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Merced ICM… Two Years Later

Published
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Julien Dionne
on November 8, 2010
in Uncategorized and Vendor / SPM Solution Review and Info
. 1 Comment
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (8 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
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I’m back from my blogging “vacation” and I apologize to all my readers for this long delay. I’ve been extremely busy juggling projects and I started an MBA a few months ago which has been using most of my free time. I will do my best to do a better job at fitting blogging in my schedule.

For this first new post, I’d like to talk about Merced Systems. I covered Merced’s incentive solution (then called Merced Incentive Management or MIM) about two years ago, soon after it acquired Practique Associates. At that time, the big question was, is Merced going to be successful at integrating the incentive compensation tool to the rest of its products, and will it be able to compete against well established vendors such as Callidus and Varicent in the competitive US market.  Gaining credibility from clients, selling enterprise solutions and going live with them is a long cycle, and finally, after two years, some conclusion can be drawn.

The Company…
First, I’d like to talk about the company itself. Even with the recession, Merced Systems has managed to grow and post profits for 7 consecutive years. I’m pointing this out because in a world where most other SPM companies are relying on investments to develop solutions and gain market share, Merced has actually been making money – and reinvesting it into R&D to improve their product.  It now counts over 225 employees concentrated in its Silicon Valley and London offices, responsible for more than 125 customers deployed in over 20 countries. Merced’s big challenge at the moment is to hire enough smart people to sustain its rapid growth.

The Challenges…
One of the first challenges Merced needed to overcome to be successful in the US market was to develop the ability to implement and support its ICM solution in the United States as well. Now with over two years of ICM experience under its belt, this is no longer a concern.

The other hurdle that Merced needed to overcome was to attract large clients in the United States to show that it could be successful here as well. One of its first projects in the US was Nationwide. The goal was to help agents gain more visibility into their performance, to increase payment accuracy and to reduce calculation time. Merced ICM successfully managed to accomplish these goals, and the phase one of the project was completed in early 2010. Many customers in the United States are finally live or are currently being implemented; these customers include Bank of America, Otsuka and Dell. When I spoke with Mark Selcow, Merced System’s president, he pointed out that not only was Merced successful at gaining traction in the US market, but that it was also keeping its momentum in the European market. Merced recently announced the successful deployment of the ICM Suite at Kia Motors.

The Solution…
Now about the solution itself; as a reminder, in a nutshell, Merced ICM calculates compensation and incentives, and provides meaningful reports and dashboards. Since Merced acquired Practique, Selcow noted that Merced System’s engineers have been working very hard at integrating the incentive solution to the other tools of the Merced Suite comprising Merced Planning (for territory planning, quota planning and goal setting), Merced Intelligence (for sales and compensation analytics) and to the Merced Performance Suite (used for performance scorecards, ranking, and coaching). Selcow believes that scorecarding for seller self-correction and coaching to drive best sales behaviors are emerging trends in Sales Performance Management, and will become an important part of ICM/SPM solutions.

In my opinion, one of the biggest improvements recently brought to the incentive compensation suite is the Workflow Manager module. Workflow Manager allows users to setup various workflow that can range from dispute resolution and payment approval, to requiring approval to submit a manual adjustment, MBOs, or to make any changes to a plan component.

Two years ago I also showed screenshots of some standard reports and dashboards available with this solution. I had a hard time choosing a good adjective to describe them, but the first word that came to mind was “outdated”. Again, thanks to Merced’s competent engineering team, Merced ICM received a face lift with the Merced Analytics suite. Leveraging MicroStrategy Business Intelligence, Merced ICM delivers stunning reports and dashboards.

Significant improvements were also brought to the functionality and features of the application. Some of Merced’s innovations are based on their aggressive roadmap to become the number one sales solution provider (with Merced ICM being a significant part of that objective). However, Selcow also noted that Merced is a very agile company and that many innovations are a result of customer requests.

In Conclusion…
Another aspect that makes Merced different from its competitors is the ability for a client to choose to deploy it on-premise or on-demand and to have the ability to easily switch from one to the other if needs evolve.  With Callidus trying to be a completely recurring revenue business, or Varicent which is mostly on-premise, having the ability to choose between both delivery models can be a huge advantage.

But according to Mark Selcow, even with great technical solutions, what REALLY makes Merced Systems and Merced ICM different from the competition is its relentless focus on its customer’s success during and after an implementation. “We don’t see ourselves as a solution provider” he told me, “we become a true partner”.

