Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Customer Evidence Program
Situation: With the impending release of Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft needed to determine the needs of sales, marketing, press, and analysts and select customers with the evidence to meet those needs. They needed consultants that could work with account teams, subsidiaries, partners, and customers to create this evidence, including case studies, “win wires,” and videos. They also needed those consultants to establish and administer a global evidence desk.
Solution: Projectline consultants worked with the SharePoint team to gather and analyze information from sales, marketing, press, and analysts to prioritize business objectives. They worked with account teams to help them understand the major messaging pillars for Office SharePoint Server 2007, particularly search capabilities, an emerging focus to help users quickly find relevant content. Projectline recruited reference customers and involved them in producing evidence to the extent they were comfortable. They also performed an audit to determine what new evidence was needed to support the business objectives.
“The Projectline team was instrumental in helping us reach our customer evidence goals. They were able to navigate from the strategic aspects of the program to the execution details of it.” – Product Manager, SharePoint Product Group, Microsoft Corporation.
Benefits: Microsoft now has an Office SharePoint Server 2007 reference database with more than 150 customers (up from just 5 when Projectline first joined the project), a successful process for recruiting new customers, and a coordinated approach to cross-team evidence collection. It also has the evidence and “win wires” necessary to document the competitive success of the SharePoint product group and sales teams. With Projectline assuming responsibility for these activities on an ongoing basis, Microsoft can focus on building and enhancing customer relationships.
Results:
- 150 SharePoint customer references, with more than 70 for search
- Documentation of product-group and sales-team successes
- Ongoing process for recruiting and qualifying reference
- Web site for all Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 evidence, categorized by major messaging pillars