2022 - Page 3 of 3 - FormAssembly

Customer Highlight: Nonprofits Providing Humanitarian Assistance in Ukraine

Posted on March 10, 2022September 26, 2024

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, millions of Ukrainian citizens have fled from their homes and now seek refuge in shelters or continue to evacuate the country. As this devastating humanitarian crisis unfolds, many nonprofit organizations have accelerated their efforts to help provide relief and support for Ukrainian refugees.

If you have been left wondering how you can provide support amidst this crisis, below are several organizations providing humanitarian assistance in Ukraine that are currently accepting donations.

The UN Refugee Agency

The UN Refugee Agency helps save, protect the rights, and help build better futures for refugees, displaced communities, and stateless people affected by persecution, violence, and war. The organization has accelerated operations and capacity in Ukraine and neighboring countries to provide life-saving protection for Ukrainian families who have fled their homes. One-time or monthly donations to this nonprofit provide protection and emergency cash assistance for families, psychosocial support for displaced children, and relief items such as blankets, tarpaulins, and jerry cans for clean water.

Learn more and donate here.

War Child UK

War Child specializes in providing humanitarian care for children in conflict and is currently ramping up efforts to provide life-saving support and psychological care to Ukrainian children in war zones. This organization also provides services for children recovering from trauma as well as equipping them with resources and skills for the future. Donations to this nonprofit organization help assist in these humanitarian efforts now and also help children with post-war recovery.

Learn more and make a donation here.

Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund provides support and community for Jewish people in Israel and around the world. They are currently providing emergency funding to support the vulnerable Jewish community in Ukraine. One-time or monthly donations to this nonprofit organization’s Ukraine Emergency Fund provide welfare services to elderly and at-risk Jewish families, mobilize volunteers and staff, assist refugees in Ukraine and neighboring countries (including temporary housing), provide satellite phones, and more.

Learn more and make a donation here.

Additional resources

FormAssembly is proud to work with the organizations listed above. For additional nonprofit organizations that are providing humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, please view resources from NPR, Nova Ukraine, and Crisis Relief.

New Feature: Save Time with Bulk Response Reprocessing

Posted on March 1, 2022October 15, 2024

Have you ever needed to reprocess a response in FormAssembly either because of a connector issue or some other reason?

Now, with our new bulk reprocessing feature, reprocessing responses is quick and easy. Bulk reprocessing allows you to filter, select, and reprocess multiple responses, saving you hours of time and effort when unexpected connector errors occur.

Why use this feature

When connector errors prevent data from syncing to the right location, you need a way to quickly remedy the situation. Bulk reprocessing offers:

Ability to select the exact response you need
Time and effort-saving
An easy solution when things go wrong

Who can use this feature

This feature is available on Enterprise, Compliance Cloud, and Government Cloud plans.

Try it today!

Connector errors happen, and when they do, you need a way to get your processes back on track and get your data where it needs to go. Try out the new feature today on your account.

Not on an Enterprise, Compliance Cloud, or Government Cloud plan? Reach out to our team today to explore the options.

Get a Demo

New Connector: FormAssembly’s Salesforce.org Elevate Integration

Posted on February 23, 2022May 2, 2023

[Updated 5-2-23] This year, Salesforce announced plans to halt sales of the Elevate Connector. FormAssembly’s connector continues to supports existing Elevate customers.

Need a solution for creating donation forms linked with Salesforce? FormAssembly’s new integration allows users to create customizable forms that integrate with Salesforce.org’s fundraising platform, Elevate.

What is Salesforce.org Elevate?

Salesforce.org Elevate is an offering from Salesforce that gives nonprofits and higher education institutions a streamlined, scalable way to engage supporters and manage fundraising. This holistic giving platform is available on Salesforce’s Nonprofit and Education Cloud offerings.

Elevate makes it easy to manage the entire giving process. Users are able to:

Easily jumpstart fundraising campaigns
Increase donations with customized giving options
Harness the power of mobile-optimized donation pages
Integrate data with Salesforce

Donations can cause headaches and frustration, but Salesforce.org Elevate was created to reduce common pain points such as data silos, payment integration difficulties, and time-consuming campaign launches.

Why use FormAssembly with Salesforce.org Elevate?