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Related Posts:
Merced Incentive Management
Merced Systems

Sales Performance Management Vendors List

Published
by
admin
on December 15, 2008
in Research and Articles, Sales Performance Management and Vendor / SPM Solution Review and Info
. 8 Comments
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (9 votes, average: 2.78 out of 5)
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If you did some research about potential sales performance management / enterprise incentive management solutions for your company already, you will have read about some of the top players in that space.  However, there are dozens of SPM solutions that are not as easy to come across, because they are very focused on a specific industry, because they are new in the space, or simply because their web presence may not be what it should be.

I recently worked on a vendor’s guide for OpenSymmetry, profiling 15 leading solutions, many of which I have reviewed on this blog.  These vendors were included based on their client base, corporate recognition, and their contribution to the field of SPM.  They are:

  • ACTEK: ACom3
  • Callidus Software: Callidus Product Suite (TrueComp)
  • Centive: Compel
  • CSSI: Vue Software
  • Enterprise Incentive Software: CATS
  • Glow Teknologies: GloCent
  • Merced Systems: Merced Incentive Management
  • nGenera: nGen Comp
  • Oracle: Oracle Incentive Compensation (OIC)
  • SAP: HR Enterprise Compensation
  • SunGard: iWorks EIM
  • Varicent Software: Varicent SPM
  • Versata Software: Versata Commission
  • Xactly Corporation: Incent
  • ZS Associates: Javelin

I mentioned before that the Sales Performance Management market is seeing an explosion of new solutions to satisfy everybody’s needs.  I also listed 39 additional vendors offering a flavor of incentive compensation within their solution.   With a total of 54 Incentive Compensation solutions, a number which I suspect will keep growing - especially if the economy recovers - it can be a real challenge to find the best solution for your needs.

I can’t share the guide on my blog, but since I put some effort into it, if you send me an email at julien.dionne@opensymmetry.com or call me at 713-819-3979, I will be glad to send you a copy.

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SPM Vendor Selection Part 6: Getting Help!

Published
by
admin
on November 25, 2008
in Miscellaneous and Planning and Selection
. 0 Comments
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If you go shopping for a new car, and if you don’t know anything about cars, what do you do?  Trust the dealer?  Talk with a few dealers?   Read books and reviews about the cars being considered?  Bring a friend who DOES know something about cars to avoid getting ripped off?  In this last post about vendor selection, I will discuss a few ideas of where it is possible to get some help with the sales performance management vendor selection process.

Get help from a company experienced with vendor selection efforts
Getting help from an unbiased, experienced third party is the most obvious course of action.  This third party will be able to assist you with every step of the process we have discussed so far, from shortlisting the “best” vendors for your requirements, to writing an RFP doing a good job at describing your specific requirements, to helping out with the RFP evaluation and demo evaluation.  I’ll just add a note that I’m regularly involved on vendor selection projects with OpenSymmetry.

Pros: A consulting company with a lot of vendor selection experience will be able to guide you through the process and help you in making the best decision for your specific situation.  They will bring a lot of value by being able to answer your questions, create or review the vendor selection deliverable, provide additional insight about the various vendors/solutions considered and provide expert advice early on in the process.

Cons: Hiring a consultant / consulting company to help out with vendor selection will cost something; sometimes too much for a small budget implementation.  Not all consulting companies are as experienced or as unbiased as they claim they are, so it is important to verify the experience and the company’s reputation.  Checking references and ensuring that a company is not getting any “referral fee” from the vendor selected is also important to ensure there is no bias towards a specific vendor.

Get help from an SPM Vendors
Dean Thomas from Merced Systems discussed earlier this month how valuable it is to involve SPM vendors early in the RFP / requirement gathering process to get a good RFP.  Indeed, most vendors will usually be helpful in providing information and ideas when creating an RFP.

Pros: Vendors usually want to appear to be “good guys” and be on your side during the selection process.  There is much to be said about the importance of developing a good relationship between vendor and client, and helping you here is planting the first seed to what the vendors hope to be a long lasting relationship.

Cons: As I pointed out earlier in a blog comment, getting help from a vendor is a bit of a grey area.  When involving one vendor, other vendors should also be involved to be fair, and this can be complicated.  Involving vendors may also create a notion that some are favored more than others.  Finally, some vendors may also use this opportunity to recommend requirements which may give them an advantage over their competitors.  SPM vendors are familiar with their application, but sometimes they lack the knowledge of other solutions which makes it hard to think out of the box…  even with the best intention they may give an advantage to their solution.

Get help from the Internet
Just stating the obvious, but there is a LOT of information on the Internet about vendor selection, RFP writing, etc.  Good places to start looking for SPM specific information are the vendor’s websites and sales performance management blogs.  Looking at vendor selection deliverable for other software solutions more commonly used than SPM could also be valuable; CRM and ERP solutions are other applications which will share common requirements with a sales performance management solution including security, data, etc.

