VoIP Leader Sylantro Calls on Xactly Incent Managed Service for World-wide Sales Compensation Management
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“Before Xactly Incent fixed everything, compensation errors and issues were a topic of conversation at every weekly staff meeting at the executive level. But with Xactly Incent Managed Service, the noise level is way down and commissions accuracy is now a non-issue for executive staff and sales management.”
- Bonnie Glass, Sylantro, Senior Director of Value Added Services
Based in Campbell, California, Sylantro is the leading provider of software used by service providers to deliver hosted VoIP applications and services for business, consumer, and wireless customers. Sylantro’s Synergy platform and Synapps Web Services provide a carrier-grade, feature-rich, web services enabled common capability for creating new converged experiences for business and consumers.
Challenge
A fast-growing global enterprise, Sylantro utilizes a sophisticated mix of direct and indirect sales channels to sell its carrier-grade Sylantro Synergy platform to network operators around the world. Operating in a highly competitive market, Sylantro needs to maximize the productivity and derive every bit of value it can from its sales resources. The company recognized the strategic value of incentive compensation but, like most organizations, its sales compensation management process was mired in spreadsheet and cumbersome manual procedures, making it exceedingly difficult to leverage compensation in a strategic manner.
Additionally, as is typically the case, the spreadsheet-driven compensation process was also having a profoundly negative effect on sales and finance productivity. Lacking real-time visibility into compensation plans and attainment, sales reps were spending valuable sales time trying to reconcile commission payouts with what they thought they had actually earned. Meanwhile, finance was burning up hours (equivalent to a half-time employee) each month on compensation-related tasks: data collection and input, checking accuracy and chasing down errors. With finger-pointing proliferating all around, trust between sales and finance was starting to erode. Clearly something had to change, and fast.
“As we were finding out, managing sales compensation with spreadsheets is a lose-lose proposition,” says Bonnie Glass, Sylantro senior director of value-added services. “You can’t mess with a salesperson’s commission. Once you get one thing wrong, they question everything. In the end, you pay the cost in wasted sales opportunities and runaway administrative overhead.”
Solution
Sylantro determined that its sales compensation management process needed to be entirely reengineered—and automated as much as possible—in order to slash administrative time and eliminate errors. But the company realized that it lacked the skills and resources to accomplish this entirely in house.
“We decided it was in our best interest to adopt an outsource model for our compensation management,” explains Glass. “That way, we can focus on the things we do well, and let the outsource solutions provider handle what they are expert at—incentive compensation management best practices and supporting technology.”
After an evaluation of available options, Sylantro selected the Xactly Incent™ Managed Service to power its incentive compensation program. An affordable option for small to midsize companies, Xactly Incent Managed Service is an outsourced and managed service of Xactly’s web-based Xactly Incent on-demand sales compensation management solution. With Xactly Incent Managed Service, companies can outsource a portion of or their complete compensation management function, leveraging Xactly’s on-demand technology and domain expertise, including the knowledge of experienced compensation specialists. Sylantro opted for end-to-end management of its compensation processes, including individualized reporting and access to Xactly’s specialists.
”Xactly has extensive experience with sales compensation programs, and we saw that we had an unprecedented opportunity to pick the brains of the experts as we set up future compensation plans,” claims Glass.
The Xactly service was up and running at Sylantro in a matter of days, including a one-day training session for administrative staffers and management. The company’s sales reps quickly embraced the service, finding it easy to understand and use. And, according to Glass, “a wide range of benefits quickly accrued.”
Benefits
Greater motivation through real-time visibility
Sales reps and their managers are now able to go online with Xactly Incent Managed Service to see how they will be compensated on certain types of sales. Statements for reps and reports for managers are available immediately, rather than having to wait until quarter’s end, as in the past. Moreover, reps can leverage Xactly’s patent-pending Incentive Estimator™, which enables reps to run “what-if” scenarios based on estimated sales in order to see their potential commissions and bonuses before, during and after a sale.
Ensured accuracy
Using compensation rules set up by Sylantro, the Xactly compensation engine automatically and accurately calculates payouts, thus putting an end to overpayments, underpayments, and the resulting disputes and de-motivation. “Before Xactly Incent fixed everything, compensation errors and issues were a topic of conversation at every weekly staff meeting at the executive level,” says Glass. “You don’t want executive attention and CEO time spent on commissions. But with Xactly Incent Managed Service, the noise level is way down and commissions accuracy is now a non-issue for executive staff and sales management.”
Increased sales performance
Freed from “shadow accounting,” commission second-guessing commissions, and the ensuing disputes with finance, sales reps and their managers can now focus more attention on selling—and, more importantly, on selling strategically. Says Glass, “Reps and their managers not only have more time and energy for selling, they also have an effective tool for tracking and measuring their performance as it relates to corporate objectives. That’s a major competitive advantage for us.”
Reduced administrative time and costs
With automation and ensured accuracy has come a substantial reduction in the administrative time and effort put into managing sales compensation. “It would take up to seven person-days each month to do all the things that Xactly Incent Managed Service now does for us automatically and correctly,” explains Glass. “That translates into regaining a quarter of a highly paid finance person’s time on an annual basis, and being able to redirect that time to more strategic tasks. Thank you, Xactly!”
Global access
Sylantro’s reps are scattered around the globe. In the past, when they needed commissions information, they had to arrange conversations with headquarters across numerous time zones. Now the information can be accessed online via Xactly in real time, anytime, and by reps across the Americas, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
Cost-effective solution
Privately held and medium-size, yet rapidly growing, Sylantro needs to concentrate internal resources on its core business. Xactly Incent Managed Service has enabled the company to avoid training and maintaining expensive in-house compensation expertise, while also avoiding the costly software, hardware and IT maintenance resources associated with on-premise compensation management applications. “Xactly Incent Managed Service acts as a highly scalable extension of our in-house IT organization and of our finance and sales operations,” concludes Glass. “That is an extraordinarily cost-effective approach for a company like ours. Moreover, not only do the capabilities of the Xactly Incent Managed Service continue to blow us away, but Xactly as an organization has been highly responsive to our particular needs. Those are two big and complementary things and, overall, we have been thrilled.”
