Varicent Press Releases
Stay up-to-date about what we're doing and where we are with Varicent news and event information
Strongest Q2 in Varicent's History
Highlights of Q2 include impressive #1 ranking in Profit 100 as well as new customer acquisitions
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the leading innovator in Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions, is proud to announce an extremely productive and successful Q2. Highlights from the second quarter include new customer acquisitions, securing the #1 position in the 22nd annual PROFIT 100 ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies by PROFIT Magazine, and the successful hosting of INSIGHT10, Varicent’s annual user conference.
“We are thrilled with all of the exciting activity that has taken place during this quarter,” said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent. “We are especially proud that this Q2 was our best to date – more than 50% stronger than any Q2 prior. The company is on track to hit our year end growth targets of 35% plus.”
Throughout Q2, Varicent's solution was adopted by ten new customers across industries including Retail, Technology, Insurance and Financial Services. Varicent’s growth is unparalleled in the industry and this exemplary performance affirms that its sales performance management and incentive compensation solution succeeds in driving down the cost and time of sales administration, improves visibility into sales behavior, and enhances the overall effectiveness of sales efforts.
In May, Varicent hosted INSIGHT10, its annual user conference focused on Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management. INSIGHT10 brought together Varicent customers, industry experts, Varicent partners and staff for three days of training, education and information exchange. Participants heard the latest in best practices and industry trends; they were able to network with other Varicent users and learn from their successes and attendees enjoyed Hands on Labs with the ability to explore Varicent in more detail. “We were delighted with the impact of this conference,” said Brian Hartlen, Vice President Marketing, Varicent. “In addition to providing our users and partners with a meaningful experience, we at Varicent benefited from the opportunity to be face-to-face with our stakeholders and to learn about their environments, their needs and how they have leveraged Varicent to forecast and grow.”
Q2 also saw the latest release of the company’s flagship product, Varicent 7, which empowers organizations to manage increasingly complex compensation processes and significantly reduces implementation time and effort. This new incarnation provides Varicent customers with effective tools to deal with market volatility and changes within the context of less time and fewer resources.
One of the most impressive achievements of Q2 was Varicent’s #1 ranking in PROFIT Magazine’s listing of Canada’s fastest growing companies. The standing was based on the company’s sales performance for five-year revenue growth. “We are extremely proud of our performance, and PROFIT Magazine’s recognition of our accomplishments,” said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent. “Varicent’s success is the result of our entire team’s hard work and commitment, as well as our shared dedication to delivering value to our global customers.”
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients’ businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Eye Care Company Leader Alcon Japan Ltd. Goes Live with Varicent to Automate their Incentive Compensation System
Varicent solution to enable modeling and forecasting functionality as well as business ownership
(Toronto, ON) – The leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, Varicent Software Incorporated, announced today a successful “go live” of Varicent for Alcon Japan Ltd.
After a thorough survey of SPM products, Alcon Japan Ltd. chose Varicent due to their commitment, attentiveness and ability to meet the company’s tight implementation timelines. Alcon is rolling out the solution in Japan first with plans to expand globally.
Alcon Japan selected Varicent to have a single solution to manage their incentive compensation needs in a sophisticated and efficient manner. The automated workflow features of Varicent allow Alcon Japan to facilitate communication of national goals down to the territories. In particular, Varicent provides the company the ability to:
- Develop sophisticated analytics for modeling, forecasting, quota and targets
- Have business ownership of the application
- Meet their demanding schedule
“We are pleased that Alcon Japan chose Varicent to provide the tools they need to manage their sales performance management and incentive compensation processes,” said Mark Girvan, Vice President of Business Development for Varicent. “We are especially proud to have added a company with such a strong international presence to our growing list of customers. Using Varicent, companies can manage and automate the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, providing more visibility and accountability into one of the organization’s largest variable expenses.”
About Alcon Japan Ltd.
Alcon Japan Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alcon, Inc., the world’s leading eye care company. Alcon Japan was established in 1973 and has a country headquarters office, one distribution center and eighteen sales offices where approximately 900 employees market, sell and distribute a full range of ophthalmic surgical equipment and supplies, pharmaceuticals and contact lens care solutions. Alcon Japan is Alcon, Inc.'s second largest subsidiary with the number one market share position in surgical equipment, including IOLs, and contact lens care solutions.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent to Provide Global Eye Care Leader Alcon with Global Solution for Sales Performance Management
Varicent expected to enhance sales performance management functionality for multiple geographic business units
Toronto, ON – Varicent Software Incorporated, the leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, announced today that it will provide its innovative solutions to Alcon, the world’s largest eye-care company.
