Automated Incentive Compensation Management for High Tech

Scale up sales compensation to drive rapid profitable growth.

A myriad of anomalies needs effective sales performance management.

Technological growth is soaring. According to Finances Online, the Digital Transformation Statistics state that digitally transformed organizations are projected to contribute to more than half of the global GDP by 2023, accounting for $53.3 trillion (IDC, 2020). And of that, 39% of executives plan to benefit from the digital transformation initiatives in 3 to 5 years. Which means the market is aggressively growing, making it a highly competitive space.  Organizations need to adopt automation technologies to stay in the game and they need to incentivize their employees with ultimate visibility, efficiency, and scalability.

A provider of the #1 sales engagement platform was growing rapidly – doubling its sales force within a year. This created challenges that demanded a more efficient and scalable ICM solution. Managing calculations on a spreadsheet was no longer an option for the finance team since the process was handled by a single individual which also created risk of a single point of failure. In addition, the sales team was unable to quickly and easily run reports which decreased trust within the team. They succeeded by selecting a tool that integrated their other technologies which gave them the ability to customize reports – giving their team access to performance data on a real-time dashboard. With the new tool in place, they can now write new sales compensation plans for new hires and quickly add them to the existing ICM.

How We Help

Often, technology organizations (software and hardware) know they have this need, or something very similar, but they are unsure where they should even start. In today’s world, the complexities this industry faces are rather unique given the significant number of sales possibilities for the tech space.  The key to success for any tech company, is in the details. Knowing which solution will help an organization reach its end goal, most efficiently and effectively, takes careful planning and preparation.

OpenSymmetry is made up of sales performance and incentive compensation technology experts across all the industry leading SPM solutions available. Since the devil is in the details, it is our goal to help you navigate through this process so that your investment has the highest possible return. We help organizations optimize their sales compensation programs through automation and process.

More specifically, OpenSymmetry will help your organization understand how to leverage software solutions to automate and operationalize some of the more common challenges:

Complexity of product offerings and the rapid pace of product introduction

Unique volume-based plan measures and definitions

Creative opportunities to include effective non-volume measures

Coverage model complexity, sales role specialization, and multi-crediting implications

Separating indirect/third party/channel results, tracking, and programs

High reporting and analytical expectations of buyers

Access to sales performance data and reporting

In addition to the processes identified above, OpenSymmetry will leverage a holistic approach to ensure you receive the appropriate level of guidance to confidently invest in the appropriate solution and realize the desired return on investment.

Stop searching. We have your answers.

Clients From Around the Globe

“Sunrun maximized the value of our incentive compensation system, and we were able to increase overall sales volume of solar panels and batteries. We’re now able to better serve both our employees and our customers. The efficiencies generated from this new ICM system have led to an increase in deployment of solar across the United States.”

ROBERT YEAGER
Director of Compensation, Sunrun

 

Clients From Around the Globe

“OpenSymmetry rose to the challenge of creating a roadmap for an efficient, centralized ICM system for us. We started off with over 100 incentive plans throughout the bank in different lines of business, meaning the incentive administration was decentralized. With the help of OpenSymmetry, we have improved efficiencies by streamlining our incentive compensation administration to a single system.”

Kimberly Hinrichsen
VP & Sr. Director of Incentive Admin, U.S. Bank

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Clients From Around the Globe

“After working [with OpenSymmetry], my whole world changed. From working with a huge, onerous spreadsheet system, it’s gotten simpler. It’s changed the game for everyone in the company. We have improved timelines for making information available for reps. It shifted my perspective to dig deeper into the data.”

Courtney Aubin,
Senior Sales Commissions Analyst, Blackbaud

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Clients From Around the Globe

“Working with OpenSymmetry, we experienced openness, flexibility, and total commitment to our success from UK team. I was surprised that instead of coming up with solutions to fix our problems only, they were always looking for ways to simplify, streamline, and improve our processes in the same time. Due to that kind of commitment, we went from having over 100 configuration rules to just 27.”

Petra Maurova
Sales Rewards, SITA

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Clients From Around the Globe

“OpenSymmetry helped us to evaluate our ICM program in a new light. Their technical and business expertise allowed us to understand the details of how changes would impact our system and processes. This enabled us to implement changes that would have the biggest impact on our business.”

Sales Operations Manager
Wacker Neuson

Wacker Neuron

 

 

Clients From Around the Globe

“OpenSymmetry’s culture was a really good fit with T-Mobile. They were very open-minded and spent as much time listening and collaborating with us as they did telling us what needed to be done. That type of humility with such solid knowledge and capability was a perfect match for us.”

Clayton Tredway
Director Customer Care, T-Mobile

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Clients From Around the Globe

“OpenSymmetry helped automate our data feeds and update our configuration of Xactly Incent, and these improvements helped us save approximately 7,200 hours per year by eliminating manual calculations, minimizing adjustments, and building trust in the data to reduce shadow accounting. When we got this working right, we reduced what took days to 3.5 hours. Time savings have been so key for us.”

Justin Ritchie
Senior Director of Sales Operations, Manheim (subsidiary of Cox Enterprises)

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Clients From Around the Globe

“Working with OpenSymmetry, we have implemented a formal, auditable, trackable sign-off process for the payouts. It’s made a huge improvement. No more paper. Information is at associates’ fingertips 24/7. Managers can view sales results and compensation results for their teams, which leads to more effective and efficient management. The availability of information has made a huge difference.”

Jennifer Wooster
Vice President – Group Actuarial and Compensation Officer, Ameritas

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Resources for High Tech

SPM Challenges for the High Tech Industry

Whitepaper

Addressing needs should be an important factor when selecting an SPM solution that can support your sales efforts, enable business outcomes, and ensure your maximum return on spend.

