LeapComp - Sales Performance Management Blog

Calculators
Calculators seem to be the feature where Merced Incentive Management is the most different compared to other solutions.  Instead of using “rules” like in Callidus TrueComp and Varicent SPM, or using “components” like ZS Associates Javelin, Merced uses calculators which consist of a multi-dimensional table, very similar to an Excel spreadsheet.  Each cell can contain any type of information including formulas referencing other cells.  Let’s look at some calculators.

Transaction Calculator
This calculator runs for every transaction that has been identified by the plan. All the transaction fields are available as inputs, and outputs are written back to the transaction itself allowing for per transaction commission and bonus to be generated.  An example of this would be an individual sale that is given a percentage commission based on the product sold.

Summary Calculator
This calculator runs once per period per payee and uses aggregated data as inputs such as Total Net Sales, Total Revenue, Total YTD Margin etc. The business rule is calculated after any transaction calculators have run and allows complete control over outputs including overwriting performance and measurement data. An example of this calculator would be a plan that measured the past 6 months average performance and paid based on that average with a cap on the maximum commission that could be earned in a year.

Table Calculator
This calculator is used to store tabular data and information.  Table calculators are reference by any of the other calculator types by their reference name.  For example the function =PRATES(C1,C2) might pass in a product name and a date to a product table and return a commission rate.

Function Calculator
This calculator is used to encapsulate complex business rules and allows administrators and users to break down large calculations into a series of functions that can be reused.

This should provide a good idea of how Merced Incentive Management handles calculations.  Here is a final example of a calculator where some logic is defined:

The next and final post will describe some of the additional features from Merced Incentive Management, including reporting, processing, the payee’s interface and ETL.