Sales Performance Management solutions from SAP SuccessFactors vs. Varicent vs. Xactly Incent®

SAP Sales Performance Management from Success Factors works great if the incentive calculation is simple. However, if it contains a lot of constraints and filters or is dynamic, it is not friendly to changes or complexity in terms of configuration and time to calculate the incentives. The advantages of using SAP Sales Performance Management are that the process is controlled, the data is in the cloud, and the roles and permissions make it more secure.

Incentivized

For the use cases we have at the bank, ICM is a perfect solution. For any bank or institution that has similar requirements, ICM would be a perfect solution. But I also think for any use case that has any sort of incentives based on Sales done, this would work amazing, as both Calculations and reports are handled by ICM very well; it's an all-in-one solution, I feel like.

Incentivized

Being that Xactly Incent is custom built to meet our specific plan requirements, it has been well suited for almost everything. One scenario where we could use some improvement is manager reporting. Better visibility into the roll up of any team goals and team actuals. Also some of the incentive payment information is a bit clunky. We calculate incentives each quarter on a YTD basis and then subtract was has already been paid. Sometimes this creates a shortfall for the sales rep that needs to carry forward. Reporting for this doesn't flow easily.

Incentivized

• Configurable out of the box.
• Allows for complex compensation rules (Rate tables, MDLTs, etc).
• Has the ability to build cross-channel (non-hierarchy) relationships. For us, this is very powerful.
• Can build a large data warehouse of commissionable data.
• Speed to market can be as fast as minutes.

• Flexibility - Varicent is not template based. You can implement the model specifically for your organisation.
• Scalability - Since it is not stick to templates you are able to expand the model for other domains as well.
• Reporting - Several ways of reporting are possible and each has their own benefit/purpose.
• Strong/Powerfull Calculation Engine delivering fast results/speed to insight
• User Interface is minimized to what you need and is not showing off all the functions it can "also" do
• Strong audittrail
• Appears to be almost unlimited in what you are able to create

• Xactly Incent allows quick feed changes with Connect.
• Xactly Incent allows intuitive plan design so that quick changes can be made with plan changes.
• Document Management allows quick disbursement of plans to reps as well as record management of the plans.
• Xactly Incent allows visibility to the reps at any time so that they do not have to wonder what their commissions are.

Incentivized

• Using names to reference payees in the compensation platform, instead of their ID
• Allow an Advisor to see their compensation as well as how their employees compensation without requiring to proxy
• Expose all variables within the application to the dashboard, to allow them to be used for data insights, without requiring any extra work.

Incentivized

• As [the] model gets more and more transactional data, the calculation time increases. This should/can be handled internally with better model optimization.
• Migrating from one env to other sometimes is challenging. There can be better 'Alerts' or 'Explanation' provided to handle it or at least to give a hint of the error.
• For managers viewing their rep's report, the access part can be made easier. It should be linked to Payee hierarchy and access can be done automatically.

Incentivized

• When clearing out or deleting the data in Incent, certain areas allow deletion only one by one. Eg position, people etc. Would be great if this can be done in bulk.
• Could improve in the style/view/functioning of Incent user interface
• Can implement more features for end users interface to keep them more engaged and ignoring a feel of boring UI

Incentivized

I would use this product if it were needed due to very complex plans/organization

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.

Xactly Incent is a great tool for calculating commissions. The interface is user friendly and the system is set up in a way that allows for multiple setups for each commission plan. Over the last couple years since I have been on the commission team we have been able to optimize our plans to promote scalability. Our sales and accounting teams have become familiar with navigating the system which promotes transparency. From an audit perspective, Incent provides us with the reports and data we need to provide to our auditors.

Incentivized

Seven out of 10 due to it's strong automations which has simplified some our prior complex processes. The ability to structure our workflows and improve consistency has also helped with repeat tasks. The self-service of SAP has given greater visibility to our sales team members so they can track commissions and quotas. There is a steep learning curve and the system is complex leading to a bit of an average score

Incentivized

Any calculations can be implemented as there are hardly any limitations on complexity. However, online real-time usability is lacking - a simple user enters, and the system calculates work in a way that it is in the browser and hence still needs overnight to be properly reflected in the batch calculations and backend tables.

Incentivized

The devil is in the detail. It's not intuitive to use, also not for Sales employees. You need to train them. For superusers like me you need a lot of training to administrate the system. It has a lot of functionalities and complexity like staging and upload orders, reset triggers, updating & creating rate tables. A lot of formulars are necessary to learn.

Never went down in last 3 years that I worked with it (every hour of the day basically). That is a 10 in my book.