FormAssembly’s Salesforce.org Elevate Payment Connector offers an end-to-end solution for Salesforce users that are looking to strengthen and streamline their fundraising efforts.

WIth the new connector, FormAssembly web forms can be used as a full-featured alternative to the built-in Elevate Giving Pages, allowing people to access all the great functionality of Salesforce.org Elevate plus additional flexibility and customization.

How does the FormAssembly connector work?

Launching a Salesforce.org Elevate-connected form is simple with FormAssembly:

Create a form in FormAssembly’s drag-and-drop form builder.
Set up Salesforce.org Elevate integration with a few steps in FormAssembly and Salesforce.org.
Gather one-time or recurring donations easily, leveraging all the benefits of Salesforce.org Elevate.

How can I start using the Elevate Connector?

Getting started is easy. You’ll need to have a Salesforce.org Elevate account and be on a FormAssembly Premier or above plan to try out the connector.

Explore Salesforce.org Elevate

Tech in Black: The Evolution of Diversity in Tech

Posted on February 16, 2022October 1, 2024

February is Black History Month in the United States and a great opportunity to celebrate the significant achievements and contributions Black individuals have made in the tech industry and beyond. In today’s climate and always, it is important to honor the past heroes of this community and to recognize those paving the way for a better, more diverse and inclusive future.

At FormAssembly, we’re celebrating Black History Month in a video series honoring the contributions of Black innovators, both past and present, including trailblazers in the Salesforce ecosystem and leaders across the tech industry. In this blog post, we’re highlighting historical figures and current influential leaders who have and are making big impacts in the tech industry to honor their industry-changing achievements.

Historical black innovators in tech

Many Black innovators have been cornerstones in the tech industry and have made significant advancements that impact us still today. Here are several of the most influential pioneers of the past century:

Katherine Johnson (1918 – 2020)

The contributions of Katherine Johnson have most recently been recognized in the book (and film adaptation) Hidden Figures. A college student at age 15, Johnson went on to teach at Langley Research Center, which is now part of NASA. She is most remembered as being a “human computer” for the first NASA space mission. Her calculations on the flight path of the space shuttle and involvement in early missions earned her a place as one of the most influential Black women in tech. Former President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Melba Roy Mouton (1929 – 1990)

Melba Mouton rose to prominence as an influential Black female leader for her similar contributions as a “human computer” for NASA. Throughout her career, she became Head of Computer Programming at NASA as well as a program chief at Goddard Space Flight Center. Her contributions to space missions involved the production of the orbital element timetables, which enabled people on Earth to view satellites passing by.

Roy Clay Sr. (1929 – Present)

Known as the “Godfather of Silicon Valley,” Roy Clay is a computer science innovator recognized for developing computer software for Hewlett-Packard (HP) as well as becoming the first director of HP Research and Development Computer Group. He was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame in 2003 for his contributions to computer science and playing a key role in the engineering advancements during HP’s development.

Clarence Ellis (1943 – 2014)

Clarence “Skip” Ellis is remembered as the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science and as one of the developers of the first supercomputer. Ellis spent decades innovating for well-known tech companies like IBM, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and Xerox. He later went on to be a pioneer in operational transformation, the technology field that would lead to modern collaborative applications like Google Docs.

Trailblazers at Salesforce

As Salesforce strives to promote diversity and equality by giving everyone an opportunity to build their own tech careers, there are several influential Black leaders in the Salesforce space who are making a difference in their communities and industries as a whole. Here are a few you should know about:

Tiffany Spencer

“It’s important to have Black and Brown people in decision-making rooms to bring diverse thoughts to ideation sessions and hear our voices about the impact technology can have on our communities.”

Tiffany Spencer is a 7x certified Salesforce.com Professional, the COO of Esor Consulting Group, and the founder of HBCUforce. She began her Salesforce career working as an admin for a land development organization, a position that would shape the rest of her tech career. Tiffany has spent over a decade assisting organizations in digital transformation with help from Salesforce. Tech Forward (formerly HBCUforce), her nonprofit organization, helps students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) access cloud-computing careers with programs that expose them to Salesforce. Follow Tiffany on LinkedIn.

