Analyst Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research last week attended CompCloud, Xactly’s annual user conference, and wrote about the newly announced Xactly Objectives in his blog. He called it a new product “that will have significant ramifications for many markets.”

Objectives will manage incentive pay for non-sales employees. With MBOs today, “Too often their users fail to clearly communicate to employees what the objectives are and at the end of a reporting period people receive bonuses for seemingly inexplicable reasons,” Pombriant wrote. “The problem with that is the bonus becomes a reward tied to nearly nothing rather than an incentive to do better.  None of this helps drive correct behavior, which, after all, is one of the key reasons for having incentives in the first place.”

See Pombriant’s complete post.

Xactly CompCloud 2013 – SAN FRANCISCO – May 16, 2013 – Further demonstrating the market momentum for leading compensation solutions that inspire better, more aligned employee performance and business results, Xactly today announced another record quarter. During the company’s fiscal first quarter 2014 (ending April 30, 2013), Xactly added new customers across its Incent and Express product lines, growing its total subscriber count by 47 percent over the same time period last year.

New customers include: 3E Company, Accuvant, Cargill AgHorizons, Aurora Casket Company, Avalara, BBH Media, Brainshark, Cartegraph, Coherent Inc., Direct Energy Business, E2open Inc., Illumina, Islamic Bank of Britain, Kontagent, Lumos Networks, Meridium, Omni Cable, Palo Alto Networks, Portfolio Media Group, QuorumLabs Inc., Razor Technology, Semtech Corporation, Shaw Direct, ShopKeep POS, Swipely Inc., Teachscape, Verisk Health and VMWare’s Nicira; amongst others.

Xactly’s ongoing success and growth is evident at the company’s annual customer conference, CompCloud 2013, which opened to record crowds this week in San Francisco. Hundreds of customers, partners and prospects gathered to discuss the motivational power of compensation and how to leverage effective compensation programs to drive better employee engagement and bottom line results.

“Quarter after quarter, Xactly continues to deliver stellar results – furthering exemplifying that our laser focus on and vision for the compensation market aligns with the needs of both the market and our customers,” said Christopher W. Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly Corporation. “Working with our valued partners and customers, we will continue to redefine what’s possible when companies leverage the motivational power of incentives to transform their business and inspire a more aligned and engaged workforce.”

At CompCloud 2013, Cabrera and the executive team previewed new and innovative compensation solutions, set to be delivered in the coming year, including:

• Xactly Objectives: Building on Xactly’s proven sales compensation technology, Objectives allows customers to easily align any employee’s performance with corporate goals and incent and inspire them to reach their full potential. Read more at: http://ow.ly/l4LcF
• Xactly Explorer: Advanced analytics will enable customers to quickly run ad-hoc search queries and get actionable intelligence across their compensation programs faster and easier.
• Xactly Insights: A new service, Insights leverages the collective power of Xactly’s Big Data set to deliver new intelligence and best practices to customers across departments and industries.
• Xactly Territory Management: Territories will enable users to have greater control and flexibility to align sales resources and opportunities by location.
• Gamification in Xactly Express: New gamification features will enable customers to maximize the power of their compensation initiatives with the addition of non-cash contests, leaderboards, badges, and social notifications.

Xactly Recognized for Ongoing Customer and Company Excellence

Xactly also received numerous industry awards in Q1 for its continued business and product successes. For the second year running, AlwaysOn recognized Xactly as one of the companies at the cutting edge of SaaS and cloud technology in its OnDemand Top 100 awards. CUSTOMER Magazine also named Xactly a winner in its CRM Excellence Awards, a recognition Xactly has received for six consecutive years.

Xactly customer Zuora was recognized as the 2013 winner in the Sales Excellence category of the 8th annual Ventana Research Leadership Awards, for its use of Xactly Incent. Additionally, Xactly’s products received significant recognition, with Xactly Incent being named a finalist in the Financial Management Solution categories of the SIIA CODiE and Stevie American Business awards. Xactly Express was named a CODiE finalist for Best Enterprise Mobile Service and Stevie American Business Award finalist for Best Cloud Application/Service.

