Share your best work with Digital Case Study Research
Advisor Relations
Hello, I hope everyone is enjoying Spring!
Submissions recently opened for our Digital Case Study Research. So, for my latest newsletter, I’d like to take some time to walk you through how the program works and how
your firm can benefit from participation.
As you may be aware, this research is associated with the ISG Digital Case Study Awards, which is a recognition of your partnership with your clients. But it can also help you as an opportunity to share your best and most innovative case studies with ISG:
- For each deal ISG advises, the Candidate Provider Qualification (CPQ) team looks to provide our advisors with the most relevant case studies from each provider on the longlist—by services in scope, industry, and geography.
- Your case studies are also shared and leveraged across ISG Research. Specifically, case studies submitted for this research are available to ISG Provider Lens analysts, and are an important input to development of case study compilations prepared
by the ISG Research team for use by ISG advisors.
I wrote a little about the first bullet in a recent update about our CPQ process at ISG; case studies are an important method our advisors use to advocate for your
company whenever your firm is in consideration in an ISG-advised deal. Let me give you an example of this.
Consider if the CPQ team is developing a deliverable for an ISG team at the outset of a deal. The client is a U.S.-based bank and the deal is primarily ADM with some transformation components. When the CPQ analyst looks up your firm, they see your case
studies you have shared with ISG as follows:
Case studies with ADM in scope:
| Banking | Insurance | … | … | Manufacturing | Retail | |
| Americas | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | ||
| UKI | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| DACH | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| … | ||||||
| … | ||||||
| ANZ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In such a scenario, when the CPQ analysts presents your firm to the advisor team, they have no option but to show a case study from another region or industry. This is likely to put your firm at a disadvantage because your case study was not relevant.
I recently received an email from an advisor about very similar situation:
“Take a look at the quality of <PROVIDER> case studies. Not good, and not ‘client presentable’ in current form/content. The case studies should be relevant to the industry, scope of work. Providers need to be reminded that their case studies are being utilized in the CPQ process and are a reflection on their ability to be selected.”
The Digital Case Study Research and Awards process is designed to ensure that all your submissions bolster your credentials in the CPQ process. The process is structured to ensure that the case studies developed by ISG from your submissions make it easy
for the advisors to understand your strengths and to advocate for you. From specific ‘digital’ projects to digital scope embedded into longer-term managed services or outsourcing scope, a rich mix of case studies across industries and
regions can truly differentiate you.
In the fifth year of the Digital Case Study Research program, we have taken feedback we heard from many of you and made it easier for you and your teams to participate. There are a couple of important changes I would like to draw your attention to, especially
if you and your organization have participated in previous years:
- There is no limit to how many submissions you can share, so ideally you will include entries that represent as many aspects of your work as you reasonably can—covering all the industries, geographies, services or offering space that are important to you.
- You can now submit case studies through the entire year, and we have made the process to gather your inputs and write the case study more collaborative. Our goal with this approach is the same as yours: to make your case studies the best representation
of your client work.
Both changes should improve the exchange of information between your organization, ISG and our advisors, thereby better fulfilling your objectives with ISG.
At the risk of repeating myself, I will add that client stories are one of most preferred methods of learning for our advisors. The advisors, especially those from the ISG Digital practice, are actively involved in the research process and selection of
standout case studies. With the SmartX transformation framework, they also leverage these case studies to demonstrate ‘the art of the possible’ or examples of a digital future that is already taking shape. Clients like to see what others
in their industry are doing, or they look for role models from other industries to inspire them with ideas. Whose case studies do you want there? Yours, of course!
I am always excited by the dialogue we manage to start through my messages. And, let me know if there is someone you would like added to this mailing list. And if they, or you, need to catch up on any of my older newsletters, you can read past messages
at this archive.
Thanks,
Paul