Nicale Whitehead Nxumalo

Nicale Nxumalo is the CEO of Southpoint Consulting, a women-owned firm that provides Salesforce implementation, IT strategy, and systems integration services. With over two decades of IT consulting experience, Nicale has impacted the Defense, Civilian, and Private sectors in project management, cloud-based solutions, strategic planning, software development, and more. Follow Nicale on LinkedIn.

Marciana Davis

“The significance of Black representation is that our perspectives, ideas, and opinions all matter. My mission is to diversify, educate, and empower underrepresented voices in the Salesforce ecosystem.”

Marciana Davis is a Salesforce Consultant for RDP Associates and Program Coordinator for Tech Forward (formerly HBCUforce). She began her tech career with assistance from PepUp Tech, an organization that provides underrepresented students with resources to find technology jobs. Marciana now works to diversify, educate, and empower underrepresented voices in the Salesforce ecosystem. Follow Marciana on LinkedIn.

Jody Hamlett

Jody Hamlett is the Managing Partner for Configero, a Salesforce certified firm offering consulting services to maximize organizations’ investments in CRM. A Certified Salesforce Managing Consultant, Jody has spent almost two decades in the Salesforce ecosystem implementing solutions for enterprise companies. Follow Jody on LinkedIn.

Tiffany Tremont

Tiffany Tremont is the co-founder, President, and CEO of Silotech Group, which provides organizations with advanced cyber solutions, enterprise IT, intelligence solutions, and managed services, including Salesforce. Her tech career spans over two decades, during which time she worked within the IT industry in the commercial and federal sectors. Follow Tiffany on LinkedIn.

More influential leaders

While the tech industry continues to grow at a rapid rate, Black, Latinx, and Native tech professionals account for just under 5% of those employed by large companies in this sector. Equality in the tech space doesn’t just mean greater representation, but more representation at all levels, including managers and CEOs. These Black leaders in tech are helping to pave the way for these possibilities now and in the future:

Dr. Mark Dean

Mark Dean is one of the most influential minds in computer science. After building his own computer and radio in high school, he began working at IBM where his development of personal computers earned him three of IBM’s original PC patents. His most recent contributions to tech and computer science include leading the team that developed the 1-Gigahertz chip. He is also the first African American to be an IBM Fellow.

Kimberly Bryant

Kimberly Bryant, whose tech career spans over two decades, is the founder and CEO of Black Girls CODE. An activist for inclusion and diversity in tech, Kimberly uses her organization to help girls of color prepare for careers in tech with school-age computer programming training. In 2013, she was recognized as a White House Champion of Change for Tech Inclusion. Follow Kimberly on LinkedIn.

Tosan Arueyingho

Tosan Arueyingho is a software developer, consultant, and the founder and President of Black is Tech. This conference, launched in 2019, helps connect Black and Latinx people with career growth and development resources, startup funding, and educational resources. An influential leader today, he’s paving the way for greater opportunities for tech professionals, students, and entrepreneurs. Follow Tosan on LinkedIn.

Kelauni Jasmyn

Kelauni Jasmyn is the founder and CEO of Black Tech Nation, an organization that helps bring Black professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors together for support, education, and funding. Kelauni, also a founding partner of Black Tech Nation Ventures, is driven by her mission to encourage Black innovation and help members of the Black community build wealth through technology. Follow Kelauni on LinkedIn.

Spotlight: Austin Johnson

We had the opportunity to interview Austin Johnson, the COO of Code Black Indy. Here’s what he has to say about his journey as a Black professional in tech:

What made you decide to pursue a career in tech?

I am an Indianapolis native that has always had a passion for technology and the advancements it can create within our day-to-day lives. I went to school for Informatics to really understand how technology can play a major within a business structure. While in school, I was working at Tesla, Inc., which exposed me to different technological resources and projects that sparked my interest. After school, I went to the Eleven Fifty Academy where I became a certified C# .NET Software Engineer that would help mold me into my career.

How would you describe your journey, including any challenges that you are most proud of overcoming?

The most challenging was going through school while working full time. I was also working full-time during coding school. This was especially challenging because my days were extremely long with very little downtime.

What is one thing you believe has contributed to your success thus far?

Outside of a good support system, consistency has played a huge role in my career. I am always looking to better myself in a variety of aspects in life. Being hungry to learn allows me to be creative both while working and in my home life with my hobbies. The “learn it all” mentality has helped accelerate me in my career.

In what ways can companies prioritize to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace?

