LeapComp - Sales Performance Management Blog

Christopher Cabrera, Founder, President and CEO of Xactly

Xactly Corporation completed the acquisition of Centive barely a week ago. Christopher Cabrera, Founder, President and CEO of Xactly, tells us what this acquisition bodes for Xactly and the SPM SaaS market.

LeapComp: Hi Chris – congratulations on the news!
CC: Thanks, Julien. It’s an exciting time for Xactly and the on-demand sales performance management market.

LeapComp: How long have you been planning to acquire another company? Was the state of the economy a catalyst for the acquisition?
CC: As a fast-growing company, we are always looking for ways to accelerate market share and customer value. And when the opportunity arose with Centive, we saw that the synergies of combining our two businesses would offer significant value to customers, partners and prospects.

As for the state of the economy, SaaS in general is experiencing a surge in adoption rates because the model makes good economic sense, while sales performance management applications in particular make good strategic sense. The combination of Xactly and Centive will result in even stronger on-demand SPM solutions that will provide value – in both good and challenging economic times – to companies of all sizes, across virtually every industry.

LeapComp: Why did you choose to acquire Centive in particular? Were other companies also considered?
CC: Like Xactly, Centive is a 100% on-demand company focused on SPM, and a strong player in the market. We speak the same language, share similar cultures and we frequently approached the same prospects. In acquiring Centive, we can very quickly increase the scale and functionality of an already broad on-demand SPM product portfolio.

LeapComp: How does Xactly’s acquisition of Centive impact the SPM market? How will Centive fit into Xactly’s strategy?
CC: The acquisition significantly strengthens the on-demand sector of the SPM industry – which is the fastest-growing area. Customers looking for a pure SaaS solution can have confidence in the viability of a well-capitalized company committed to delivering the broadest and richest suite of SPM functionality.

At the same time, the acquisition meets Xactly’s own strategic needs as we offer a unified SPM product platform that will address important product opportunities and enable us to focus even more strongly on innovation and growth strategies. The acquisition also provides us with enhanced distribution through a broader partner ecosystem, and strengthens our go-to-market resources through broader sales and services coverage.

LeapComp: What do you believe will be your greatest post-acquisition integration challenge?
CC: Customer satisfaction will be our top priority. Xactly has traditionally had very high customer-satisfaction and renewal rates. We’re reaching out now to every Centive customer and partner to communicate our commitment and our plans to make this a smooth transition with minimal disruption. We have communicated that we intend to support both product platforms for a minimum of 18 months while we work towards a unified product roadmap.

LeapComp: With this acquisition, who do you see as your biggest competitor?
CC: Our greatest competitor is, and always has been, organizations’ use of spreadsheets and other manual methods to manage incentive sales compensation and sales performance. The vast majority of companies are still stuck in this paradigm, much to their disadvantage. Economical SaaS solutions like Xactly’s make it a lot easier and more cost effective to automate these processes, become more strategic in managing incentive compensation, and ultimately boost sales performance compared to far more costly, legacy, on-premise software solutions.

LeapComp: What is the combined Xactly and Centive product roadmap? What are the future plans of Xactly?
CC: Xactly will spend the next several weeks carefully evaluating the technologies before determining a unified product roadmap. During this time, Xactly will support both product platforms – Xactly Incent with add-on modules and Centive Compel – for a minimum of 18 months to ensure ongoing customer success and a seamless transition to new features/functionality and products. The ultimate goal is to provide the best of both products within a single interface for customers.

LeapComp: How is the transaction between Xactly and Centive expected to benefit current customers of both companies?
CC: Customers will have a larger, stronger company to partner with, possessing more resources to meet customer needs and ensure their success. The combined companies will drive market leadership by offering the most robust SPM platform on the market, and by accelerating innovation across the SPM spectrum – all to the good of customers.

LeapComp: Until both solutions and client base are “merged”, will new customers still have the option to choose one of the solution, or is Xactly Incent now the only option?
CC: As we move to a unified product roadmap, we are encouraging prospects to select the platform that best meets their requirements and will help them determine which solution is the best fit for them. We will ensure that investments made by new prospects will be preserved, and will deliver feature enhancements for Centive Compel customers as they have been committed to customers.

LeapComp: In 18 months, when the solutions as we know them today are no longer supported, is there a risk that any re-implementation will be required for either or both of Centive or Xactly’s customers?
CC: Details on a migration program, should it be required, will be communicated once a unified product roadmap is determined. It’s our intent to minimize disruption. Ultimately, the customer will come out ahead as we intend to provide the strongest possible solution on the market.

LeapComp: Chris, thanks for your time and good luck with the challenges ahead!
CC: Thank you. We’re looking forward to a great year.