No More IT Dependencies for ICM
A data integration case study of Blackbaud
Industry: Cloud/SaaS
Blackbaud, a cloud software and services firm supporting social good organizations, has been a longtime Xactly incentive compensation customer. Always ahead of the technology game, Blackbaud soon recognized that their setup of Xactly Incent™ needed improvement as it required manual exports to extract their sales performance data from Salesforce. They made the move to seek a solution to streamline their data extraction process.
Challenge
Blackbaud set up their incentive compensation management (ICM) system using Xactly Incent, which gave them high visibility into their sales team’s performance. However, they were exporting data out of Salesforce at month end and importing it into Xactly. The key individuals driving business decisions could not get the data they needed in a timely manner and sales employees could not see their commission payments until well into the month following the sale.
Solution
Looking for options to automate the data extraction processes, Blackbaud turned to OpenSymmetry for a solution. With the knowledge that the Credit Assignment functionality for Xactly Connect™ was in beta, OpenSymmetry presented a solution to move away from the Xactly DELTA process to Xactly Connect’s Credit Assignment function.
Because the functionality was just in beta and not fully released, the process for implementation took longer than expected. After careful consideration and coordination with the Blackbaud team, OpenSymmetry made a calculated decision to develop the solution with the beta functionality. The risk paid off, and OpenSymmetry was able to transition the work done in beta to the live functionality immediately after Xactly deployed it.
Result
With Xactly Connect in place with the Credit Assignment functionality, Blackbaud no longer needed to wait on a data extract but could now directly manage the integration logic through the Xactly Incent UI, without any additional software or license costs, bringing down program costs. With some training, Blackbaud incentive compensation administrators could update and modify their integration processes as business requirements changed.
Additionally, Salesforce data was refreshed daily, with no middle step, giving the sales reps access to near real-time data.
OpenSymmetry’s data integration strategy & services
OpenSymmetry provides a full review, design, and implementation plan for an integrated, enterprise-wide data strategy for an SPM system. This includes connecting disparate data sources, extracting data, and cleansing data for more accurate and efficient processing and reporting.
If you are interested in learning more about how OpenSymmetry Data Integration Strategy & Services can help you take control of and leverage your data as a valuable corporate asset, please visit us at opensymmetry.com.
“You can see the results of our overnight refresh in the compensation the next day, rather than reps having to wait two weeks to see what’s going on for their compensation. For me personally, I also don’t have as much anxiety, especially when it gets closer to payroll time.”
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OpenSymmetry enables clients to achieve greater operational efficiency and get better sales results. We are a global consulting company specializing in the planning, implementation, and optimization of industry leading technology suppliers of sales performance management solutions.