A big way that companies can prioritize these initiatives is by being intentional in recruiting efforts. For example, a lot of corporations target big universities, but there needs to be a magnifying glass on HBCUs that can deliver the same talent as a big university. Another way is to partner with community job placement organizations. This can help build a pipeline directly into the community for diversified talent.

Which historical or current Black leader has most influenced you personally and/or professionally?

Barack Obama! Outside of politics, President Obama has proven that we too can achieve anything we put our minds to. As a young black man, that resonates very deeply in today’s climate.

What advice would you give Black professionals interested in tech?

The best advice I can give is to never stop learning. Knowledge is power and will expand your mind to do creative things that can lead to changing the world. We can achieve anything we put our minds to.

Explore more diversity, equity, and inclusion resources

Here are several resources your team can use to learn more about Black History Month as well as diversity, equality, and inclusion for your organization:

Introducing the FormAssembly Partner Academy

Posted on February 14, 2022

As one of our valued FormAssembly partners, your clients depend on you to be an expert in our platform. They expect you to have considerable knowledge about building web forms, integrating other systems, and resolving issues as they occur. The more you know about FormAssembly, the more your clients will count on your skills and knowledge!

We’re excited to introduce our new FormAssembly Partner Academy—your own dedicated partner interface and learning hub with specialized training to level up your FormAssembly expertise!

What is the Partner Academy?

We designed the Partner Academy to give our partners a place to build their FormAssembly skills and knowledge as it relates to their roles as guides and consultants for their clients. The free academy provides two specialized courses for partners:

FormAssembly Troubleshooting: Become the expert problem-solver for your clients! This course provides you with documentation and how-to guides for common issues your clients have. These troubleshooting techniques will give you the knowledge to find solutions without needing to go between your clients and our Support team.
FormAssembly Partner Knowledge: This course covers the resources and discounts specifically available for FormAssembly partners, plus other essential FormAssembly knowledge.

Partners who previously completed any FormAssembly Certification courses as part of FormAssembly Academy will be able to view and access their previously completed courses in their Partner Academy account by signing into the FormAssembly Partner Academy with the same credentials.

After completing each course, you will receive a promotional resource to share on social media.

What are the benefits?

The FormAssembly Partner Academy is a dedicated training hub designed specifically to advance the skills of our partners. With access to partner-centric courses, you can level up your FormAssembly knowledge with topics that relate directly to your position as an expert for your clients. Over time, we also plan on releasing even more resources and courses that will only be accessible to partners in the Partner Academy.

How to join the Partner Academy

If you already registered for the general FormAssembly Academy, you should log into the Partner Academy with the same email address and password. To complete the registration for the Partner Academy, please retrieve an access code at the link below. Reach out to your Partner Account Manager with any questions!

Get My Access Code

Workflow: Then and Now

Posted on January 13, 2022September 30, 2024

FormAssembly Workflow changed everything at FormAssembly. The release of this new solution shifted our focus from a form-first view to a more holistic focus on data collection and data stewardship.

But if you’ve been with FormAssembly for any length of time, you know that the journey to our new Workflow solution began long before the November 2021 release. It’s long been possible to create workflows of varying complexity with FormAssembly, but not until the recent release has it been so easy and so powerful.

In this article, we’ll explore the backstory of our Workflow solution and how we moved from a simple, linear workflow feature and creative customer workarounds to what we now call FormAssembly Workflow.

A history of workflow functionality at FormAssembly

Before FormAssembly Workflow, FormAssembly did offer a workflow tool, but it paled in comparison to the functionality of the new solution.

Essentially, legacy Workflow was a useful tool for linear processes that required a number of forms to be filled out one after the other by the same person. It was the digital equivalent of handing a person a stack of paper forms that they needed to complete.

However, legacy workflows were not dynamic and did not offer automated decision-making or much in the way of flexibility.

Learning from the ingenuity of our customers

Again and again, we’ve watched our customers achieve astonishingly creative results with our form builder, even coming up with uses and functionality we hadn’t imagined. FormAssembly’s native legacy workflow functionality was very good for simple situations, but in those cases that it couldn’t support more customization, our users uncovered creative ways to essentially build the custom workflows they needed.