Additional Resources

• Xactly CompCloud 2013
• Xactly Incent
• Xactly Express
• Follow Xactly on Twitter, Facebook and the Xactly Blog
• Tweet this: @XactlyCorp celebrates record Q1 at #CompCloud! Quarter marked by continued customer and company success

About Xactly Corporation

With Xactly, companies of all sizes and industries can unleash the motivational power of their incentive compensation programs to inspire better employee performance and business results. Xactly’s secure, cloud-based incentive compensation and performance management solutions enable emerging businesses to Fortune 500s to easily design, manage and optimize incentive programs that save time, cut costs, reduce risk and align employee behaviors with corporate goals.

As evidence of Xactly’s continuous innovation and exceptional customer-centric culture, the Wall Street Journal twice named Xactly to its “Next Big Thing” list; Great Place to Work featured Xactly as one of the top 25 small workplaces in the nation in FORTUNE Magazine; and Salesforce.com customers voted Xactly the best sales compensation management solution in the Salesforce AppExchange Customer Choice Awards. To learn how you can incent right and achieve more with Xactly, visit http://www.xactlycorp.com or call 1-866-GO-XACTLY (469-2285).

# # #

© 2005-2013

Xactly Corporation. All rights reserved. Xactly, Xactly Incent, Xactly Express, Xactly Objectives and “Incent right” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xactly Corporation.

# # #

Joan Levy

Blanc & Otus Public Relations

Tel: 415-856-5110

Email: jlevy@blancandotus.com

Erik Wahl's two-minute portrait.

Wahl takes the stage, painting (shades of Xactly Orange) and in minutes, a vibrant portrait of Lincoln emerges.

Colleague Vasu gets to keep the painting! (His decision: Is he an art collector, or an art broker?

Wahl: seven years ago, stopped selling artwork. Paints at events/charities. Disruptive business model: immediately reduced supplies and jacked up demand for his work.

Focus. Commit. Adapt. Adaptation: idea of unleashing, “unthinking” traditional ways of doing things.

Trust, not money,  is the most valuable currency. “Trust revolution.” Business is social, social environment leverages trust. As engage in social environments, imperative to listen and engage, because those conversations about your org, comp plans, rewards as employees, have far more influence than traditional marketing. Employees themselves become best source of marketing, amplifying message.

In increasingly competitive economy, need new, diff ideas to incentivize, motivate, engage employees. Slowing down, stepping back, looking for ways to go back again and build emotional connection.

Another painting: Statue of Liberty.

Wahl: Wasn’t an artist until after age 30. Told by 4th-grade teacher not a good artist. Didn’t color w/in lines, went too fast, didn’t pay attention. Over time, no-nonsense, no creativity, defined myself on grades and badges and promotions. Business went into a freefall and lost everything. Somehow allowed self-worth to be tied to net worth. As one evaporated, so did the other. Started painting again when psychologist friend said he had to disconnect.

Question: How are you going to reawaken imagination, enable and engage employees, to achieve disruptive strategy in mature market.

What’s the value of a creative idea? His book coming out in June. Loyal fanbase has preorded enough that he’s hit NYT best-seller list.

Painting: Upside-down Steve Jobs. Think like no one else has thought. That is the art of vision.

Overview:

Sales manager  logs in for first time, gets a guided tutorial.

Shown a to-do list, knows exactly what need to do and when.

Manager has visibility into each team member’s objectives.

• New team member, three objectives to get onboarded. Manager decides how they’re weighted.
• Create plan easily for additional employees.
• Communication between manager and employee. Have same view in system, work together, no surprises. Employees incented and paid on achievement.

In-depth breakout sessions later!

