Vendor Selection and Strategy Planning
Insights from OS Experts: Adam Thorn and Mike Noto
INTRODUCTION
In the dynamic world of Sales Performance Management (SPM), selecting the right vendor for technology solutions is akin to making the significant decision of buying or building a house. This analogy serves as a guiding framework for organizations to understand and navigate the vendor selection process effectively. This whitepaper explores the intricacies of vendor selection through the lens of buying a house.
Watch the on-demand recording of Adam Thorn and Mike Noto.
UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR CHANGE
Identifying Pain Points
The journey towards selecting a new vendor often begins with a realization that the current system or process is insufficient. Just as one might decide to move from an inadequate living space, organizations recognize that their existing SPM solutions—often homegrown or heavily reliant on manual processes—are no longer meeting their needs.
Common pain points include:
• Operational Inefficiencies: Cumbersome, manual processes that consume time and resources.
• Inaccuracy: Frequent errors due to outdated systems or reliance on spreadsheets.
• Scalability Issues: Inability of the current system to support future growth and complexity.
Self-Assessment
Before diving into the market, organizations should conduct a thorough self-assessment to understand their current state and define what needs improvement. This process involves:
• Evaluating Current Systems: Assessing how well the current technology meets operational needs.
• Identifying Gaps: Recognizing where the current solutions fall short in terms of functionality and efficiency.
• Projecting Future Needs: Considering how future growth, changes in business processes, or strategic goals might impact technology requirements.
ENVISIONING THE FUTURE STATE
Defining Requirements
Much like envisioning the ideal home, organizations must define their future state when selecting an SPM vendor.
This involves:
• Setting Priorities: Determining what features and capabilities are essential versus those that are desirable but not critical.
• Considering Long-term Needs: Planning for the scalability and adaptability of the solution to accommodate future growth and changes.
• Budget and Constraints: Establishing budgetary limits and other constraints that will guide the selection process.
Initial Market Research
Organizations typically begin their search by exploring available options. This phase includes:
• Online Research: Looking up potential vendors and their offerings through search engines or industry reports.
• Benchmarking: Comparing current solutions against market standards to identify potential improvements.
SEEKING EXPERT GUIDANCE
The Role of Third-party Advisors – The Architects of your SPM Solution
Engaging with expert advisors, akin to consulting with architects for a home build, can significantly enhance the vendor selection process. OpenSymmetry, for instance, provides:
• Comprehensive Analysis: Assisting in the detailed assessment of organizational needs and the market landscape.
• Tailored Recommendations: Offering customized solutions based on the specific requirements and constraints of the organization.
• Streamlined Selection: Facilitating the evaluation and selection process to ensure alignment with long-term strategic goals.
Detailed Evaluation and Selection
With expert guidance, organizations can move towards a detailed evaluation of potential vendors. This phase involves:
• Vendor Shortlisting: Narrowing down the list of potential vendors based on preliminary research and expert recommendations.
• In-depth Evaluation: Conducting thorough evaluations of shortlisted vendors, including demonstrations, trials, and references.
• Decision Making: Selecting the vendor that best aligns with the organization’s defined requirements and future state vision.
DEPLOYMENT AND BEYOND
Implementation: The Start of the Journey
Deploying the selected solution marks the beginning of a new phase, much like moving into a new house. Key considerations during this phase include:
• Project Management: Ensuring that the implementation stays on schedule and within budget.
• Change Management: Preparing the organization for the transition to the new system, including training and support.
• Adaptability: Remaining open to adjustments as the implementation progresses and new requirements or challenges emerge.
Ongoing Management and Optimization
Post-deployment, continuous management and optimization are crucial to maximize the value of the investment. This includes:
• Regular Health Checks: Periodically reviewing the system’s performance and alignment with business needs.
• Incremental Enhancements: Making small, incremental changes to improve functionality and efficiency over time.
• Strategic Reviews: Conducting comprehensive reviews to identify opportunities for significant improvements or expansions.
CONCLUSION
The process of selecting and implementing an SPM vendor is complex and multi-faceted, comparable to the careful planning and execution involved in buying a house. By conducting a thorough self-assessment, envisioning the future state, engaging expert guidance, and committing to ongoing management and optimization, organizations can ensure a successful outcome. OpenSymmetry’s approach to vendor selection emphasizes these principles, helping clients navigate the journey from initial needs assessment to long-term success.
Watch the on-demand recording of Adam Thorn and Mike Noto.
Want The PDF Version?
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