Xactly Incent is always available, they have planned monthly maintenance on Friday nights but are very proactive to communicate it. Monthly maintenance is useful as they address any bugs and also are constantly upgrading the user interface to make it easier to use.

Incentivized

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.

Xactly Incent performs extremely well. I have not experienced it "slowing down" when usage is heavy. This is particularly true when it comes to the regular recalculation of credits and commissions. It is not uncommon for Xactly to be dealing with hundreds of thousands of orders/credits in a pay period, but the system handles it well. Xactly recently changed their calculation engine and the speed for regular refreshes increased significantly.

Incentivized

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.

They take the time to understand the system. They keep us updated on the status of our cases. Finally, their continued follow up ensuring the initial issue was resolved is very nice. They will not close the case out until they have confirmed that our issue has been completely resolved and fixed.

Incentivized

The training was good in general with a nice trainer as well. But, the training could be better if it is more focussed on our process/data etc.

Awesome product, easy to use during daily activities. Reporting and user experience are very well organised. The sales team also likes this tool for reviewing their commissions at any time, which provides real-time updates. For new hires or mid-hires, the commission calculation is working very efficiently. Every sales-side organisation must have this tool.Awesome product, easy to use during daily activities. Reporting and user experience are very well organised. The sales team also likes this tool for reviewing their commissions at any time, which provides real-time updates. For new hires or mid-hires, the commission calculation is working very efficiently. Every sales-side organisation must have this tool.

Incentivized

There is a learning portal with many videos about navigation, creating reports and managing your model.

Xactly offers training on new releases on a monthly basis and training on basic principles regularly via registration. My experience with both is that they do not provide the in-depth knowledge necessary to truly master the system and advanced courses still do not go to the level needed to autonomously manage the system and plans. Professional services are a large part of any cloud based service such as Xactly and I feel a reliance on such paid consulting services is a great money-maker for Xactly.

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.

We have been satisfied with the implementation overall. The person from Xactly professional team was on our site to support the implementation and give us guides and instructions on how to operate the system in our case. it was really helpful moments. We have learned what and how to test Xactly Incent

We looked at Varicent as an option. I liked the easibility of Varicent for rule writing. If you can write formulas in excel, you could write rules in Varicent. We also looked at Xactly, however, that was not a good option at the time because of the volume of transactions that we would be processing.

Incentivized

In 2015, we used a scorecard containing 80 attributes in our review of Oracle, Callidus, and Xactly & Varicent. Oracle did not have true self serve capabilities- programming was heavily required, not intuitive, out of the box functionality was limited. Callidus & Xactly could not provide us a demo using our data, statements could not be sent out in bulk form, difficulty in importing/exporting to CRM. Varicent excelled in most areas and was the clear winner.

Ignoring the contractual issues that we had, Optymyze is very different from Xactly Incent. I would say that both offer high degrees of flexibility, but Xactly requires greater technical knowledge to customize. Optymyze allows administrators to manipulate data in a way similar to Domo or Tableau, allowing someone who is less technical to customize it. Xactly's connect module, on the other hand, requires strong knowledge of SQL to be able to manipulate data. I've been looking to take the training for Connect, so I can't comment on the limitations or flexibility beyond that.

Incentivized

It is very scalable and adaptable to changing complexities of calculations and business rules under a variety of different scenarios. It does not get full points because in large data loads the time needed to calculate and import the data increases exponentially and may cause issues related to timing potentially.

Incentivized

It's very flexible. In most cases it can be adapted to your needs by programming which may cost extra money. We have a lot of different complans and close to 1.000 employees using Xactly in EMEA. It's mainly used by Sales and Finance

• The efficiencies gained by moving from reports and spreadsheet alone has earned us a positive ROI.
• SAP Commissions speed to the market allows us to quickly and cheaply change our direction to meet market demands.
• Our sales force's engagement has drastically improved. We are now paying monthly instead of quarterly and have earned their trust.

• Compliance - with a central system used for calculation incentive payments and commissions, we are able to provide reports and data showing every detail of how payments are calculated and why they are justified. We can also identify anomalies and outliers.
• Integration with our payroll system is seamless. Except for regular pay, nothing goes to payroll without going through ICM. The process for paying incentives/bonuses/commissions is now very structured and efficient.

Incentivized

• I am not aware of the company investment, but the overall result is fantastic. Employees visibility to commissions and components of their commissions is great. They have much more accessibility to their numbers and better understanding of how commissions are calculated. They can also review commissions at their convince on the application.
• There seems to be more employee engagement and satisfaction with the overall commission process and reporting with Xactly Incent.

Incentivized