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ZS Associates’ Javelin Incentive Manager - Part 2

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Javelin Incentive Manager has a built-in an ETL tool (Extract Transform Load).  This tool is used to load the data in the Javelin application in the required format.  In addition, validation rules can be configured to report an error or a warning if certain conditions are not met.


Reporting
Many reports are available, but they are all Microsoft Excel reports.  I asked why a more “robust” solution was not used or why the reports were not integrated with the application or in a typical pdf format.  The argument is that by having Excel reports, the payees can “play” with the data and perform some modeling by themselves.  Clients with heavy-duty reporting and analytics needs will be pleased to find out that Javelin Incentive Manager can also easily integrate with the leading Business Intelligence application Business Objects.


On-Demand versus On-Premise
This is a big dilemma for many companies: less up-front cost, no technology worries and quicker implementation with an on-demand solution, versus more control with an on-premise solution.  Javelin Incentive Manager might be a good solution for those who can’t make up their mind.  I haven’t actually seen this, but apparently it is very quick and easy to move from an on-demand to an on-premise model, and vice versa.  A company could choose the on-demand offering as a proof of concept or until it makes sense to invest in the on-premise application…  or they could move to the on-demand offering if they realize they do not need to host the application themselves.

Operational Model
ZS offers some flexibility most other vendors do not – they offer the ability to outsource all the ongoing processing services and operations (outsourcing), or a part of those operations (co-sourcing).

Speed
Of course, security, reliability and all those other things can be taken for granted from a leading SPM application.  However, what is often a challenge with applications catering to large client is the speed at which it can process the transactions.  This can usually be particularly challenging for on-demand clients with a large number of payees and transactions.  Apparently, this is not a concern for Javelin.  Pipelines do not need to be scheduled ahead of time – the server load balancing ensures a consistent performance for everyone.  A good optimization of the “engine” also allows it to process data quickly (for example, data for 8000 payees with a large transaction volume and complex rules can be processed under 15 minutes).

This was a quick overview of Javelin Incentive Manager, which is the core application within the Javelin Software Suite.  My next post will focus on all the other modules including territory designer, quota designer, quota refiner, MBO manager, and communication manager.

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ZS Associates’ Javelin Incentive Manager - Part 1

ZS Associates’ Javelin Incentive Manager - Part 1

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In this post I will describe what I have seen and my impressions of the Javelin Incentive Manager. When logging in, as could be expected, the user is greeted by some message. From there, the user is able to access the Incentive Manager or many of the other modules I will cover in a separate post.

When selecting “Incentive Manager”, the administrator can see or create a new scenario. The demo was for the on-demand version of the application, so each environment (modeling, development, production, etc) where all located on the same server. These environments are only distinguished by a “scenario”. Xactly also uses this concept of scenario, but it is limited to their modeling environment.


When selecting an existing scenario, the different plans and components are displayed.


All of the plan logic is component-based instead of being rule-based. It seems like most solutions I have seen (except Centive and Merced Systems) follow a rule-based approach: credit rules generate credits, some measurement rules aggregate and transform the credits, and finally the commission rules transforms the credits into a commission amount. Javelin Incentive Manager uses a completely different approach which is based on components and workflows. The plans are built by assembling those components. This component approach appears to be very similar to the Informatica ETL interface.

Each component is reusable from workflow to workflow, and can easily be added and named appropriately.

Selecting a component will show its details, which can be edited on the same screen:

Another feature I liked from Javelin Incentive Manager is the ability to look directly at the output of any component once the results are processed. I’m sure this makes troubleshooting and debugging much easier! The component also shows in a different color of a modification caused the results to be out-of-date – this means it’s time to re-process the batch to get updated results if required.

Quick-Start

Future versions of Javelin Incentive Manager will have a “wizard” called Quick Start to create common workflow structures without even having to add components individually. This feature is already in beta testing. I haven’t actually seen it in action, but it looks good.

More about ZS Javelin Incentive Manager coming in my next post…

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ZS Associates’ Javelin Suite Additional Modules

ZS Associates… Who are those strangers?

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As I noted in a previous post, a “new” SPM company made the latest Gartner’s Market Scope 2008 list; ZS Associates. I heard about ZS before when I read a great incentive compensation book called “How to Design and Implement Plans That Work – The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation” written by ZS’ co-founders and a consultant. Maybe I’m guilty of reading the book too quickly, but what I had not realized is that ZS Associates actually created their own sales performance management application, which they call the Javelin Software Suite.

After digging a bit deeper, I learned that ZS Associates is a consulting company based in Illinois, with a strong focus on the pharmaceutical industry. The Javelin suite is offered both on-premise and on-demand. Javelin Incentive Manager is built to handle complex plans requiring a lot of flexibility, and is attractive to organizations with a sales force of 5oo to 10,000 individuals. Many additional modules are available including a territory designer, a quota designer, and an MBO manager (Management by Objectives).

I scheduled a call with several ZS Associates employees to get a demo of their applications. I will dedicate a post to describe the Javelin Incentive Manager, and another one to discuss some of the other modules I have seen.

Back to business… I asked this group why I hadn’t heard about Javelin before – I haven’t exactly been hiding under a rock… However I have never been involved on a life sciences project yet and this may be why I hadn’t heard about their solution. The historical focus for the Javelin application has been on life sciences, and its flexibility has made it a good fit for complex requirements of that vertical. However, the application is not life sciences specific by any mean, and it’s really a change in strategy that pushed ZS to be more proactive at marketing the Javelin Incentive solution to the high tech, insurance / financial services, and manufacturing industries.

Unlike other software vendors, ZS is a consulting firm with a product, more than a vendor with some consultants. Incentive compensation is their largest practice area and they have about 200 consultants dedicated to compensation related projects. Because the company is much larger than a typical vendor, and since they focus a lot on consulting, their workforce is spread across 17 offices in 10 countries. As could be expected, and as they confirmed, having offices close to their customers makes a big difference. ZS also has an office in India with more than 100 consultants, which it plans to expand to over 250 consultants in the next 3 years.

In my next post I will review the Javelin Suite, based on the extensive demonstration I received last week.

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MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software 2008