Before getting side-tracked by the Come on SPM Vendors… Grow Up! post and the very active discussion that followed, I described many of the key features of ZS Associates Javelin Incentive Manager. This post is dedicated to the several modules that are part of the Javelin suite, which complement the incentive manager.
Javelin Territory Designer
Unlike Javelin Incentive Manager, Territory Designer is a desktop application. It does not require any special hardware, offers several neat functionalities and is used by around 100 clients in the US. I should make the disclaimer that I haven’t seen other commercial territory management solutions, so I don’t have anything against which I can compare this application.
The main screen of Territory Designer shows a map which can be zoomed in and out, and where each territory is shown in a different color.
Territories can be selected with a simple click and drag, which displays additional information about those territories. It is also possible to search for a territory by zip code, territory name, city, product, or any other information defined.
What I have been told by the ZS team is that this territory manager distinguishes itself from other similar tools by being able to handle complicated and multiple sales forces, complicated relationships, and by being able to optimize territories for the most fair configuration by following fully customizable rules.
Another feature which I did not expect to see in this application was how the application supports different scenarios and tracks who makes changes.
Javelin Quota Designer
This is another desktop application, but it is being redesigned for the web in 2009. Javelin Quota Designer facilitates the design and modeling of sales quotas. It allows seeing the impact of new goals on variable compensation, based on historical data. “Playing” with different variables and targets allows to model “what-if” scenarios.
Many advanced analytics reports are available to provide useful information about the territories. Some of these reports, such as the correlation report, help ensuring that territories are shared in an equitable manner.
Javelin Quota Refiner
Anyone who has been through the process of obtaining input from the field to update quotas will appreciate the usefulness of this simple tool. Javelin Quota Refiner allows managers to review and approve quotas online. Some conditions can be setup such as a setting parameters for how much a quota can be modified.
Javelin MBO Manager
Javelin’s MBO Manager is a simple web-based interface to create, approve and rate performance on objective-based plan components. As expected, MBO manager allows managers to add objectives for their reports, and supports the MBO lifecycle from objective setting, to gathering approvals, to finalizing the objectives. It also allows setting payout targets based on the percent attainment of these objectives.
Javelin Communication Manager
This tool can be used to communicate anything, from reports to plan documents, etc. Files can be organized in a folder format and can distribute files by email, FTP or by providing a link. Communication Manager is very flexible in how files are organized and shared. One feature which I expected to see but didn’t find in the communication manager was the ability to get an approval for plan documents and to handle dispute resolution, but this feature is part of another module called OnTrak, which is part of 3rd party application which integrates into Javelin’s interface.
That’s everything I have to say about the Javelin Suite for now! Overall, a great product which I am very happy to have had the opportunity to see in action. I will keep my eyes opened for any updates related to Javelin Suite and I’ll make sure to discuss them here.
To find out more about ZS Associates and Javelin Suite (of course you can visit their website), but you can also attend their anonymous demo on October 23. Many other vendors are also presenting on different dates as listed in the banner at the top of this page.
Stay tuned, my next SPM vendor review will be for Merced Incentive Management solution (MIM), which as I discussed before purchased Practique Associates last summer.
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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.
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