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Filter 22 vetted Varicent reviews and ratings
Reviews (1-9 of 9)
July 13, 2015
Varicent Insight
Varicent is used to compute compensation, define compensation & payment rates, perform compensation adjustment and do reporting. It is used by a department now.
- Ability to modularize whole commission process, build one after another and see intermediate results
- Scheduler and scheduler ability to connect with another external scheduler using CLI
- Built-inVaricent web security feature tied to payee table and in-built rules to drive Varicent web security
- Built-in export process, which can generate Excel based (or any other file format) file for external system consumption
- Performance Calculation Batch - Overall batch calculation performance is poor it takes long time compared to similar products in market to process same tranaction volume
- Performance Web Form - Very poor web form performance and restriction around pulling only 1,000 rows from a single data source. Additionally, all records comes at once on UI and requires lot of java script coding to filter and process
- No data model to start with - Varicent does not come with any pre-defined data model to start with, which is a major drawback. Defining data model elongates design time and also create possibility of bad data model design
- Retro-processing - There is no out of box retro processing, which can post debit or credit from previous week to current open week. Retro is tied to re-running the week once more. It gets complex when the week is locked
- Inability to process a particular credit week - Varicent processes all unlocked period in the calender, which is a pain when there is a business need to process a particular credit week
- Hierarchy - Big problem area for commission processing and Varicent does not offer anything out of box here. It needs to be defined in the data model and processing components are required to process complex hierarchy
Varicent is being used by my organization as the main sales compensation system. This means that the field can access large amounts of information on a daily basis. Along with the field having a more interactive experience, the analyst have a better platform for managing compensation and drive improving sales performances.
- Varicent does a really great job at making a completely unique and custom Sales Compensation system.
- An area that Varicent has room for improvement would be in the back end of the system when dealing with tables and calculations. It is extremely frustrating and difficult to map a calculation issue when your are trying to follow the lines that make up that calculation. There should be a way to have only that calculation show when you click on it. This making it easier to map and follow.
- There is a very helpful audit tracker which keeps accountability up when there is multiple programmers in the system but still most programmers will have to learn what was done before them to then start and make progress on the task at hand. Along with that when digging deeper into a calculation you can see comments along with an audit log of previous programmers for that specific calculation. This is essential to making significant progress but if there were clearer prerequisites for the reasoning behind the changes that were made to that calculation. This would establish a clearer understanding of the reasoning for changes and would cut down the time spent backtracking to learn why the original change was made.
March 12, 2014
Varicent, empowering the Sales Organization
Varicent (AKA IBM Cognos ICM) is currently being used in several capacities for my company. First and foremost it is used as a Sales Compensation calculation tool. Additionally it is used for Reporting, Analytics and Accruals. The biggest advantage to using Varicent is the fact that it can be owned by the business organization whereas traditionally systems are owned by the IT organization. In other words, the tool is simple enough to learn that the people closest to Sales Operations and Management can actually create and implement change within the system.
- Sales Compensation - The bread and butter of this software is that it can create everything from the very simplest of pay logic to the most complex of crediting rules
- Sales Compensation Reporting - The reporting tool is quite robust. Dynamic (an often overused term), is completely accurate as a description for the reporting aspect of Varicent. Reports can be created to change depending on the audience, both in content and look and feel.
- Accruals - Our company has some very stringent requirements for Accrual logic, Varicent was able to handle them all
- Modeling - There are numerous methods for modeling change within compensation plans that allow analysts to predict and asses the impact of changes to the plans
- Hierarchies - Whether your hierarchies are driven simply by supervisor ID or by complex combinations of attributes, Varicent can handle it all
- Flexibility - The software is flexible enough to allow you to decide what you want to do, don't want to implement reporting or accruals? No problem. Just want to use Varicent as a reporting tool, also no problem.
- Young Software - Varicent the software company was/is a young company. As such it has a strong focus on customers but is also growing at an extremely fast rate. They are constantly pushing to release the next version of the software and as such it can feel a bit daunting trying to keep up with the latest versions of the software. Luckily, the provide upgrades for free.
- Organizing large amounts of logic within the software can sometimes feel clunky. They attempted to improve the organization in version 7 by introducing the concept of components. It helped, but there is a ton of room for improvement in this area.
March 14, 2014
Varicent Implementation / System Administrator
Varicent is currently being used by our sales force in two divisions. Varicent’s ability to update nightly gives our sales forces the most up to date data at their finger tips. The iPad app provides the sales forces with all the essential information on the go. It reduces their time in the office, allowing them to get out and sell! Bottom line- Varicent is an amazing asset to the end users.
- Varicent has an iPad application that provides the sales forces with all the essential information on the go.
- Varicent has the flexibility to customize calculations and reports. It is a tailor made solution that can meet any customer’s needs. I had the pleasure to implement Varicent at to different companies, in two different industries and Varicent could do it all!
