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Tag Archive for '2008'

How Healthy is the Incentive Compensation Industry?

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We have looked at many survey results, but there is another indicator which I have not talked about for some time. The financial results and the number of deals signed by the various SPM vendors can give us a picture on how well the ICM industry is doing… And it’s that time of the year when vendors are starting to report their 2008 performance.

Merced Systems:
Merced Systems, the leading provider of Sales and Service Performance Management software and solutions, announced today that the company grew rapidly in 2008, posting record sales amidst the global economic slowdown. Highlights include the signing of multiple North American Incentive Compensation Management customers and over 100% growth in Software as a Service (SaaS) revenue. Merced Systems reached $40MM in annual sales for the first time in company history.

Varicent:
The full 2008 results are not available yet, but this press release shows Varicent’s performance up to and including Q3.

Revenue results were strong for both quarters driven by a number of new customer acquisitions and significantly larger orders for Varicent SPM. Q2 revenue was up 40% over Q1 2008 and in Q3, Varicent generated record revenues and a 35% revenue increase over Q2 2008 showing evidence of a growing market demand for Varicent solutions.

Xactly Corporation:
In the 12 months ending December 31, 2008, Xactly achieved more than 140 percent increase in recurring revenue and an 87 percent year-over-year increase in total revenue. The company also added to its customer base, with a third of existing customers adding new modules or subscribers, and increased its total number of subscribers by 84 percent.

Callidus Software:
Callidus’ Q4 earnings conference call is only scheduled for next Tuesday, Jan 27 at 4:30pm Eastern. I’ll add to this story when we get the details, but I think we will see some growth from them as well.

Other Vendors
And there are all the other vendors. All of these companies (with the exception of Callidus) are private, so there is no requirement to report on their performance. Some of them will probably release some news in the next few weeks, but I just wanted to reassure that if they are not listed here at the moment, it does not mean that they are not doing well.

To answer my question…
So, how healthy is the incentive compensation industry? 2008 was a good year; even Q4 was good despite the economy. Maybe the recession will catch up with some of the vendors eventually, but so far it looks like most vendors are doing well and have many good deals in the pipeline (no pun intended Callidus). And this confirms that there is still a strong demand for sales performance management solutions, at least up to now.

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Insurance Incentive Compensation Management Applications

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Insurance companies are often a world apart in incentive compensation. People are often being compensated differently than in other industries, hierarchies and contract structures are usually more complex, compliance requirements are often “crazy” and even the terminology is pretty different. Specific insurance-industry requirements have led many solutions to focus only on that vertical, and many other more generic solutions are adding insurance functionality and gaining more knowledge of that industry.

Earlier in December, Gartner released a MarketScope paper about Insurance ICM applications, profiling the 7 leading vendors in that industry.

Some interesting points mentioned in the paper:

  • 16 new ICM deals signed with life insurers globally, and 8 deals for property and casualty (P&C) insurers in 2008
  • Overall adoption of ICM solutions for insurance will remain steady through 2010, with 18 to 22 new deployments projected during the next 12 months for life insurers and P&C insurers globally
  • North America will continue to be the strongest geographic segment
  • When evaluating solutions, insurers should not discount the importance of the upgrade process.
  • Our rating for ICM applications for insurers remains Promising for another year

What’s interesting from this paper is that many of the solutions are so industry specific that I haven’t really talked about them on LeapComp. I talked a bit about some of them in the OpenSymmetry SPM Guide and I have an online demo recording for two of them, but I will probably try to review the missing solutions within the next few months.

So this year, 3 vendors got a positive rating: Callidus Software, SunGard, and Versata. The other companies profiled were CSC (Exceed), CSC (PerformancePlus), MajescoMastek, McCamish Systems, and SAP.

Another note in the report mentions “Varicent Software is the next likely entrant into the insurance vertical market, provided it has a successful 2Q09 implementation for a recently acquired Tier 1 insurer. Although Varicent did not meet the inclusion criteria for this year’s MarketScope, insurers should expect Varicent to build on its success and gain insurance market share.”  That’s another company which I have been talking quite a bit so far.

Just like with the “regular” incentive comp industry, with all the consolidation happening in the insurance industry in 08/09, with the increased level of interest in ICM solutions, the number of good options available and the forecasted upcoming major insurance ICM projects, it will be interesting to see how the vendors stack up next year.

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