Customer Success Story: Cox Media tunes into better sales performance with Xactly

Testimonials & Case Studies / Cox Media

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“Xactly Incent has been a big success for Cox Media. The time and cost savings for our finance team have been great, but when you add the real-time visibility and performance-enhancing advantages it brings to our sales force, the benefits of Xactly are phenomenal.”

- Autumn Burton, from Cox Media

About Cox Media
Cox Media is a broadband communications and entertainment company, providing advanced digital video, Internet, telephone and wireless services over its own nationwide IP network. The third-largest U.S. cable TV company, Cox serves more than six million residences and businesses.

Challenge
With over $1 billion in annual revenue, Cox Media has played a leading role in changing the face of communications in the U.S., but as the company has grown, another type of change has taken place internally. Like many organizations, Cox managed its sales compensation programs using spreadsheets and a home-grown system, and it was becoming apparent to both finance and sales that the company had outgrown this legacy approach to managing such a key revenue driver.

Cox finance personnel were frequently challenged to calculate commissions across the entire sales force in a timely manner, but inadequate legacy tools caused accuracy and visibility challenges. Further complicating the situation was a compensation plan that changed on a yearly basis.

"Our sales compensation plans tend to be quite dynamic and we're frequently trying new things and making major changes on an almost yearly basis," explains Autumn Burton, compensation administrator at Cox Media. "We needed a solution that would automate the compensation management process to save time, improve accuracy, and help drive sales performance, while being flexible enough to accommodate change."

Solution
After assessing several compensation management solutions, Cox Media selected Xactly's on-demand sales compensation management solution, Xactly Incent, along with the Xactly Analytics and Xactly Modeling modules.

In a two-phased deployment, Cox initially implemented Xactly Incent for the finance team to use both at headquarters and in the field. Finance immediately began using the solution to calculate commissions and provide timely compensation summaries to the sales force.

In phase-two, the entire 325-person sales force was provided with direct access to Incent.

"In phase-one, finance reaped significant efficiency benefits, including a reduction in the time it takes to calculate commissions," says Burton. "Phase-two completed the circle, and allowed sales reps to log in on their own, view their statements, and figure out their ranking; sales managers also enjoyed the ability to easily track their team's performance."
The increase in visibility and the self-help nature of the new Xactly-based compensation process has helped empower Cox's sales team. For example, a key feature of Xactly Incent is its Xactly Incentive Estimator, which allows sales reps to quickly calculate potential commission payouts, helping them focus their time on opportunities with the greatest potential return.

"Sales reps really like Incent because they can go in and actually estimate where they're going to be at the end of the month or quarter, and see how much more business they need to close," explains Burton. "Previously, they had to wait for finance to generate reports. Having reps go in and get information themselves has been a huge advantage for both sales and finance."

Today, with both finance and sales leveraging Xactly Incent on a daily basis, Cox Media is achieving numerous tangible business benefits.

Faster Commission Processing
Monthly commission processing now takes just four hours, down from two weeks or longer in past. As a result, finance personnel are now free to focus on more strategic tasks like ensuring that payroll deadlines are met. "In terms of time spent, we've narrowed things down tremendously from what we were doing before in calculating commissions," claims Burton. "Xactly Incent also makes it easier to process payroll because once we have the data it's automatically formatted and looks precisely like it needs to."

Increased Compensation Accuracy
Previously, Cox struggled to ensure compensation accuracy; but with automatic calculations through Xactly Incent's rules-driven compensation engine, this is no longer the time-consuming issue it was in the past. "One of the biggest successes for us has been improved accuracy," says Burton. "These days we're hitting 95 percent or greater accuracy, where before, the calculations were not as accurate as they could have been."

“Xactly Incent has been a big success for Cox Media. The time and cost savings for our finance team have been great, but when you add the real-time visibility and performance-enhancing advantages it brings to our sales force, the benefits of Xactly are phenomenal.”

Improved Sales Performance
Xactly Incent is helping to drive sales performance as well, providing Cox with the kind of intelligence that can be leveraged to improve individual and team sales behaviors. "Now that sales management has greater and more timely visibility into compensation-related processes and issues, they are better able to say 'okay team, this is what we need to do right now,'" explains Burton. "This is helping managers actively guide performance. In addition, now that sales reps now have real-time visibility into goals, attainment and rankings, they are not so inclined to engage in shadow-accounting, and instead focus more on closing deals."

“In terms of time spent, we've narrowed things down tremendously from what we were doing.”

Enhanced Business Agility
Traditionally, when Cox made changes to its sales compensation plans, considerable time and effort was spent in changing spreadsheet formulas and business rules. With Xactly, changes are accommodated much faster and more easily. "When we were using our legacy system, there was always lag time while we tried to update formulas to match the new plans," says Burton. "With Xactly Incent, everything is automated and our compensation plans can be easily modified to meet the changing dynamics of our business."

Reduced IT Dependency
Because Xactly Incent is delivered in the cloud, Cox has been able to greatly reduce its dependence on IT for managing compensation. "Before Xactly, we were heavily reliant on IT for such things as upgrade support, maintenance, and system changes," claims Burton. "Today, that reliance is far, far reduced. Plus, being an on-demand solution, Xactly Incent is extraordinarily cost-effective."

Concludes Burton, "Xactly Incent has been a big success for Cox Media. The time and cost savings for our finance team have been great, but when you add the real-time visibility and performance-enhancing advantages it brings to our sales force, the benefits of Xactly Incent are phenomenal."