study help you as a Consulting Partner?

Case study for tier evaluation: Case studies add value to your overall tier evaluation score. Every case study approved by the Zoho team is worth 10 points and can add a maximum of 50 points for 5 case studies to your overall score.

Case study for tier partner profile: Not just that, your industry expertise and third-party integration capability information (displayed on your profile in the Zoho Partner Directory) are picked out from the case studies and projects that you submit.

How is a case study different from a project document?

A case study is story-driven, drafted after a project is completed, and it documents the solutions involved, the results of an implementation, along with the process, challenges, and the like. A case study often contains the customer's point of view in the form of one or more quotes and is often aimed at a prospective customer and developed for marketing and promotional purposes.

A project document, on the other hand, is a detailed, technical documentation that is drafted before the project begins and updated as an ongoing process until the project is completed. A project document outlines the scope of the project, the objectives, timelines, resources, risk management strategies, timeline, business impact, and the like. A project document is developed for internal teams and stakeholders to guide them through the execution of the project.

Case study pre-requisites

If your case study does not meet these requirements, it might get rejected by your Account Manager during the evaluation. Your case study should -

be submitted as a URL (could be a webpage link. It could also be a WorkDrive link with a PDF version of a case study webpage.
not be a version or copy of a case study that was previously for evaluation
cover only Zoho's flagship product(s)
be based on a customer associated to a Zoho service that is formally mapped to your partner account
have the customer's approval and consent before submission and reuse.

Below is the format that your business case study should ideally follow. Kindly note that this is not a rigid list-you can bring in minor alterations to the format to customize it to the problem statement.

Get Started: Case study template

Note: In case you need assistance with developing a case study, you may reach out to your account manager.

Choose customers with a clear story.
Frame the right questions and have an interview with the customer.
Create a draft that includes-
- Quotes from the partner to strengthen the case study
- Supporting data and numbers. This could also be engaging visuals like graphs, charts, etc.
- Include a CTA to redirect the reader to your website so they can access your services.
Publish the case study on your website and promote it to generate leads.

Title Card

The first section of the case study. Should include -

<Customer Name> Case Study
Brief description of the case study

Eg: "How Merchant & Co. used Zoho Social to streamline their social media strategy."

Overview

Provide a summary of the document.

This section could include -

A brief description of the problem (You don't have to cover this in detail here since it can be covered in detail a little later in the document)
A quick description about the Zoho product that solved the problem.
Key takeaways from the case study

Executive Summary

This section includes a summary of the customer business- what they do, who they are, and what they sell. You can include any customer business-related information that you think might be relevant to interpret your case study.

This could include -

the location of the business
a brief history of the business
field and nature of business
number of employees

This would be the appropriate section to start including quotes from reliable sources working/running the business.

<Start with a quote describing the company and what they do. Try to gain relevant information like how much data they have on the cloud or how cloud-dependent they are>

Problem Statement and Key Challenges

You should be able to clearly define the problem that the customer was facing and why. You could include details about the system the customer had in place and how it was disrupting productivity at the customer organization.

Draw out a clear list of key challenges that you observed was adversely affecting the day-to-day operations within the organization. Isolate the different issues from one another.

To aid the content, you could add numbers/data here-could be data regarding the loss of productivity, etc.

<Insert a quote from the business owner/a reliable source within the customer org to describe the challenge and how the employees/business was affected by it.>

Evaluation of the problem

This section would cover details of how you employed your Zoho expertise to evaluate the problem that the customer was facing.

It would also include details of how your experts determined the appropriate solutions to fill the process gaps within the customer business.

Proposed Solution(s)

Here you can include details about the proposed Zoho products. Include in details why this product best fits the customers needs (you can include details about specific features) and attribute it to the problems the customer why facing and how they could be solved.

Implementation

Include how long did it take to implementation the solutions- use this to demonstrate your efficiency as a partner. if there were any unexpected deviations that happened during the implementation- mention that along with how you mitigated it. If the implementation was complex, mention that. Migration and additional services provided during the implementation process can be added here.

Results

Describe in detail how the business was impacted after moving to the proposed Zoho products. Add numbers to aid the content. Mention revenue changes, lead conversion, and how the shift helped the customer achieve their objectives/goals better.

End with one more quote that clearly demonstrates the value the customer derives from Zoho products.

<CTA>

How to submit your case study for evaluation

Note: You cannot submit a case study without the customer's consent.

Step 1: Login to your Partner Store.

Step 2: From the main menu, click "Partner Company" and then select "Manage Case Studies".

Step 3: Select the "Add Case Study" option.

Step 4: In the subsequent "Case Study Details" box, make sure to accurately type out the customer's super admin email address. After this, select the Zoho flagship product that the case study covers. Click "Proceed". The system will now check if the customer account associated to the super email ID is linked to the provided Zoho service and mapped to you mapped to you for the same product.

Step 5: If the system finds a match, you will be able to access the subsequent fields like shown below. Fill up the mandatory fields and click "Submit".

Once you've submitted your case study, the respective PAM will approve or reject it based on the above mentioned criteria. In either of these cases, you will receive an in-app/email notification with an update along with the reason for rejection (in case it gets rejected).

Note: Once a Case Study has been submitted, it cannot be resubmitted.