Pros: The information is free…

Cons: The quality and accuracy of the information can be biased.  For example, many vendors provide pros and cons of on-premise versus on-demand solutions; usually these studies are heavily biased towards influencing customers to select an on-demand solution which is usually more lucrative for the vendor.  Be wary of vendors who require you to share contact and project information before sharing white papers, templates, studies, etc with you.  This is only a sales stunt and you may have a hard time to get rid of their sales team.

Get help from me
If you have any questions or if you would like to brainstorm a few ideas, I would be pleased to talk with you and help out… for free.  The only catch is that I hope you will share this blog around in exchange for the help, and keep me in mind if you ever need help with “real” work.  I promise you won’t be constantly harassed after contacting me :-)  You can reach me by e-mail at julien.dionne@opensymmetry.com or by phone at 613-482-2556.

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Related Posts:
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SPM Vendor Selection Part 5: Reference Calls

SPM Vendor Selection Part 4: Vendor Demos / Interviews

Published
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admin
on November 18, 2008
in Planning and Selection
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In my opinion, this is the most important and valuable part of the sales performance management vendor selection process.  The demos can take different forms; for a small on-demand project, these demos are often performed online.  For a large implementation, the remaining competing vendors will usually send a team on-site to present.  This is the first opportunity to really see the look and feel of the solution. The RFP scores of the invited vendors could be very close, so this is where they get the chance to distinguish themselves.  A job candidate is rarely hired without a face-to-face interview; this is it!

How long should the demo last?
A small SaaS solution such as Xactly or Centive could be presented in a few hours, but it really depends on the complexity of the solution.  The length of the demo also depends on how much time you have and how much time the vendor is willing to invest in trying to win the bid.  My advice is that for a large implementation (Callidus, Varicent, Merced, etc) half a day could be enough for an overview of the application, and a full day is not too much to go a bit more in details.

What questions should be asked?
SPM Vendor should be given specific instructions on what they should be demonstrating, which could vary depending on the audience.  Ask yourself what is of interest to the evaluators; the plan configuration and administration?  Reports?  Analytics?  If the evaluators are managers / directors, showing how the configuration plan elements is done may not be necessary.

Demo Scripts
The best way to find out that an SPM solution can do what you would like it to do, is to ask the vendors to configure a few plans.  Don’t only provide the plan details, also provide some sample data.  The sample data only needs to be a few transactions, there is no point in providing hundreds of them.  When the vendors walk you through their solution and results, it will provide a good overview of how their solution works.  If you choose to ask the vendors to implement a few things for the demo, provide them with at least a week to work on them to ensure they have the time to complete the activity.  It’s fair to ask them to create simple rules “on the spot”, or to modify some of their plans, but if you ask them to implement several plans during the demo, valuable time will be wasted.  Also, keep in mind that the goal is to review the solution, and not the ability of the sales engineer to work under high pressure.

Demo Evaluation
Just like for the RFP, a scoring grid should be created ahead of time and distributed to all the evaluators.  Another tip; leave a lot of space for comments.  If the evaluators have laptops, they could even fill the evaluation in a spreadsheet.  It’s never fun to do manual data entry if it can be avoided.  A question I often get is how much should the demo evaluation be worth compared to the RFP.  This is another “it depends” answer.  Typically, I recommend that the evaluation be worth at least 50% of the total score; if it’s a full day demonstration, probably more…  for a short online demonstration, probably less.

When evaluating the different demos, beware of evaluating the quality of the presentation rather than the quality of the solution.  As we know, some people are very good at presenting, and some are not quite as good.  You would think that sales engineers have all mastered the art of the presentation, but they are not all made equal and some can be better than others.  Try to evaluate the actual solution and not how good the SE is (and that can be hard to do!).

One last note about the demo evaluation:  if the vendor is now showing you what you want to see (even if this should have been made clear before the presentation begins), make sure to let them know, and they can probably adjust the focus of their presentation.

Logistics
If the vendors are coming for an on-site visit, find out of they need an Internet connection.  Also make sure you have a working projector!

A Note for the Vendors Reading This
Don’t rely on the internet connection mentioned above.  Bring your solution installed on a laptop, or even bring a server with you if you need it, but don’t count on this connection to work or to be stable!

Adding the Scores
We now have scores for the RFPs and the demos.  Adding them should reflect who the winner should be.  There are a few more steps before selecting this winner, but once the demos are completed, you should have a good idea of who the preferred vendor is.  Just as with the RFP, I would recommend a debrief following the demos to discuss impressions, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc.  If you had more than 2 vendors presenting, I would recommend selecting the top two vendors for the next steps.