Xactly CompCloud 2013 – SAN FRANCISCO – May 15, 2013 – Variable compensation has long been a proven lever in sales organizations to align employee behavior with corporate objectives and inspire better performance. Leveraging its vast expertise and leadership in the incentive compensation market, Xactly is today bringing the motivational power of incentives to all employees, at any company, in any department, with Xactly Objectives.

Employees are a company’s most important asset and their goals are more often achieved when they are tied to specific incentives. With Xactly Objectives, companies now have an enterprise-strength cloud solution that lets managers’ link company goals to employee behavior, helping them further engage and motivate employees to perform to their full potential with targeted bonuses tied to short- and long-term corporate objectives.

“Pay-for-performance programs are a powerful driver of employee behavior, proven to increase employee performance by more than 22 percent¹,” said Christopher W. Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly Corporation. “Yet variable compensation for employees is often measured arbitrarily and rewarded subjectively, stifling employee motivation and performance potential, while opening up the company to the risk of misaligning payment with the actual performance delivered. Xactly Objectives builds on our years of sales compensation expertise to unlock the power of incentives for any employee, helping organizations better engage their workforce in achieving company goals and maximizing the ROI of their variable compensation programs.”

Augmenting a company’s existing employee performance management system, Xactly Objectives is the industry’s first Management by Objectives (MBO) solution built on a proven incentive compensation platform, allowing businesses to easily set measurable, aligned businesses objectives for each employee; provide employees with real-time visibility into their performance; calculate achievement of those metrics; and send the final numbers through to payment, all in one easy-to-use system.

Extending the Power of Pay-for-Performance Incentives Across Any Department

“The necessity to incent people for performance continues to be a place for dramatic impact and improvement for businesses, just as variable compensation has done for sales teams,” said Mark Smith, founder and CEO of Ventana Research. “To improve productivity and performance, organizations should engage with employees to determine where objectives are achievable and methods for where bonuses and rewards can be granted. With Xactly Objectives it is much simpler for organizations to manage this process and apply incentives effectively to increase any employee’s motivation to perform at the peak levels desired – which can have a significant impact on overall business results.”

Xactly Objectives enables companies to incent right across the employee value chain, including:

• For managers: Xactly Objectives allows managers to easily set and track employee’s performance objectives, weighting each one based on the importance to the company’s overall strategy. For example, a marketing employee’s bonus could be measured based on individual performance goals, such completing a set number of webinars and attending various industry events, as well as a team goal of raising the company’s net promoter score (NPS). Managers can view each employee’s attainment towards goals on a single, comprehensive dashboard, allowing them to easily pinpoint problem areas that may require additional coaching or mentoring, or where employees should receive accolades for reaching certain milestones. They can also easily work with employee’s mid-cycle, be it weekly, monthly or quarterly, to realign their objectives to reflect a change in corporate strategy or direction.
• For employees: Through intuitive, personalized dashboards, Xactly Objectives empowers employees to easily track their objectives and how they are mapping to goals in real-time. The dashboard is updated each time a metric is met or a key objective changes, so employees can be instantly recognized for their contributions, always know exactly where they stand according to  plan, and can visualize what they need to do to achieve their maximum financial reward.
• For executives: Not only do traditional spreadsheet-based incentive management practices stifle employee motivation and performance potential, but they open up the company to the risk of mistakes, payments that are misaligned with the actual performance delivered, and a lack of understanding of how compensation attainments will impact the bottom line until the cycle has ended. Xactly Objectives ensures that executives always have a clear view on how specific goals are driving business results and where compensation programs are tracking to plan.

Xactly Objectives will be available in summer 2013. For more information, please visit bit.ly/xactlyobjectives.