- Varicent’s upgrades are seamless. We upgraded from 7.0 to 8.0 during the implementation and it was completed overnight!
- Although Varicent’s iPad application is great, many of the awesome graphs that we were sold on are only Java compatible. I wish Varicent could have this corrected in the next release.
- The search functionality in the admin client is less than desirable. It is very difficult to research issues in the calculations because the scroll function is not user friendly. Varicent should offer a global search function that will find the requested data in the calculations.
- The web client times out to quickly. There should be a separate setting for admin users where we can stay logged in for more than 20 minutes at a time.
Varicent was my client. I was conducting enterprise performance testing on their Sales Performance Management tool to see how it would perform under user load to help with capacity planning and business continuity amongst other similar purposes.
- The software has strong design and feels like it was developed to be robust.
- It handled the performance tests very well in most areas. I can't give specifics because its confidential.
- The software has useful features that would benefit any sales organization.
- The software is designed for large sales organizations. The regular version may be too much for smaller organizations.
- Its designed to calculate variable based pay, and would benefit firms who use that method. It would not be useful for companies who employ simpler compensation valuations like base pay plus fixed commissions.
- The target niche that this software appeals to may be a bit narrow. I don't expect to use it in my organization for IT services.
March 28, 2014
Varicent, overall developer experience
Department usage. It was to build a reporting solution for an insurance based client.
- Interactive Design
- Adminstration Tools
- Tool Tips
- Ease of Use
- Number of steps to reach the final result
- Light weight installation
- Manageability
April 12, 2015
ICM - Design Effective Plans
Varicent is one of the solutions we offer as part of the IBM Cognos suite, for compensation management., I am not in sales, but implementation and support. So once a client decides that this is the right product for their needs, we then go in and begin getting details and doing design sessions.
- Good user interface
- Implementation of wizards make it easy for the average user to be able to follow
- Provide detailed reports with nice graphics that tell the story
- Overkill - Some things don't need to be as complicated as they make them. Simple modifications require multiple steps and should be conensed
- Working with third parties. They are not always easy to get answers from and often times don't return calls
- Since being purchased by IBM, the transition to a more global approach to sales and implementation has not been adopted.
February 25, 2015
Varicent for Comp Plan Creation
Currently my department, Sales Operations, utilizes Varicent to build out and manage the compensation plans for our salesforce. There is another version of Varicent used within our company as well for payout of the compensation plans, however, I don't manage that portion, it is handled through our Commissions department. The system was built to have the management team access the information directly, hopefully resulting in quicker turnaround time, however, due to system issues we have faced since implementation, we haven't been able to roll out that portion of the system yet.
- The implementation team listens to your overall business and strategy and is willing to work with you to address your specific needs. Our company was the first Varicent worked with to build out the implementation of the plans versus the payout of the plans.
- The trouble support team responds to issues quickly and efficiently and escalates them if needed.
- There is always room for upgrade if you're willing to optimize your model and put in the time and effort on your own end.
- We tried to utilize a third party to implement Varicent several years ago. After months of sitting with them explaining our process, they brought us a demo of what they thought we needed and it completely missed the mark. This left us frustrated and feeling defeated. Varicent needs to make sure the third parties they use to implement their product come across as they themselves would.
- We have had an on-going issue since implementation two years ago; we tried to utilize the service and ticket system and after a year were told it was beyond their control and to utilize a specialized team we would pay for, to come in and resolve our issue in 1-2 weeks. We got the funds to have the team come in, and unfortunately 6 months later, the issue is still not resolved. Their follow-up lacks, as does their resolution of large issues.
March 22, 2014
Varicent - review
Used to calculate agent compensation. Used across organization. To replace 40 year old legacy system.
- Calculations
- Can handle load
- OOB - reporting
- Interface with SSID
- Performance
- Interface with BI
Varicent Scorecard Summary
About Varicent
Varicent is presented by the vendor as the single Sales Performance
Management (SPM) Solution an organization needs to accurately track, manage
and reports on sales-related data and processes. With Varicent, organizations of
all sizes significantly reduce administrative costs and gain insight into
key performance metrics.
Varicent encompasses Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning and Channel Management, to improve compensation management and drive desired sales behavior and align sales resources to achieve goals.
Varicent Screenshots
Varicent Integrations
CRM, ERP, HCM, Point-of-sale
Varicent Competitors
Pricing
- Does not have featureFree Trial Available?No
- Does not have featureFree or Freemium Version Available?No
- Has featurePremium Consulting/Integration Services Available?Yes
- Entry-level set up fee?No
Varicent Support Options
| Paid Version | |
|---|---|
| Phone | |
| Live Chat | |
| FAQ/Knowledgebase |
Varicent Technical Details
| Deployment Types: | On-premise, SaaS |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems: | Windows, Linux, Mac |
| Mobile Application: | Mobile Web |
| Supported Countries: | Global |
| Supported Languages: | Chinese-simplified, Chinese-traditional, Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Polish |