Item: Xactly Incent
Rating: 9
Author: Irina Tarelkina

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We started to use Incent in 2012 and replaced older system to meet business needs. It is used by Sales Operations department, Human Resources and Finance for Sales Compensation purposes and performance. It really eliminates all manual work that would be done by the old style. It addresses the in real time results as it provides information up to date. It is flexible on changes minor and major changes in your comp calculations. Great tool overall.

Pros and Cons

Visibilty
Dig in dip details info
Calculations
Analytics part

Some information you want to see all together in one customized report like Credits, Quotas, Attainment, Commissions, and Bonuses.

Return on Investment

Positive for sure.
On our case it is more than 50% which is really great.

Xactly Data Insights

Data insights is a good addition to the Xactly Incent as it shows valuable details for analysis of the Sales plan, if it works well or require adjustment. Where person may be needs help and directions to improve the results. Very considerable and helpful to make the right decision when dealing with sales and compensation balance.

Compensation Management

We do take to consideration all these tools what Xactly offers.

Xactly Integrations

we have Salesforce, SAP, CLI systems integration with Incent via sftp transfers.

Adoption

The following departments are using data from Incent: finance - to forecast budget for future payouts to audit the outcome, payroll - to pay employees their sales comp dollars base on Incent reports, sales operations - to analyze the quarterly and yearly performance, hr - to have data to design, adjust Sales incentive plans when required.

Alternatives Considered

Reliability, Accuracy, Simplicity, "Time spent" factor. Definitely recommended product.

Key Insights

Do you think Xactly Incent delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Xactly Incent's feature set?

Yes

Did Xactly Incent live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Xactly Incent go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Xactly Incent again?

Yes

Xactly Product Usage

Xactly Incent
Xactly Connect

Other Software Used

Salesforce.com, SAS Business Intelligence

Likelihood to Recommend

I would say that it depends on the complexity of the Sales Incentive Plan requirements and needs of the company. There is always a solution that Xactly Incent can offer or suggest or implement to meet these needs.

Users and Roles

180 - We have all kind of people with business functions who uses Xactly Incent. The list starts from Sales representatives, Sales Managers, Sales Directors, Executive team, Sales Operations team, Finance team, Human Resources team. Xactly partners and developers during the development, testing and implementation, Xactly Support when you are in trouble with Incent.

Support Headcount Required

1 - To support Xactly requires minimum 1 person as business administrator with knowledge of Sales Compensation, Finance skills, Analytical skills, Technical skills, It could vary from the complexity and changes if need to be completed. IT developers with SQL code knowledge to support to implement the required changes as they occur for instance once a year, may be more often, may be random once in 2 -3 years.

Business Processes Supported

Assess to the Xactly Incent from anywhere in the world as long as Internet works.
Information presented in real time all the time.
Possible competed automation process from orders creations calculations to paycheck in the Bank as per Incent statement.
Easy to use and it is really user friendly interface.
Estimator tool that can estimate "how much I will get commissions if I close the deal"

Innovative Uses

We have gone from the old static system no visibility, no real time update, back in 2012 to the Xactly Incent to provide complete visibility, control, transparency, real time information and calculations right on a spot. We are glad we did get rid of the old inefficient system to calculate Sales compensation.

Future Planned Uses

To combine Xaclty Incent with Connect to get compete control in our hands of Sales Compensation from development to Implementation and support.

Likelihood to Renew

I am giving this rating to Xactly Incent because we have renewed the use of Xactly 3 times already. System is flexible to any changes as required from the end users. Xactly provides not only the commissions calculations but few other additional modules like analytics with some simple and basic analytical reports, sandbox for testing, modeling to create model analysis "what if". Insights module would provide you some industry analytical information to compare your business with other peers.

Products Replaced

Yes - We have replaced our old system STAIRS as it did not meet the up to date technology, Old style. Static information, no visibility, sales did not know how they are doing in progress. That had to be changed and we have found what suits our needs, requirements in Xactly Incent.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Usability
Product Reputation
Vendor Reputation

I would stop here to give you more details on Product Usability. Xactly is very easy to use. It is very stable system. Maintained with updates by vendor every month and most beauty is accessible from anywhere with internet connection. Sales people can not change any numbers, it is browser view only to them. Exportable reports in PDF or Excel.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

At the time of 2011 Xactly did not have such module as Connect and we had to use Delta for automation, completely relied on the Xactly team or partners to make any changes. With Connect piece that gives 100% control in your hands from design, develop, implement, maintain Xactly Incent without need to contact Xactly for changes. We would integrate Xactly Incent with Connect to fulfill compete control.

Implementation Rating

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.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

vendor

Implementation Phases

Implementation Issues

making mistakes and learning the system on the go.

Training Types Used

Online training
in-person training

In-Person Training

Instructor provides all the information and also Instructor can give the advise and answer the questions right on a spot. In fact, you get the same on line as it is webinar based, not recording to watch.

Online Training

Xactly team provides all needed to run this tool with confidence.

Ease of Xactly Incent Training

it is possible to have self-taught however, takes time. I recommend to use in-person (in-class) or on-line training and let professionals lead that.

Product Configurability

The configuration part is just right and can be done after training on that.

Configuration Lessons

to save a time and money recommend to use professional services to handle the configuration to be done right.

UI Customization

No - we have not done any customization to the interface

Extensibility and Customization

No - we have not done any custom code

Additional Customization Considerations

We have added some custom fields for use.

Support Rating

The reason why I have gave a high rating is Support team always there for you when you need it. It is professional knowledgeable team that react to your respond with expected solution to your problem. System updates on a monthly bases, new features to make your sales compensation calculations more easy to process.

Xactly Incent Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

Yes

We are customers with Premium support, it means 24/7 hours, quick responds, with resolutions in couple three hours instead of up to 48 hours. There is a dedicated people with knowledge of our functional requirements and design of compensation plans. Basically you get what you pay for. This is a good description.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Xactly Incent Support

There was one time when orders in batch were stuck with calculations and it got "frozen" for hours in processing queue to process the line of batches, There is no other way to resolve it as to contact Xactly support and to remove that stacked batch from the processing queue in order to move on with other batches. Support was exceptional in terms of time and issue has been resolved in a matter of few minutes. They saved our day at that time.

Usability

I would rate Xactly Incent with the highest score overall as it really meet expectations and support make it happen to resolve any issues you face with. It is designed base on your specific requirements and nobody else. Accuracy, fast time of calculations, no errors, reports all this available thanks to Xactly Incent. No more excel sheets to calculate!

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

To calculate batches to Credits or Calculate batches to Incentives.
Upload the orders
Create user

Difficult Tasks

To create formulas and rules

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - We have enabled the mobile ui functionality for sales people to see how they are doing on the phone, on a go. They like it. I would like to mention that Mobile UI version is not for admins to work. It works on iPhones, androids, blackberries. As Admin you can see who is using what kind of version.