4 trends in reference management

In addition, Project Knowledge Exchange, in which reference professionals can ask their peers and vendors in this space for advice and help, is about to go online in order to give more visibility to these discussions (stay tuned for this). I have the feeling that participants in PKE are asking and getting answers to questions that a lot of you have. My goal is to help create a trusted and very useful source of peer-developed knowledge on how to run a reference program.

Now, I'm delighted to say that a group of reference professionals in the Bay Area is continuing these efforts. Kudos to BEA's Amy Shever for putting them together. She and several other people hatched the idea in San Francisco and they hope to run with this concept by holding periodic meetings to support each other and exchange information on "what works." I'm proud that such a great idea flowed from one of our events, and was delighted to help the organizing effort by putting the word out.

And now they'd like to share the main ideas that emerged from their first meeting with the entire reference community - four important trends they've noticed in their companies:
1. Executive perception: The increasing importance of reference programs
2. Working with sales: A trend toward compensating sales teams
3. Case studies: A trend toward quality (and away from quantity)
4. Enticing customers: A trend toward fewer rewards, more value

Please see below for more information.

By the way, their next meeting will be held June 21st, 9am-11am at BEA. And if you're interested in starting such a group in your area, please let me know and I'll pass the word.

Best,
Bill

Four Emerging Trends: Highlights from the May 22 Meeting of Bay Area Reference Professionals

In attendance:

Amy Shever, BEA
Umang Shah, BEA
Margie Peeters, HP
Shelley Dunn, Hyperion
Debbie Ryan, Hyperion
Rhett Livengood, Intel
Steve Jensen, NetSuite
Whitney Wood, Oracle
Helen Furber, Verisign
Joe Behm, Verisign
Sia Pappanastos, Verisign
Mary Eileen Farley, Hitachi
Marie Schilling, Business Objects
Jeff Woodland, Business Objects

Highlights and trends identified in the May 22 meeting:

1. The increasing importance of reference programs. The companies represented at the meeting have invested a great deal of resources (people and $$) into building a customer reference program. They recognize the value that reference teams serve by engaging and managing customers to participate in critical sales and marketing events. Each company represented at the meeting views their program as a valuable and strategic competitive tool.

2. A trend toward compensating sales teams. The most effective programs include a process for compensating the sales teams for their efforts to recruit and sign customers up as references. One company includes the process as an optional commissioned item. Their results include well over 2000 customers signed up in the past two years.

3. A trend toward quality (and away from quantity) when it comes to case studies. Content and reference deliverables was another hot topic of discussion; many organizations are moving to case studies that are more comprehensive and that include ROI data (quality vs quantity). Some companies are now using outside vendors to produce ROI studies as customers are more likely to provide the ROI data to a third party. Customers also finding value in these ROI studies and using them to their own benefit.

4. Enticing customers: fewer rewards, more value. Companies are moving away from reference programs with tangible benefits (i.e. user group passes, reward/points programs) for customers participating in a reference program. Companies try to communicate value to each customer by providing access to execs, allowing them to influence roadmap, communicate with peers in their industry.