Additional Resources

• Xactly CompCloud 2013
• Xactly Objectives
• Join the conversation with Xactly on Twitter, Facebook and the Xactly Blog
• Tweet this: Xactly brings the motivational power of #comp to all employees w/Xactly Objectives. http://bit.ly/xactlyobjectives #CompCloud

1. Condly, et. al., “The Effects of Incentives on Workplace Performance: A Meta-analytic Review of Research Studies,” in Performance Improvement Quarterly (2003) Volume 16, Number 3

About Xactly Corporation

With Xactly, companies of all sizes and industries can unleash the motivational power of their incentive compensation programs to inspire better employee performance and business results. Xactly’s secure, cloud-based incentive compensation and performance management solutions enable emerging businesses to Fortune 500’s to easily design, manage and optimize incentive programs that save time, cut costs, reduce risk and align employee behaviors with corporate goals.

As evidence of Xactly’s continuous innovation and exceptional customer-centric culture, the Wall Street Journal twice named Xactly to its “Next Big Thing” list; Great Place to Work featured Xactly as one of the top 25 small workplaces in the nation in FORTUNE Magazine; and Salesforce.com customers voted Xactly the best sales compensation management solution in the Salesforce AppExchange Customer Choice Awards. To learn how you can incent right and achieve more with Xactly, visit http://www.xactlycorp.com or call 1-866-GO-XACTLY (469-2285).

# # #

© 2005-2013

Xactly Corporation. All rights reserved. Xactly, Xactly Incent, Xactly Express, Xactly Objectives and “Incent right” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xactly Corporation.

Joan Levy

Blanc & Otus Public Relations

Tel: 415-856-5110

Email: jlevy@blancandotus.com

Xactly Insights: We have hundreds of thousands of people being paid through our system, billions and billions of dollars (hi Carl Sagan), becomes an incredibly powerful data set. Terabytes and terabyes of data. For the first time, someplace you can go for insights based on empirical, real data., not just academic research or self-reported company surveys. With this big data, you can begin to understand, “What does best in class look like?” Identify your individual data, compare to benchmark data.

Kinds of data elements we’re pulling out, sharing these little tidbits: you’ve heard comp plans should have three elements that reps are measured on. Should it  really be three? Who says? Now we have data that confirms it. Three measure at most, two even better.  More than four and five measures,  performance really starts to drop. Now compa admins can go talk to CEO who’s paying on nine and say, “This isn’t a good idea, here’s the data.” Empowers you, the customer, to go to CEO and say “these ideas are dumb!”

We’ll have an Insights Assessments to show you where you stand.

Business impact with big data: increase margins, sales productivity, margins, save money.

New product: Objectives. Don’t need to be Incent customer. For subjective rewards outside of sales: incentives everyone in the company. (Press release coming today).

Cabrera:

• Gamification: starting in Express, will add the ability to give badges, non-monetary rewards.
• DocuSign: Really good stuff with DocuSign. STarting in Express, allowing for comp plan to be signed using DocuSign.
• Mobile: Now able to have incentive statements in mobile.
• Explorer: Ability to mine data within your own instance. In customer beta, GA later this year. Tasks that took many minutes earlier, now sub-seconds.
• Territory management: Partnership with ZS Associates.

What’s new: We hear from customers that you want:

• Gamification
• Reporting and analytics
• Insights and benchmarking
• Everything mobile

Core values: Customer focus, Accountability Respect, Excellence.

We have to sing for our dinner every year, you’re only going to renew if you’re happy with our service. Customer focus means two things to us: first , we listen . Many of the things in our products have compe about because you’ve seaid “we need this.”

Second, we believe that your job shouldn’t be thinking about comp, you have a job. So our job is to be thinking ahead of you so that when you come to us we can say we already thought about it and we’re doing it with these customers.

Excellence: The “E” is what keeps us honest, creating most innovative products. We keep getting better.

Operational blueprint: Get everyone in the company working toward the same goal, so came up with blueprint. Vision: to empower companies to incent right. What does that mean? Means we envision that every co. will be empowered to incent right. A few examples:

• Can’t do that with Excel. (We love Excel!) But it wasn’t designed to manage compensation.
• Need people to understand benefits of SaaS. Need real-time visibility.
• SOX compliance.
• Can you introduce SPIFs, contests, rewards?