One of the common workarounds that you may have used yourself was to use formulas in redirect URLs to direct form fillers to different locations. Using formulas, FormAssembly customers were able to add complexity and conditional logic to their forms. For example, with a formula, a user could send form fillers to a different form based on their answers in a previous form, conditionally prefill information in forms, and more.

Our resourceful users built the functionality they needed from the building blocks we provided in our platform, and that ingenuity was part of the inspiration for building our new Workflow platform.

FormAssembly Workflow today: a powerful interface supports growth and innovation

At FormAssembly, we want data collection to evolve in order to meet the needs of our customers and their organizations. As we witnessed customers developing a complex workflow workaround to create the processes they need, it became clear that we needed to improve our product to help our customers do this in an easier, more streamlined way.

Workflow, which offers all the complexity and customization of redirect formulas (and more), allows users to build processes as easily as they could build forms in FormAssembly before. Now, workflows are achievable without writing formulas (though advanced users can still leverage them if desired) and doing unnecessary manual work.

Our hope is that, whether you’re a veteran customer or a new user, you’ll be able to leverage the new solution to create applications, registration processes, pre-qualification workflows and so much more at your organization.

Learn more about what Workflow can do for your organization.

Explore Workflow

Get More From Salesforce Admissions Connect With FormAssembly

Posted on January 12, 2022October 16, 2024

If you’re using Salesforce, FormAssembly’s data collection and process automation platform is the ultimate choice to get the most out of your CRM and improve data collection processes. FormAssembly offers powerful bi-directional Salesforce connectors, and with the addition of our Salesforce Admissions Connect Package, we’ve added even more value for people using Salesforce for education.

FormAssembly’s Admissions Connect-compatible package includes targeted web form templates with pre-configured Salesforce connectors and onboarding assistance (including additional connector setup assistance) for a smooth launch. Our package integrates seamlessly with Salesforce’s Admissions Connect offering for higher education and K-12 institutions to help these entities improve the entire admissions process.

Address decreased enrollment

Salesforce’s Admissions Connect solution was launched at a time when universities were receiving an all-time low number of student applications. It aims to tackle the issues of application complexity for students and staff alike. The goal to bring recruitment and admissions into the modern era aligns with FormAssembly’s mission of streamlining outdated and inefficient processes.

What is Admissions Connect?

At its core, Admissions Connect was created to streamline admissions processes for students applying to institutions and for the admissions staff that need to review applications.

Some features of the platform include:

A collaborative interface for application review with “endless scrolling” and tools for viewing and manipulating PDFs
Dynamic application checklists to keep all parties on the same page about the application process
A holistic view of student information and application process data

Why use FormAssembly + Admissions Connect?

A crucial part of the application process is gathering the required information from students. This is where FormAssembly helps to expand the capabilities of Admissions Connect. Our package, available as an add-on to FormAssembly Enterprise and above customers, includes:

Three targeted, EDA Ready web form templates created with Admissions Connect users in mind
Onboarding assistance to ensure that your web forms get up and running smoothly

The form builder of choice for Higher Education

FormAssembly’s data collection and process automation platform simplifies secure data collection for higher education institutions. By making the switch to integrated web forms, higher education organizations can solve efficiency problems plaguing their institutions, such as outdated data collection methods and overloaded IT teams.

FormAssembly’s mix of user-friendly form building, smart integrations, and administrative capabilities provides better oversight of data collection and more visibility into results, helping higher education professionals drive quality web form submissions and engage students, staff, and alumni.

Whether you’re just leveraging FormAssembly for our Admissions Connect templates or using us across your institution, you’ll see considerable benefits in the form of saved time and streamlined processes.

Learn more about the Salesforce Admissions Connect package

Interested in purchasing the FormAssembly Admissions Connect package? Reach out to our team and move one step closer to streamlined application processes.

Reach Out

6 Ways to Set Your Business Up for Success

Posted on January 10, 2022December 11, 2024

It’s the start of the new year and the perfect time to set fresh goals and new intentions for your business. Establishing clear business goals not only sets you on a path toward success, but provides an opportunity to measure progress from the year before. While it can be challenging to set goals, businesses that establish and track goals grow almost 30 times faster and when leadership and employees are aligned on these goals, they are over 70% more profitable.

