A Stress-Free Reference Management System

Keeping track of all reference activities without the right tool can be a fast track to a migraine. Where are the most recent case studies for the manufacturing vertical? Did we capture that customer blog entry in the database from last week? Who’s coordinating the reference customers for the kick-off next month? Did we get the approval for that financial services video yet? Which customers should we try to recruit into the customer reference program?

Then there’s the issue of making all the information readily available to the rest of your organization, making it simple for anyone to find what they need and move on.

What’s needed is one place where:

  • Sales and Marketing can quickly and easily find video, audio, links to podcasts, blogs and YouTube videos, case studies, press releases, etc., without a steep learning curve

  • The field can request assistance with lining up reference calls, site visits, media interviews and RFP references

  • Everyone else that “touches the customer” can find out what’s happened in the past, what’s going on now, and what’s planned for the future with any given customer

  • We can can effectively leverage the sales force, and our partners to identify new customer advocates who are willing to act as references.

Enter ReferenceStor, a hosted reference management system. The system has been designed to support the primary objectives, key processes and workflows of a dynamic customer reference program. We’ve listened and taken notes for the past two years and created your dream reference information system.

  • ReferenceStor comes standard with substantial all-inclusive, “out-of-the-box” functionality designed specifically to support customer reference program needs and workflows. ReferenceStor can be specifically tailored to your needs: fields renamed, re-ordered; new fields created; and selection box or drop down values defined on demand. It is configurable and that means no programming required to make it work the way you need it to.

  • A reference program has many “moving parts”; multiple projects, nominations, requests, content changes, etc. ReferenceStor provides intuitive, centralized visibility and coordination of these activities, keeping everyone informed via timely email alerts.

  • System information can be viewed online or downloaded for use in your favorite reporting tool. A dashboard provides Reference Managers with instant visibility into time sensitive activities.

  • To avoid creating data “islands,” source data from CRM applications may be synchronized with ReferenceStor (via industry standard XML data integration) then enhanced with reference-specific information.

  • For Salesforce.com clients we offer a fully integrated version of ReferenceStor for sales users. All the great Search, Request and Content Delivery features without ever leaving the interface they’re accustomed to.

We consider Point of Reference a true partner in helping meet our global reference needs. Their reference management system enables us to meet worldwide sales needs making it easy to locate and deliver reference assets including case studies, presentations, videos, white papers and other collateral. We also value the consultative approach Point of Reference provides. They typically anticipate the needs of our evolving reference program – making us look good to both our reference clients and our sales teams.

Wayne S. Fenstermacher
Global Customer Reference Program
Unisys