Rep behavior: Some companies still just automating the way they’ve always paid. Now, think about dialing it in. Automating is  Stage I, but STage II is to start incenting right — using Xactly to drive rep behavior.

Customers paying out billions of dollars to hundreds of thousands of payees. That has some interesting byproducts — we’ll talk about them later.

Marketo, Robert Yalung

Transitioned from Express to Incent as company has grown. On roadshow now for IPO.

Founded 2007, tremendous growth, SaaS leader in marketing automation. Help co’s win more business.

Challenges: hiring more people every month. How do we transition. See the awe in their faces when they log into the system and see the status of their compensation.

Incentives for reps to sell more annual contracts1. Changed comp plan to do that. What better way to do that than by using Xactly.

Coupa, Xactly Express

Instead of  managing multiple comp plans in spreadsheets, moved to Express so would be freed up to be more strategic, optimize and maximize their incentives. Reps trust their plans and calculations.

Customer Lisa Bentley-Smith, Motorola

Focused on providing salespeople with analytics. Take data from Oracle ERP system, put into Xactly Incent so salespeople can see what they sold, when they sold it, when they’re going to get paid. From that, see where they need to focus.

CEO Chris Cabrera keynote:

Compensation space:

A year ago, basically three companies in space. One got gobbled up by huge company. Second one veered off and decided to go do a lot of things, de-focus on comp. From our perspective, very excited. Left Xactly as the only company on the planet exclusively focused on comp.

Every company uses variable comp for sales. Shift is happening: companies moving to pay-for-performance culture, not just in sales but in every department. 84% of companies are using variable comp outside of sales. Companies are realizing need to be more broad in the ways they use compensation. This becomes a competitive weapon.

Be

The world of SaaS:

The notion of SaaS has changed dramatically. At first, considered just a subscription model. Then: for small companies. Next stage: considered add-on to on-premise software. Today: all of these young kids who are starting companies, not one of them is considering starting an on-prem service.

Last couple of years: adoption by large enterprise companies. Notion that it’s for only small companies has been blown away. All of these great companies have embraced this: Adobe announcing everything in the future for them is SaaS. Also MSFT, Oracle, SAP.

For companies who were real pioneers, you should congratulate yourselves. This market is still just getting started. The world is changing and it will get there, but it’ll get there because of people like yourself.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – May 13, 2013 – For its industry leadership, game-changing vision and cutting-edge SaaS technology, AlwaysOn has recognized Xactly as one of the OnDemand Top 100 winners.

Xactly takes a transformative approach to helping organizations unleash the power of incentives to inspire performance and change the way they motivate and reward employees. The AlwaysOn editorial team and a panel of industry experts spanning the globe selected Xactly based on its innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. The OnDemand 100 winners were selected amongst hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders.

Xactly will be honored at AlwaysOn’s OnDemand event on May 20th, 2013, at Hewlett-Packard’s Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, Calif. Xactly president and CEO, Christopher Cabrera, will be speaking at the exclusive two-day event, where attendees will experience a high-level debate and discourse on top trends and opportunities in the SaaS, cloud, on-demand, and mobile enterprise sectors.

During an interactive panel, Cabrera will examine how forward-thinking companies leverage advancements in cloud, SaaS, online analytics and CRM to better understand their customers, extend their reach, increase sales and raise profitability. Furthermore, he will share tips on maximizing ROI and sales with by aligning strategic incentives with company objectives.

“This year’s OnDemand 100 winners represent the companies that are not only providing the space to develop daring, indispensable applications for a growing and increasingly mobile universe, they’re making sure that everyone has their information, data, media and apps whenever and wherever they happen to be,” says Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn.  “The innovations these companies are developing go beyond consumer, beyond business enterprise—it’s the future, in the palm of your hand, on your desktop, in your car.  The on-demand paradigm is computing, and the Global Silicon Valley has never been more ready to take on its challenge.”

