Oracle's API Manager is the company's offering for API lifecycle management.
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Varicent Incentive Compensation Management
Score 7.5 out of 10
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Varicent (formerly IBM Cognos Incentive Compensation Management, or IBM Sales Performance Management) is presented by the newly reformed vendor as a Sales Performance Management (SPM) Solution that will accurately track, manage and report on sales-related data and processes to reduce administrative costs and provide insight into key performance metrics. The solution encompasses Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning and Channel Management.
Varicent was acquired…
Oracle API Manager is well suited in a business or company that make use of Apis to facilitate access of backend services and data sources by the staff or customers or both. It is also imported in situations where all actions in a system need to be attributed to specific users.
Varicent is well suited across all the domains (Finance, Insurance, Hi-Tech etc.) for sales incentive calculation. It can tackle the difficult scenarios/conditions provided by the client. This tool may not or should not be used in incentive forecasting. It's not a planning tool. Small scenario modeling can be done here but not on a large scale.
Absence of Role-Based Access. A finer grain control on what type of users can call certain API Endpoints is needed.
Performance with third-party databases isn't as fast as using Oracle Database.
Long learning curve. Although Oracle API Manager provides performance and a vast deal of features, a certain level of expertise is required to effectively make use of them.
Zions Bancorporation takes security very seriously. While we have NOT had any security issues with ICM, with it being a cloud application, our internal infosec team really wants some kind of MFA (multi factor authentication) support for off corporate network access.
The ICM internal workflow manager is not as flexible as we would like. For what it does, it works extremely well. However, for our purposes, it would not fit our process so we created our own workflows using presenter reports, scheduler and automated data imports. We'd love to be able to use the internal workflow and I think with recent improvements we're getting close but it's just not there yet.
In order to send emails to users (ie. payments need approval) we had to write an external python script. It works well but for most admins, they are not able to support it. It would be nice to have the ability to send emails based on defined triggers. The built in workflow can do this but as mentioned previously, we are not able to use it.
I'd like to have the ability to run a partial calculation. Currently, there is only an option to run a full system calc or a single calculation. I would like the ability to run a stream of calcs (ie. from a parent down to all children only).
Customer support from IBM is impeccable. They are quick to respond and they don't nickel and dime you for every request you make. Their goal is to ensure your success and as a user, I really feel like they listen to my concerns. That's not to say there are no problems. All software has its issues, but I don't feel like those issues fall on deaf ears.
It was extremely difficult to create reports. We had to download data and create them in other applications. This was very limiting and required a great deal of time and effort. Drag and drop functionality is needed so we can self serve in the product.
All is fast, but with API's it is sometimes slower due to the application we are pulling data from. Reports are loaded directly or within seconds and our reports are very detailed with many columns and rows.
Giving a 10 would suggest there is no room for improvement. I don't feel like their support is perfect. However, I have never met another team that was more dedicated to making sure we get what we want and need.
Test test test. Make sure that the product is calculating everyone 100% correctly. DO NOT accept a 70% pass rate as some companies would like to have you believe is acceptable. This means conducting thorough testing by providing 100% of all expected results, but it will be worth it when you know that the compensation plans are working entirely as expected.
Oracle API Manager is much easier to learn and understand then IBM Data Power Gateway and IBM API Connect. We selected Oracle API Manager in our company because to have a good intuitive interface with drag and drop features and because beginners and easily get up to speed to use this tool.
Out of all of the products I have ever evaluated for this space, Varicent is head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion. For me, I think of Varicent as akin to building an Access database while the other programs are like building an Excel data model. In Varicent you control everything from what tables are built to how they are leveraged with the calculations that you build. In the other tools, you are pushed into finding ways to leverage their pre-built mechanism of action and any deviation from what you build necessitates you to build a brand new plan. This is the key differentiator of a table driven system as opposed to a rule based one. The flexibility and usability is wholly unmatched.
Varicent Incentive Compensation Management is a tool that allows [users] to implement the specific rules applying to the business, [without] any technical constraints from the tool. The reports would, however, need to be a little bit less rigid and add more controls regarding what has been entered by users.
Oracle API Manager supports both REST & SOAP API's.
Secure and attributable connection to back-end services and data sources. In addition to creating API's for querying data, you can also create API endpoints that can manipulate the data in the back-end databases.
Although Oracle API Manager provides performance and a vast deal of features, to start with it is really important you train your people working on development, deployment and administrators to effectively use Oracle API Manager.
Fewer calculation errors as previous solution was manual based.
Ability to build tailored solutions in ICM to entice Brokers to write business for ANZ.
Allows the Broker Managers to easily to see what commissions they are going to pay in the next Commission Run payment cycle and make changes if required.