Next Steps
We’re almost there…  we still have to do our due diligence and perform reference checks before we start contract negotiations. I will discuss this in my next post.

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Related Posts:
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SPM Vendor Selection Part 5: Reference Calls

Merced Incentive Management

Published
by
admin
on October 15, 2008
in Implementation, Industry News and Vendor / SPM Solution Review and Info
. 3 Comments
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (14 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
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Merced Systems is another company which is probably lesser known in the North American market for the moment compared to other product vendors.  I first wrote about Merced when they acquired an incentive compensation management software company called Practique Software.  Just like ZS Associates’ Javelin Suite, this “new” SPM vendor (with a solution called INCA) caught me by surprise because I hadn’t heard about it before.  If you also wonder why the name may not sound familiar, it’s because Practique Software’s INCA solution was mostly used everywhere, except in North America.   This is what Merced Systems is changing.

Practique has been deploying INCA in many enterprise environments in Europe for the past 12 years.  So while they are a new player in North America they are certainly not new to the ICM market.  Practique Associates is going to keep its brand name for the moment in Europe, but in North America its applications were already rebranded as Merced Incentive Management.

Merced Incentive Management is another web-based SPM solution with a very different approach than what I have seen with many other vendors.  We will see how some of its features are quite innovative.  The application is targeted towards enterprises with a large number of payees.  Merced Incentive Management is an enterprise class incentive management application with multiple deployments of more than 10,000 and up to 100,000 payees with an excess of 1 million transactions per day.  It is available both on-demand and on-premise, and it is also easy to switch between on-demand and on-premise if required.

In the next 2-3 posts I will focus on Merced Incentive Management, which is a great addition to other Merced offerings including applications facilitating organizational goals alignment, goal setting, performance reporting and coaching.

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Merced Incentive Management (MIM) Review - Part 4

Anonymous Incentive Compensation Vendors Webinar

Published
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admin
on October 9, 2008
in Industry News and Vendor / SPM Solution Review and Info
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I try to make my blog as independent as possible from my job. I try to share some knowledge about the compensation management industry, various SPM vendors, best practices, etc. However, sometimes there is a fine line between both, since they are so closely related. This is one of those times I will cross the line and blur this distinction, to promote an event hosted by OpenSymmetry. Why am I promoting this event? Because the event is free, because it’s directly related to what I believe you care about, and because my boss said that if I didn’t…  I’m joking.

“We” are hosting a series of webinars where leading sales performance management solutions will be demonstrated in an anonymous setting.

Participants of the webinars will learn about:
– Which functionality are offered by each sales performance management solution
– What key characteristics distinguishes solutions from each other
– Under which conditions and requirements are the solutions expected to provided the best value
– How compensation plans can be configured and maintained within each solution
– Which other important features such as reporting and modeling are available with each tool
Convinced? If not, here are a few more reasons for participating:
  • If you don’t have a compensation system at the moment, but if your company could use one “some day”, that will give you the best possible overview of the solutions on the market.
  • Even if your company could not care less for an SPM solution, maybe you will end up in a role where the knowledge of these solutions will be important, and maybe give you a competitive edge.
  • Even if you don’t work in a role that is related to compensation, knowing about these systems could open up some doors, some day.
  • If you DO have a comp system, why not find out about the other solutions on the market. Maybe you will learn how things could be done differently, maybe its time to change to another system, maybe its just fun to compare the strengths and weaknesses of your current system compared to other solutions.
  • The demo is “anonymous”. I’m guessing you might get a friendly follow up call from OpenSymmetry, but no pressure selling from the vendors.
  • If some day you would like to work at OpenSymmetry, I imagine having some knowledge of various incentive compensation systems would be an asset.

Ok… So I *know* how many readers I get on this blog every day. I also *know* that many come to this blog to read what I have to say about the various solutions. And finally, I *know* that not even half of my readers signed up for these webinars. Maybe this is because I’m doing a too good job at reviewing the applications here, and that you feel you don’t need to see them, but I’m telling you, seeing the systems in action is what is really needed to truly appreciate what they can do.

Here are the dates of the webinars:
October 16th: Varicent
October 20th: Merced Systems
October 23rd: ZS Associates
October 27th: Xactly
October 30th: Versata
November 3rd: nGenera
November 6th: Callidus Software
The only thing you need to do to participate is to signup.  It’s free…

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Related Posts:
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LeapComp Launches Incentive Compensation Event Calendar