But with shifting priorities in this “New Normal,” leading your business to success isn’t just about meeting revenue goals anymore. Having clear direction for your business, as well as great company culture, can keep employees engaged, motivated, and productive in their daily tasks. While higher engagement will help you meet your financial goals, success starts with having the right people, tools, and strategies in place first—especially when teams are working from home.

In this blog post, we’ll cover the top ways you can set your business up for success this year by focusing on communication, leadership, work-life balance, security, collaboration and more.

1. Invest in communication tools

Of the top factors that affect employee engagement with a company, leadership communication was considered the most important. Whether between teams, departments, executives, or even to customers, it’s clear that good communication has a big influence on how successful a business will be. Investing in the right tools is a great way to support communication from all levels of an organization. Communication software not only improves cross-departmental collaboration, but can create a space where all employees can stay engaged and informed on both business updates and personal announcements.

This software is especially important now, when almost 60% of U.S. employees work from home (and all over the world), and 17% of these workers state that one of their top challenges is poor communication. Providing a single channel for employees to interact helps minimize the risk of communication silos and disorganization. It also helps ensure a team member does not miss critical information while providing a centralized place to communicate to minimize information overload.

At FormAssembly, our entire company communicates daily with Google Meet and uses Slack organized by channels for each department, project, or interest to ensure everyone collaborates with the right information.

2. Get your team on the same page

Similar to streamlining communication, ensuring that your entire team is consistently on the same page with business goals, projects, and strategies is equally important. Potentially more crucial than communication, studies have found that 85% of employees attribute failures at work to a lack of good collaboration. Getting team members on the same page not only improves company-wide collaboration but can also help everyone work smarter and not harder. Improving collaboration between teams means both embracing the communication tools and creating a culture of transparency. The more executives and teams can be transparent, especially when mistakes are made, the easier it is to collaborate on a solution before it’s too late.

To help get your whole team on the same page, it’s important that the entire company is first aligned on the overall mission and goals. This simplifies the strategy for creating departmental, and even individual, goals for the year. Scheduling regularly occurring state-of-the-company meetings also ensures that leadership remains transparent with employees to keep all team members’ priorities on the same page. Transparency is crucial—one of our core values at FormAssembly is transparency, and we work diligently to stay accountable and share often.

3. Automate to boost productivity

Whether you’re focused on AI software or a new tech stack, automation is trending. It’s quickly becoming the norm for increasing productivity and driving business success, especially when 80% of organizations state they plan to continue expanding budgets for automation technology. Automating certain processes eliminates the need for employees to complete tedious tasks and the results are two-fold: increased time to focus on more meaningful work and decreased risk of stress and burnout.

Implementing automation software (such as our workflow builder and data collection platform) into business workflows has several significant benefits when it comes to productivity and efficiency. Any manual data entry tasks, from employee applications to marketing lead generation and customer surveys, can quickly be automated to reduce errors and save time. When a platform like this is used across an entire organization, you’ll get better insight into the data you’re collecting, allowing better collaboration between teams as well as increasing productivity for the company as a whole.

4. Be open to feedback

We all are aware of the personal consequences of not listening to feedback, whether positive or negative. The same goes for businesses as well. When 86% of buyers are happy to pay more if they have a great customer experience, it’s clear that any feedback, whether good or bad, should be taken seriously. Being open to feedback is the first step in helping it drive your business toward success. There are several best practices to follow when collecting and acting upon customer and employee feedback.

Always be prompt and courteous when replying to customer feedback. Not only will this help resolve any issues quickly, but it will help build brand credibility and trust that problems will be fixed, not ignored. Customer surveys are a great way to gather more insights and determine how and where to improve at your organization. Once you inform your customers how you plan to use their feedback, the information can be used to improve services, fix bugs, update help documents, and so on.

5. Establish a healthy culture

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has permanently shifted the way companies and employees view work culture, priorities, and work-life balance. While poor work environments and burnout are not new issues for organizations, they are now more than ever coming to the surface. Many organizations have had to recently pivot to meet evolving worker expectations. Indeed, nearly 70% of companies discovered that people-centric culture as well as remote work flexibility play large roles in attracting and retaining employees. In addition to work-life balance, mental health in the workplace has also been gaining attention in recent years. To find success as a business this year and beyond, all these new aspects of company culture must be considered.

