I was at the IHRIM Global Forum and it struck me that there all kinds of useful case studies presented at HCM conferences and on various sites, but there is no easy way to find one across all conferences and sites. So, I came up with the idea to create a database where people can log and categorize their case studies so that others can benefit from their wisdom and experience. This is how it works:
Step 1: Upload your presentation or case study document to an appropriate site (if it is not already on a site) where you can control the use of the document. Scribd and Slideshare are good examples. I do not intend to store copies of case studies in the database, just URL pointers. These sites will provide you a URL to directly access the document. Also, vendors and consultants can also add case studies to the database and pointers to their web sites (please indicate if there is any sort of subscription required as shown in the Gartner examples already populated).
Step 2: Enter information about your case study. Below the list of existing presentations, you will see fields to provide a summary of your case study and a link to the site where the case study is stored. The contact name and e-mail address (and phone number if provided) will not be publicly displayed. I have asked for that information if follow up is needed with the person submitting the case study for technical reasons.
After you enter the required information, you can add additional descriptive data about the case study including: organization size, industry, geographic scope, project phase(s), functional scope, vendors and consultants/systems integrators used
Step 3: Search the database for relevant case studies using the provided filters. Obviously, the more case studies added to the database, the more useful the searching mechanisms will become.
I have added a link to a page on my personal blog as a permanent access point (with these instructions). Also, you can link directly to the database as well (it is probably easier to enter the data by following the link than it is to use the embedded version in this blog post). I can also provide you the code to embed it on your site if you would like to make it available (like I have embedded it into this blog post).