Who: Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly Corporation

What: “Staying Ahead of the Sales Innovation Curve” Session at AlwaysOn’s OnDemand event

When: Tuesday, May 21st -1:00 p.m. PT – 1:40 p.m. PT

Where: Hewlett-Packard’s Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Additional Resources

• Xactly Corporation
• Follow Xactly on Twitter, Facebook and the Xactly Blog

• Tweet this: .@XactlyCorp named @AlwaysOn OnDemand 100 winner – hear @Incentivizer discuss sales innovation at  upcoming event!

About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn is the leading business media brand connecting and informing the entrepreneurial community in the Global Silicon Valley. Founded by Red Herring founding editor, Tony Perkins in 2003, AlwaysOn’s mission is to continue to lead the industry by empowering its readers, event participants, sponsors, bloggers, and advertisers like no other media brand. A full list of all the OnDemand 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at: http://aonetwork.com/announcing-the-2013-ondemand-100-top-private-companies/

About Xactly Corporation

Xactly Corporation is the market leader in on-demand sales compensation and sales performance management. The company’s SPM Suite of products enables sales and finance executives to design, implement, manage, audit and optimize sales compensation management programs easily and affordably. Xactly’s solutions automate the process of aggregating data from disparate systems into a secure, hosted repository and enable companies to leverage this business data, the lifeblood of sales performance management. Xactly helps companies improve operational performance, optimize sales effectiveness, proactively manage risk and compliance and maximize profits. The Xactly family of products is used by sales and finance executives, compensation analysts, sales operations and sales professionals across a variety of industries, ranging from SMBs to large enterprises. For more information, visit www.xactlycorp.com or call 1-866-GO-XACTLY (469-2285).

# # #

© 2005-2013

Xactly Corporation. All rights reserved. Xactly, Xactly Incent, Xactly Express and “Incent right.” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xactly Corporation.

Neil Torres

Blanc & Otus Public Relations

Tel: 415-856-5140

Email: ntorres@blancandotus.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. (PRWEB) May 07, 2013

Incentive compensation is a powerful lever for businesses, enabling organizations to strategically motivate their employees to inspire performance.Xactly Corporation’s third annual user conference, CompCloud 2013, will bring together an impressive roster of executives and thought leaders to collaborate on ways to help businesses incent and motivate their employees to optimize their performance and achieve results in line with company goals. Leveraging Xactly’s deep heritage in sales performance and expertise in the “science of motivation,” CompCloud will also focus on how businesses can take proven strategies from the sales department to better incentivize employees across all departments.

CompCloud 2013, taking place May 15-17, 2013 at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, will feature a stellar lineup of keynote speakers, with Erik Wahl, an internationally recognized author and entrepreneur who encourages organizations to become profitable through innovations and a superior level of performance; Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly; and Desta Buchowski, VP of product management and education, Xactly. Additionally, Xactly will host a panel of compensation experts, including The Sales Management Association’s Bob Kelly, ZS Associates’ Chad Albrecht, Sibson Consulting’s Joseph DiMisa, Mercer’s Shawn Rossi and Aon Hewitt’s Steve Grossman.

“Aligning incentives and organizational goals enables businesses to improve bottom-line results and gain a competitive advantage,” said Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO, Xactly Corporation. “In its third year, CompCloud is a must-attend event for any company. By bringing together industry experts and sharing best practices in strategic compensation, CompCloud will provide insights into how companies can present the right incentives to inspire and motivate their employees to work harder, smarter and perform better.”

Conference participants will also be able to network with leading Xactly partners, including platinum sponsors ZS Associates, salesforce.com and FPX; gold sponsors, OpenSymmetry, SteelBrick, BigMachines and The Sales Management Association; silver sponsors, Optimum, FinancialForce.com and Oracle; and bronze sponsors, InsideView, Hoopla, Gainsight, Solution Partners, Inc. and Canidium. Leading HR organization WorldatWork is also joining CompCloud as an educational partner.

