More Commissions Transparency, More Sales Team ConfidenceÂ
An ICM Implementation Success Story
Industry: Financial Services
OS Service Lines: Deployment Services & Methodology
Technology Partner: CallidusCloud (now SAP Commissions)
Challenge
When Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) found themselves in a growth stage, they recognized an opportunity to improve their incentive compensation management (ICM) system. With a team of around 300 salespeople, they needed a system that could scale up for a larger team.
Pacific Union’s (now Mr. Cooper) prior ICM system was partially manual, meaning that it lacked transparency of important sales performance information. The sales team was frustrated because they did not have access to their daily sales performance results. Only managers had access to the Excel spreadsheets that held key sales performance information, and the information was not always communicated to the rest of the team in a timely way. This resulted in an erosion of trust among the sales team as they did not have confidence in the accuracy of the sales compensation calculations in the spreadsheets. Because of this lack of confidence in the calculations and a general misunderstanding of how they were compensated, turnover among the sales team was high.
The part of the Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) ICM system that was automated produced the numbers for sales compensation from the back end, but the operations team was frustrated that they could not easily make the changes needed within the ICM system. It was difficult to keep track of all data, including adjustments, and get all the information they needed from the finance and accounting teams in a reliable and timely way.
Due to these factors, Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) was ready for a change to their ICM system and process.
Solution
Working together with OpenSymmetry, Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) decided to implement CallidusCloud (now SAP Commissions) as their new ICM technology platform. The reporting and analytics capabilities would drive positive behavior among the sales team and revive confidence and motivation through increased visibility and transparency for the whole team. Additionally, CallidusCloud’s enterprise workflow would provide greater self-service capabilities for the field and provide systematic tracking of compensation-related information in one place. Standard work- flows would allow the sales reps’ inquiries to be reviewed and resolved with both managers and compensation administrators, as well as the routing of plan documents for review and approval. Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) would also utilize workflows to route payroll information to the appropriate executives for approval prior to payment.
OpenSymmetry also created an operations guide so that Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) compensation managers could administer their new ICM tool accurately without third-party support, giving them a high level of self-sufficiency for ICM program management. This operations guide provided process documentation so that new hires would be able to learn the system quickly without as much ramp-up time.
Result
The CallidusCloud implementation went smoothly and brought the following benefits:
• Higher visibility and transparency: Sales performance dashboards allow the sales reps to see their commissions and pay information on a daily basis, rather than receiving a statement through email once a month.
• Cleaner workflows: With greater validation capabilities, the operations team is able to enter data and respond to requests all in one place, rather than through email.
• More reliable data: The operations team is able to receive, update, and present data more quickly and in a timely manner so that each payout period is less chaotic and more controlled.
• Process self-sufficiency: With the CallidusCloud (now SAP Commissions) system, the operations team can now make plan changes easily and without relying on a third party, thereby reducing the operational costs of ICM management.
• Lower turnover: The sales team has confidence in the accuracy of their payments and the calculation logic used to get to the final numbers, producing lower turnover and higher employee satisfaction.
As Pacific Union (now Mr. Cooper) continues to grow, the new CallidusCloud (now SAP Commissions) ICM system allows them to scale their commissions processing in a way that is organized, transparent, and easy to understand.
If you’re interested to learn more about how OpenSymmetry can help you take control of and get the most from your ICM solution, please email us at os_info@www.opensymmetry.com.
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“Now on payday, it’s quiet! We don’t get as many phone calls and emails with questions – instead, the sales team asks questions before payday and the reps are now confident about how they get paid.”
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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.
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