Xactly Forecasting has paid for itself in the benefits we are deriving and we can go on to bigger and better things.
Upfront
Xactly sat down with Grant Blenkinsopp, Director of Business Operations, and Sal Laher, Chief Digital and Information Officer and EVP at IFS, to discuss their first year and beyond with Xactly Forecasting.
IFS Before Xactly Forecasting
IFS was in the midst of a three-year digital transformation journey to consolidate its many siloed regional ERP solutions and relocate them to a single global platform in the cloud utilizing IFS’s own software. Part of this consolidation effort included replacing its legacy forecasting solution to better scale alongside IFS’s unbelievably fast growth. The former forecasting system would regularly fail during weekly forecasting calls with the CRO and other key Execs. Blenkinsopp added, “With Xactly Forecasting, I can attend a call without having my heart in my throat. I know the sales forecasting data will be available and accurate at critical moments.”
There is no paper floating around anymore. Everything is online, dynamic, and in real-time. This has been our strategy, and Xactly's products complement this strategy with their availability in the cloud.
Creating Collaborative Partnerships
IFS needed a reliable, flexible and niche forecasting solution from a dependable partner that could keep up as IFS scaled. Already using Xactly’s Incent solution, leaders at IFS decided to implement Xactly Forecasting, as they appreciated Xactly’s product development, professionalism, and collaboration.
Xactly aligned with IFS’s “customer is at the heart of everything we do” philosophy to ensure that Xactly Forecasting provided substantial value over their bespoke legacy solution. IFS saw Xactly’s willingness to collaborate on product development to fit the needs of its sales base, and the two organizations collaborated to create new product features that were a necessity for IFS.
How has Xactly helped?
- Stability - There is more trust between the sales department and the C-Suite at IFS around forecasting because of Xactly Forecasting, as the platform never fails during important calls. The data is correct, dynamic, reduces the number of actions needed, and fostered favorable behaviour in relation to data accuracy in the business.
- Performance - Integration between the CRM system and the dashboard has improved greatly and occurs within two hours, giving leaders at IFS certainty in the data.
- Scalability - As IFS scales, it has the ability to build additional dashboard dimensions to enhance and support its growing global reporting requirements.
- Accuracy - CRM opportunities are up-to-date because of the transparency achieved by using Xactly Forecasting and Xactly Forecasting has helped to drive better sales activity change in the organization.
- Dependability - IFS can trust that the data from Xactly Forecasting will be available when needed.
Measuring Success
IFS’s implementation of Xactly Forecasting has not only been a major success for IFS but is an example of what strong corporate collaboration can look like. The partnership has allowed IFS and Xactly to work together and create features that have been integral to IFS’s recent success. By working closely together, the team improved Xactly Forecasting’s features, making it better for all of Xactly’s customers. With Xactly, IFS has:
- Increased sales productivity by 10-15%
- Improved accuracy of CRM data by 20-30%
- Restored trust between IFS’s sales leaders and the C-Suite