Attendees and those unable to participate can join the conversation with Xactly on Twitter using the hashtag #CompCloud. For more information and registration details, visit: http://www.xactlycorp.com/compcloud.

In 2010, two economists published a paper that drew links between high levels of national debt and low or negative economic growth. That research, titled Growth in a Time of Debt, has since been widely cited by politicians and pundits, who jumped on it as proof of the need for austerity budgets, slashed expenditures, and reduced budget deficits.

Everything hinged on figures plugged into a spreadsheet, which the paper’s authors thought to be irrefutable data. The problem? Some rows of data were missed in the final calculation.

The problem with this paper is that it seems to have been based on faulty spreadsheet formulas. Not all of the data “facts” made it into the spreadsheet, which resulted in totals that  just did not add up. But by the time the flawed formulas were discovered, their flawed conclusions had already been popularized. (You can read about some of the spreadsheet errors in Ars Technica’s recent article, “Microsoft Excel: The ruiner of global economies?” or a full response to the report on the Next New Deal.)

So What?

So what’s so surprising here? In a way, nothing. After all, the results of any spreadsheet depend on the data that its creators plug in. The surprise, then, is that we’ve been reminded of what we already know.

Now consider this: If a faulty spreadsheet has the potential to shape the beliefs of our country’s economists and politicians about a topic as important as our national budget, just imagine what it could do to the shape of your company’s budget.

Spreadsheet errors can carry far-reaching consequences when it comes to your organization’s bottom line. For example, relying on spreadsheets to pay out sales commissions and bonuses is a dangerous game for several reasons:

1. Formulas are fragile. One incorrect keystroke can destroy the integrity of a document, without providing any clue that something has gone awry.

2. Humans make mistakes. When busy sales reps and team leaders plug information into spreadsheets in a hurry, the chance of human error increases. Let’s face it, spreadsheets are dizzying to read. Unlike CRM-based sales performance management software that features an eye-friendly dashboard, spreadsheets lack visual cues that train eyes on the important information.

3. Spreadsheets aren’t critical thinkers. Even when numbers and  formulas are plugged in and applied correctly, someone still needs to interpret the results. Because spreadsheets can be hard to read, it’s easy for managers to misinterpret critical data.

4. Sharing spreadsheets is a losing game. When your sales department’s protocol is to pass spreadsheets around between reps and managers, there’s always a risk that individuals will write over essential information. Like playing Telephone, your original spreadsheet slowly morphs as it makes the rounds, and the final recipient is unaware of the difference.

Relying on spreadsheets to track vital financial information within your company might be costing you more than you think, and not just because you are at risk of paying out higher incentives than planned. Spreadsheet errors also can affect morale — the very core of your sales team — if they result in lower incentives than reps deserve, and they can even put you at risk of breaking Labor Standards Act compliance laws. Sales performance management relies on accurate incentive compensation tracking, so using the right tools is crucial.

To learn more about goof-proofing your numbers, read “Finance Leaders: Learn More From Your First Quarter.”

You can also continue to follow the story in this Huffington Post piece: “Reinhart, Rogoff Backing Furiously Away From the Austerity Movement.”

—Scott Broomfield is a Senior Vice President at Xactly.

Image by Peter Sobolev / Shutterstock.com

]]> http://www.xactlycorp.com/media/2013/05/does-your-company-have-false-faith-in-numbers/feed/ 0 http://www.xactlycorp.com/media/2013/04/customer-magazine-names-2013-crm-excellence-award-winners/ http://www.xactlycorp.com/media/2013/04/customer-magazine-names-2013-crm-excellence-award-winners/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:09:31 +0000 Jon Ann Lindsey http://www.xactlycorp.com/media/?p=6901 Norwalk, CT (April 18, 2013) – TMC, a global, integrated media company helping clients build communities in print, in person and online, today announced the winners of its 14th Annual CRM Excellence Awards, presented by its premier publication, CUSTOMER magazine.