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How Do You Incentivise SaaS Sales?

Blog

SaaS is generally thought to be a challenge for incentive plan designers. Learn why it’s important & some of key considerations in getting the design right.

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Automating Incentive Compensation Management

Case Study

Learn how SalesLoft continues to enjoy the efficiency and accuracy made possible by automation of their incentive compensation process.

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Sales Performance Management Optimization

Case Study

Learn more about how you can benefit from an SPM program assessment and future state planning like National Instruments.

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Continuous Improvement of SPM Technology

Case Study

SCC and OpenSymmetry have been in partnership for over four years, and SCC has seen improvements in Increased self-sufficiency, improved SPM dashboard, and reduced processing time.

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Fortune 500 Sales Performance Management Solution Selection

Case Study

A common challenge for many companies is effectively evaluating and selecting the right SPM technology solution. One Fortune 500, internet-based sales corporation selected OS to assist.

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OpenSymmetry Global Offices

About Us

OpenSymmetry enables clients to achieve greater operational efficiency and get better sales results. We are a global consulting company specializing in the planning, implementation, and optimization of industry leading technology suppliers of sales performance management solutions.

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CONSIDERATIONS WHEN REPLACING YOUR SPM TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Understanding the challenges companies face when migrating Sales Performance Management (SPM) technology solutions can be a significant undertaking. This paper is designed to provide high-level guidance to stakeholders who carry this responsibility. As OpenSymmetry has helped many companies evaluate and effectively migrate to new technology solutions, we are sharing seven key areas that we find critical to completing this kind of effort.

1. CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT & FUTURE STATE PLANNING

A critical initial step before migrating to a new SPM solution is understanding how well your current program is performing across people, processes, and technology. From there you can devise a future state vision for how your SPM program should operate. By understanding both current state gaps and what your future state needs look like, you can effectively begin defining requirements while also clearly articulating success criteria. It’s important to recognize that your previous or initial SPM implementation may not have gathered all necessary processes/requirements, so it’s vital to take a fresh, holistic view in this first step.

2. DATA INTEGRATION

One of the most complex and time-consuming requirements is determining how to best leverage current source data feeds to support the new platform. Within the context of your current state assessment and future state planning, the team should review what their reporting, analytics, and any future state compensation elements needs are to ensure a meaningful inventory of data requirements are defined. SPM solutions vary in terms of how data is gathered, translated, and uploaded into the system. Some solution applications may have a standardized format requiring additional configuration, whereas others may have the ability of data field mapping, which provides additional flexibility. The ability to own the data translation from your source systems to the SPM platform is key. Another focus point is to ensure that you evaluate all manual feeds to incorporate automation, as well as any additional error validation processes.

3. HISTORICAL DATA

Migrating historical data is an often-overlooked requirement when moving from one SPM platform to another. To keep costs down and minimize complexity, clients may want to ID only the data that is needed to ensure ongoing management of comp (e.g. payment history) and then transfer detail-level data into data storage to be referenced at a future date. It is important to consider what historical data is needed for the new system for reference on future payments

4. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

Each SPM solution may require users to interact with the system in different ways. This area may need additional attention, especially as it has the potential to improve processes currently employed to manage sales compensation. Understanding the impact a new system will have on current processes, as well as those who manage the processes, is critical to ensuring a successful launch and ongoing management of core processes. As an example, two of the leading solutions in the market have very different expectations regarding the skills users need to possess to effectively maintain compensation plans and reports and, in some cases, execute the day-to-day activities. Defining expectations of your staff related to the new technology, prior to the project, will ideally give your organization the necessary time to introduce training that ensures effective ongoing management of the program.

5. WORKFLOW

SPM solutions vary widely in their ability to support automated workflow. As a result, there are significant challenges for sales compensation teams related to an SPM migration. Capabilities can range from templates to existing documentation, levels of routing, and even implementation of a stopgap for a payee to accept plan documentation prior to payout. Within the context of your future state definition, capturing and defining areas where automated workflows can be leveraged is a necessary part of the core requirements. Before a new system is deployed, it is important to map these processes out to drive user adoption, leverage the SPM system as an auditable repository, and minimize email management.

6. REPORTING & ANALYTICS

It is critical to develop a holistic vision of information distribution to the various stakeholders and tools used to deliver this content (i.e. static pages vs. dashboards). Similar to workflows, different vendors have various capabilities related to reporting for the end users. Assessing these capabilities against your business requirements is imperative to the success of the roll-out. For example, some vendors require more robust configurations in the system (e.g. crediting logic) to enable specific analytics capabilities, while some solutions, architected specifically for reporting and analytics, have much more robust capabilities. Another area for consideration is the use of the vendor’s reporting solution against your in-house technology stack. Some solutions make it easy to port data into new environments, which could be a consideration in helping to keep the number of reporting tools requiring management to a minimum.

7. DEPLOYMENT

The implementation of a new solution should be designed to minimize the impact on payees and managers. One of the most critical aspects of your effort is assessing how all stakeholders will be impacted and how to mitigate any disruption. It is important to identify upcoming changes for your sales organization, administrators, and other internal partners with a plan in place to offer the steps needed to ensure the best chances for solution adoption.

The first step when considering a new SPM platform is an assessment of your current program and the development of a future state vision. OpenSymmetry offers a no-cost workshop to help you gain an understanding of how your current SPM program performs against your needs and industry best practices, as well as a readout on current solutions in the market.

Leveraging the OpenSymmetry assessment methodology and knowledge of the leading SPM providers, you will be equipped with:

• A current state analysis scorecard
• The framework for a business case to support change
• Contemporary intel on the SPM market and SPM vendor capabilities
• High-level deployment and license cost estimates

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