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I knew about this since a few months, but I was impatiently waiting for the official news to come out before announcing it. For those of you thinking “wait a minute, you reviewed Makana Motivator already on your blog”, well this is not the same beast. Makana Motivator was only for plan planning, but Makana Motivator PRO is a self-service solution to not only plan, but also calculate commissions and bonuses.
So with the market starting to feel saturated with SPM solutions, is there place for another one? I think that there is a place for this one at least… why? Because rather than trying to do the same thing as the other SaaS/on-demand solutions, Makana Motivator Pro is for smaller companies.
At $29 per month, and with no implementation fee (it’s supposed to be easy enough to be implemented by anyone), maybe this is the kind of application which is required to convince smaller companies to replace their spreadsheet.
Review coming soon… I think…
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Two press releases caught my attention this week.
So Callidus loses a VP to Varicent, but takes one from Xactly.
This tells me that either there is MORE collaboration between SPM companies than I believed, or (probably more likely) that there is fierce competition between SPM companies trying to steal each other’s top-guns.
So who needs a VP?
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When Iconixx contacted me to discuss working with them, I was very excited because they focused only on my key area of expertise; sales performance compensation. I was involved with incentive compensation management, in previous jobs and projects, but there was never a guarantee that my exposure to sales comp would last forever.
About 8 months after I joined Iconixx, they were acquired by BSG Alliance, an on-demand, subscription-based platform company for next generation enterprises. BSG was on a shopping spree, spending VC money to acquire several companies. It didn’t take very long for them to get a new catchy name; nGenera.
nGenera really demonstrated their seriousness to penetrate the sales compensation market when they also acquired the on-demand compensation management software company called nCent. However, this meant the slow death of their focus on 3rd party packaged solution integration, to focus instead on their on-demand product development efforts.
It has been about 3 weeks since I left nGenera to accept another interesting offer. 2 days ago I found out that nGnera decided to accelerate the phasing out of their systems integration business, which meant letting go most of the remaining consultants who came with the Iconixx acquisition. This was good timing (for me)!
So why do I say nGenError? Given the background and experience of the people on the nGenera management team, maybe it’s a move that makes sense. But unfortunately it’s a move that leaves a lot of my friends un-employed.
If you are looking for strong SPM consultants with Callidus or Varicent experience, please contact me.
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I mentioned Santorini Consulting a few times in previous posts and they just told me they had started their own blog called “Compensation Architect – Your guide to designing, implementing and managing effective compensation solutions“.
So far, David Kelly, a fellow compensation management expert, is the main contributor. Sheryl Friesz, Founder and VP of Partnerships, and Brian Silverman, President and CEO of Santorini Consulting, are also planning to contribute their perspective on related topics. Each have acquired years of experience working at Callidus Software before joining Santorini.
Their 3 first posts which have been published at a frequency I hope they will be able to maintain, provide insightful information about sales compensation, policies versus procedures and the difference between reports, queries, feeds and analytics.
Hopefully, over the next few weeks we’ll see some synergy between our blogs, and rather than creating redundant entries, we will each be able to provide fresh perspectives and information to our readers. Even in a field as specialized as incentive compensation, there should always be a place for blogs from product vendors, consulting companies and especially from independent guys.
Go on, take a few minutes for a visit.
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Callidus Software Reports Preliminary Financial Results for the Second Quarter 2008
- Subscription and support revenues for the second quarter are expected to be approximately $10.0 million, an increase of 68% over the second quarter of 2007.
- Callidus On-Demand (subscription) gross margins for the second quarter are expected to be within the range of 45 to 50%, up from 22% in Q1 2008.
WageWorks Selects Centive Compel(R) to Automate Sales Compensation Management
Centive, the leader in on-demandsolutions for sales compensation and sales performance management, todayannounced that WageWorks, the leading provider of tax-advantaged benefitsprograms, has selected Centive Compel to automate sales compensation and drivesales performance. Here is another related article.
Xactly Named World’s Best New Company by 2008 International Business Awards(SM)
Xactly Corporation took home theprestigious International Stevie(R) Award in The 2008 International BusinessAwards.
Sales Resource Group’s PlanIt solution earns finalist award at 2008 International Business Awards and for for Microsoft Bluesky Finalist.
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There is a very promising webinar coming up, hosted by OpenSymmetry and presented by Greg Livengood.
I particularly wanted to promote this event because I worked with Greg for several months on an Accenture project, and I know that when it comes to Sales Performance Analytics, he REALLY knows what he is talking about. Expect a very insightful presentation by a friendly, dynamic and easy-going individual who built a world-class reputation as a sales performance analytics leader and pioneer.
Event Description:
With the economy in a downward slope, sales leaders more than ever need ‘Sales Performance Analytics’ and efficient ways to proactively identify potential problems and opportunities.
Most companies have the information they need to improve sales performance, however, many sales managers are challenged with accessing and correctly interpreting the data.
Greg Livengood, Senior Business Analyst with Livengood Consulting Group, will discuss how to leverage the 5 best practices in sales performance analytics that can boost your sales force performance.
• Visualize Sales Performance
• Develop Corporate Alignment
• Simplicity
• Build a Self-Sufficient Solution
• Engagement at the Executive Level
Click here to register.
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