Boosting employee satisfaction at an organization can be as straightforward as providing more flexibility to work from home, or can be holistic with a complete overhaul of company policies to improve communication, training, wellness, and work-life balance. A great start to understanding how your employees feel and what they need is by providing a feedback survey. For example, at FormAssembly, we encourage our team members to complete a confidential survey each year where they can freely express their thoughts about their team, job role, leadership, and the company as a whole. This transparency gives our Talent and Culture and executive teams the information they need to address issues and improve company benefits and programs.

6. Keep company data secure

Cyber threats have been an ongoing problem since the digital age, but in recent years, these threats have skyrocketed to a dangerous level. Cybercrime is reported to have risen by 300% since 2020. For any organization that uses customer data, providing a secure way to collect, manage, and store this data is crucial for ensuring the organization’s long-term success. By following cybersecurity best practices, your business can avoid serious security mistakes and maintain compliance with federal laws and regulations.

No matter where your business is in its growth, it’s important that you have cybersecurity policies, a risk management plan in case of a breach, and conduct routine awareness training and testing for employees. Another way to safeguard company, employee, and customer data is by using a secure data collection platform. For example, with strict adherence to security and compliance standards, FormAssembly simplifies your data stewardship practices and helps eliminate costly data silos by providing one centralized place to collect and manage data.

How FormAssembly can help

The power and versatility of FormAssembly’s data collection platform is ideal to leverage when setting goals and mapping out how to drive your business toward success in the new year. No matter the size of your organization or the industry, our all-in-one platform makes it easy to streamline processes, connect teams, and secure sensitive data across your entire organization—all without any extra lift from your IT department.

Our recent release of FormAssembly Workflow now makes it even easier to manage data processes, collaborate across departments, and improve overall productivity. Workflow enables your team to visually map out simple to complex business processes, seamlessly integrate web forms and other systems, harness the power of conditional logic and routing, and quickly distribute workflows across channels and teams for better, faster decision-making. This game-changing solution is now available for new Enterprise Cloud, Compliance Cloud, and Government Cloud plans—learn more at the link below.

Explore Workflow

A 6-Step Process for Creating an Effective B2B Case Study

Posted on January 4, 2022November 28, 2023

In a business-to-business (B2B) model, proving the effectiveness of your product or service is extremely valuable. Not only do you need to illustrate that your offer delivers tangible results, but the entire case study process should be designed to help foster stronger relationships with your customer community.

Case studies can be prominent throughout each phase of the customer acquisition process. From Awareness, to Consideration, to Decision, the information you publish in case studies has the potential to influence buyer behavior and set your company up for further success.

In this post, we’ll cover all you need to know about creating effective and powerful B2B case studies from our own experience. Keep reading for a proven six-step process for studies that help your organization stand out from the competition.

Why do B2B companies need a case study strategy?

A B2B case study is more than a standard blog post. While case studies should align with your comprehensive content marketing strategy, you should also develop a dedicated plan that focuses specifically on case study creation.

In most scenarios, a B2B case study tells the success story of a customer that has experienced tangible benefits from investing in your product or service.

A well-written, strongly supported case study also accomplishes the following important goals:

Builds brand credibility – Potential and current customers should see the value and longevity of your brand and its place in a competitive market.

Highlights data-backed statistics – Case studies are an additional way to gather important metrics and results from your active user base. You may discover tangible numbers related to the amount of money saved, number of people impacted, or number of customer conversions.

Offers insights for current customers – Case studies also provide a wealth of inspiration for current customers. This is particularly true when established users discover new and innovative use cases. The results are mutually beneficial.

Characteristics of a strong B2B case study

The best case studies not only illuminate the importance of your service or product, they also tell a story. Effective B2B case studies should take readers on a journey from initial pain point to eventual solution. The narrative should be prominent throughout and tie everything together.

Other important characteristics to include in your case studies include:

Strong titles that highlight the results you want readers and prospects to see
Well-written summaries that adequately introduce the customer and your business (since not every reader will be familiar with your organization)
Engaging and genuine quotes, questions, and other important details
The “before and after” state the customer experienced when using your service (i.e., why were they frustrated previously, but satisfied now?)

How to create an effective and informative case study

Case studies can play an extremely important role in your sales, marketing, and brand awareness efforts. But don’t be too intimidated by the process. By establishing a predictable system, you can easily generate highly effective, conversion-ready B2B case studies.

