Mike Noto

Director, Strategy Service

“SPM technology needs to fit the business-rather than trying to change the way they do business to fit the technology.”

Mike Noto is OpenSymmetry’s Director of Strategy Services.  He is a seasoned professional with over 28 years in the insurance and financial services industries and significant management consulting experience across many other verticals. He has been in the SPM space for more than 22 years. Mike Noto has the knowledge and expertise needed to deliver success. Having previously worked as a Lead Strategy Analyst, Program and Project Manager, and Principal Consultant within the sector, he has gained valuable knowledge and insight when it comes to improving sales management performance. He has over 21 years of experience in defining and deploying SPM solutions. Mike has a complete understanding, and ability, to help companies transform to a future state vision based on current state challenges, leveraging knowledge of SPM vendor functionality to define the best solution to meet prioritized requirements. At OS, he appreciates the diversity of our client base – various industries from around the world. He and his team step right in to help clients adjust and fix their compensation operations.  

Trust. Accuracy. Usability. That is what SPM means to Mike. There must be trust between the organization and the sales force. Payments must be accurate to positively drive sales behaviors. And the usability of the tool must be easy for the teams. 

When organizations are seeking ways to automate their SPM process, Mike encourages clients to plan where they want their SPM support to go. Organizations need to think about the big picture – where do they want to go – beyond where they are today. By defining a future state and focusing on those items, companies can ensure that they select the right tools for their business needs.  SPM technology needs to fit the business – rather than trying to change the way they do business to fit the technology. 

Organizations will be challenged with the proper transparent reporting and service to their reps/agents if they do not take full advantage of their SPM technology. Which leads to distrust and errors. By automating the compensation process, organizations can support the reps without worrying about the daily and provide a higher level of functional features and service. 

Mike believes that SPM technology has changed the world of sales by providing timeliness and detail of data. Organizations can now present and manage their data in ways they never have before. By having shorter windows of processing available at the sales rep’s fingertips, this is incredibly valuable to the team. The flexibility of options within SPM technologies allows for creative support and lets the organization run the business and manage the process with ease. This allows the organization to provide accurate, timely, clear reporting and strong compensation plans to their reps/agents so they can focus on selling. 

Mike defines the “OS Bowtie” as the starting point to accurately assess and plan the project with the right priorities and needs in mind. With a focus on the current situation and a clear direction of how to move forward, future state needs can be attained. Once selection and planning has been accomplished, deploying an implementation is the key to putting that planning into action. With the support of the right resources, adoption of the SPM solution is critical, and this is offered through training, testing, and mentoring support. Once the SPM solution is live, organizations then benefit from ongoing services to keep their system up to date, agile, and running smoothly, with the confidence that experts are assisting along the way. 

Mike believes his SPM Superpower is vision. He can quickly see the overall picture from end-to-end and can predict possible changes that the client would benefit from. 

• Guide: SPM Vendor Guide
• Guide: The Ultimate Guide to SPM Vendor Selection
• Webinar: Where Do SPM Systems Provide Value?
• Blog: Insurance Complexities for the Compensation Industry