Follow the six steps below to create expertly written case studies that elevate your customer marketing efforts.

Step 1: Get to know your highly engaged customers

Become familiar with your active customers. For the purpose of creating case studies, it’s also helpful to know which industries your customers serve.

Keep in mind that it’s not only the “big name” customers that experience sustainable results. Many small-scale businesses and organizations may be easier to reach when you need to collaborate for a case study. Additionally, the results that smaller businesses experience may be even more impactful, since their resources tend to be more limited.

If you don’t have a way to regularly keep a pulse on your customer communication, try something like the FormAssembly VIP Program. This group is designed to engage active users and provide an outlet for them to share questions, successes, and results and has proven to be very helpful for our own team.

Step 2: Conduct purposeful research and interviews

Once you have a contact at an organization, set up a time for an official interview. If possible, try to send the interviewee a list of thoughtful questions ahead of time so that they can better prepare and know what to expect.

At the start of your meeting, explain the full case study process. This allows the customer to better understand how you plan to use the information that they provide. It’s also a chance to address any objections or clarify expectations.

Throughout the interview, keep things conversational and relaxed. Ask your customer questions about their experience prior to using your product, and request more information about the results they experienced once their journey began. By recording the conversation and taking detailed notes, you’ll be better equipped to remember usable quotes and key metrics.

Step 3: Identify the pain point and success

As you interview and compose your written case study, remember to highlight the “before and after” state. You might ask questions such as:

What frustrations did your team experience before implementing this solution?
What were the greatest challenges you felt during the course of normal operations?
How did implementing this new solution relieve a burden or provide better results?
How has the work culture changed for the better since adopting this solution?

The “pain point and success” arc is where your storytelling skills come into focus. Add details that allow other customers to see themselves in a similar position.

Step 4: Craft compelling content

Compelling content is the result of several powerful sections that work together to form a complete narrative.

If one of your case study sections is lacking the information that you’d ideally like to include—don’t stress. Compensate for gaps by including strong testimonials, descriptions, numbers, and other tangible details.

To make your case studies more searchable, optimize them for SEO. This includes finding relevant keywords, outlining your study with on-page headers, and adding direct calls to action.

Step 5: Use high-impact metrics, visuals, and testimonials

Although the written content of your study is most important, interactive elements can help tell the story while keeping readers engaged. To make your case studies stand out, consider incorporating the following elements.

Expandable text or menu boxes
Product screenshots (non-confidential)
Counters and other visual elements to showcase metrics or numbers
Relevant photos and imagery
Headshots and brand logos

Step 6: Share and promote your content

Before you publish your study, it’s always a good idea to send it back to the original customer. This gives the organization a chance to proof the article and sign off on certain details that may be subject to marketing or legal approval.

Once you have the final thumbs up, publish your study and encourage others on your team to spread the word. You can also promote the study on social media platforms (like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook) or include it in your content email blasts. When you share, use trackable links so that you can gather data on where case study traffic is coming from.

As a bonus step, consider repurposing your case studies into other types of information products. For example, you may ask a case study participant to share their experiences on a webinar, or to present their innovative use case in a workshop or training session for other customers.

How to leverage your published studies for maximum impact

Remember, case studies provide nearly endless potential for your content marketing efforts. Since every customer story is unique, you have multiple opportunities to capture the special selling points that make your product or service different.

Never underestimate the power of case studies to the entire customer journey. Research shows that up to 80% of customers read and search for relevant case studies as part of their buying journey, which underscores how important it is to devote time and resources to the development of case studies.

Once you have a library of strong B2B case studies, put them to work! Share them with other departments, equip sales team members with how to locate studies, and position them prominently on your website for maximum visibility. For example, at FormAssembly, we’ve made our own case study library searchable and categorized it by industry.

Wrapping up

Strong B2B case studies have the potential to elevate your existing content marketing strategy from good to great. By spotlighting your company’s benefits through proven customer stories, you can produce strong pieces that are easy to use, share, and distribute.

Regardless of whether you have plenty of published studies or want to establish a brand new case study program at your company, apply the tips in this post to create the most well-rounded customer success stories. Below, check out FormAssembly’s extensive case study library for examples of these best practices in action.

See Case Studies