Alcon Japan recently chose Varicent after a thorough consideration of other products on the market, and this first phase opened the doors to broader-reaching discussions about opportunities to support Alcon’s needs worldwide. With thousands of salespeople, operating in 75 countries, Alcon wanted a comprehensive and scalable solution to handle the magnitude and complexity of its organization.
"After a thorough evaluation of the various options in the marketplace, we decided Varicent was the best product to manage Alcon’s sales performance management needs," said Matt von Wellsheim, Alcon’s CIO and Vice President of Information Technologies. "We needed a solution that we could manage and control that would put the right information in the hands of our sales executives and management team.”
Alcon will use Varicent for core commission calculation in addition to scenario modeling, providing enhanced visibility into Alcon's current and future sales quotas. With Varicent, Alcon will have better insight into how the sales force meets its quotas, helping it to optimize the structure of its sales forces around the world. The breadth and depth of information and analysis provided will allow Alcon to make strategic decisions that have the potential to drive revenue growth and profitability. In particular, Varicent provides the company the ability to:
- Develop sophisticated analytics for modeling, forecasting, quota and targets
- Provide business ownership of the application
- Deliver information in the appropriate language for all users
- Achieve aggressive implementation timelines
“Alcon has products in more than 180 countries worldwide. We look forward to working closely with Alcon as we roll the solutions out globally,” said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Varicent. “We are very proud that an industry leader like Alcon has recognized the value that Varicent offers.”
About Alcon
Alcon, Inc. is the world's leading eye care company, with sales of approximately $6.5 billion in 2009. Alcon, which has been dedicated to the ophthalmic industry for 65 years, researches, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment and devices, contacts lens solutions and other vision care products that treat diseases, disorders and other conditions of the eye. Alcon operates in 75 countries and sells products in 180 markets. For more information on Alcon, Inc., visit the Company's web site at www.alcon.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varian Selects Varicent to Enhance Forecasting Capabilities and to Manage Complex Incentive Compensation Requirements
Varicent increases medical device industry penetration with the addition of Varian Medical Systems to their expanding customer base
Toronto, ON – Varicent Software Incorporated, the leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, announced today that a business unit within Varian Medical Systems, the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions, has selected Varicent for administering its complex sales incentive compensation plans and sales performance management activities. Varian will initiate a staged roll out to the U.S. sales force for its Oncology Systems business. Varicent will be used for improved modeling, forecasting and sales analytics.
“We selected Varicent because the product is very flexible and meets our complex calculation and administration needs,” said Jeffrey Marcus, Varian’s vice president for worldwide sales. “The Varicent Team was professional, they met our proof of concept requirements, and they offered us a complete solution that integrates modeling, forecasting and analytics. We feel confident that this product will help us to streamline our payouts, lower our costs and speed up our process.”
Varian had been using an Excel based solution for incentive compensation and sales performance management, but it was limited in its capabilities. Varian needed greater sophistication, flexibility and speed to enhance reporting, provide analytics, and reduce error – all in a consolidated and efficient manner. Varicent provided an on-premise solution that met these needs.
Key benefits of Varicent include:
- Flexibility to meet Varian’s complex calculation and administration needs
- Decreasing the time and support required for payments
- Providing sophisticated forecasting capabilities
- A single, on-site solution that includes modeling, forecasting and analytics
"We are pleased that Varian has chosen Varicent for their Sales Performance Management needs,” said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations for Varicent. "Varian’s adoption of our software further extends our penetration into the medical device industry which is a growing market for Varicent, and we look forward to working with their team as they continue to drive improvements in their compensation management processes.”
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers, and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Software Ranked Number One in PROFIT 100 Ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies
Sales Performance Management leader recognized for five-year revenue growth
Toronto, ON – Varicent Software, an innovator and global leader in providing Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions, today announced it has ranked first in the 22nd annual PROFIT 100 ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies by PROFIT Magazine.
“We are extremely proud of our performance, and PROFIT Magazine’s recognition of our accomplishments,” says Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent. “Varicent’s success is the result of our entire team’s hard work and commitment, as well as our shared dedication to delivering value to our global customers. We look forward to continuing our growth, and building upon our position as a global leader in the Sales Performance Management market.”
Ranking Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies by five-year revenue growth, the PROFIT 100 profiles the country’s most successful growth companies. Published in the June issue of PROFIT and online at profit100.com, the PROFIT 100 is Canada’s largest annual celebration of entrepreneurial achievement.
“Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies are the poster children for entrepreneurship, innovation and pure tenacity,” says Ian Portsmouth, editor of PROFIT. “They demonstrate what it takes to succeed in today’s highly competitive, technology-driven global economy.”
Varicent delivers the most innovative approach to effectively managing an organization's variable compensation programs and processes. By adopting Varicent's solution, companies of all sizes are able to save time, money and effort currently being wasted on inefficient processes. They are also able to improve the productivity of their sales force by directly aligning their selling behavior to their overall corporate objectives.
About PROFIT Magazine
PROFIT: Your Guide to Business Success is Canada’s preeminent publication dedicated to the management issues and opportunities facing small and mid-sized businesses. For 28 years, Canadian entrepreneurs and senior managers across a vast array of economic sectors have remained loyal to PROFIT because it’s a timely and reliable source of actionable information that helps them achieve business success and get the recognition they deserve for generating positive economic and social change. Visit PROFIT online at www.profitmagazine.ca.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Announces Latest Release of Incentive Compensation & Sales Performance Management Solution
Varicent 7 enables organizations to manage increasingly complex compensation processes and significantly reduce implementation time and effort
Scottsdale, AZ – Varicent Software, an innovator and global leader in providing Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions, today announced the latest release of their flagship product Varicent 7.
“Varicent 7 is targeted at helping organizations deal with the barrage of changing requirements and expectations for incentive compensation systems” said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, Varicent. “Our customers deal with complex requirements, more volatility and have less time and resources than ever before. Varicent 7 enables our customers to take a new approach to tackling these challenges.”
Varicent 7 enables organizations to:
Easily manage increasingly complex compensation needs
An innovative new visual approach to managing increasingly complex and demanding incentive compensation needs. Varicent 7 allows organizations to easily reuse logic and processes across roles, plans and divisions of an enterprise. Customers can also easily obtain an overall view of compensation plans along with their key inputs and outputs.
Significantly reduce implementation time and effort
Leverage best practices and significantly reduce the amount of effort required to implement common processes used in deploying a sales performance management solution.
Perform enhanced business modeling and scenario management
Quickly perform what if analysis based on a multitude of variables including commission structures, organizational hierarchies, sales levels and more.
Benefit from the continued delivery of customer requested enhancements
Including performance, scalability, user interface, and reporting enhancements.
Varicent 7 is being announced at INSIGHT10, the annual user conference for Varicent clients and partners, this year being held in Scottsdale, Arizona. Varicent 7 will be generally available in June 2010.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent's User Community, Partners & Thought-Leaders Gather in Scottsdale, Arizona for Much Anticipated User Conference
INSIGHT'10, Varicent's annual user conference promises to be the largest event focused on Incentive Compensation & Sales Performance Management.
Scottsdale, AZ – INSIGHT10 brings together Varicent customers, industry experts, Varicent partners and staff for three days of training, education and information exchange. Attendees will hear the latest in best practices and industry trends; they will meet and network with other Varicent users and learn from their successes and participants will access Hands on Labs with the ability to explore Varicent SPM in more detail.
“We are excited to have our customers and partners come together for INSIGHT10”, said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO of Varicent. “We are very proud to be hosting the Varicent community and this year’s event promises to deliver new and exciting content, an environment of information sharing and a lot of fun.”
This year INSIGHT10 features keynotes from industry experts in sales management best practices including Conrad Zils, Global Director, Sales Programs with General Electric, Michael Herman, National Sales Effectiveness Leader with Deloitte Consulting, Jason Angelos, Senior Executive with Accenture CRM Service Line and Ted Briggs, Principal of Better Sales Comp Consultants.
“We are thrilled at the turn-out for this year’s event. We believe it shows the importance that our customers put on sharing successes and striving to do more with Varicent SPM” said Brian Hartlen, Vice President Marketing, Varicent. “We at Varicent also benefit from hosting INSIGHT by spending three days with our customers and partners to better understand their environments, how they have leveraged our solutions to meet their needs and to learn about what lies ahead.”
INSIGHT10 is the perfect setting for industry experts, compensation directors, analysts, and sales professionals to share best practices about the latest trends and strategies facing companies today. All participants will have opportunities to network throughout the conference. INSIGHT10 runs from Sunday, May 16 – Wednesday, May 19, with optional post-conference training. For more information, visit http://www.varicent.com/insight/.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Wellington West Selects Varicent to Replace Legacy Compensation System
Varicent SPM to enable flexibility, greater auditing capabilities and business ownership
Scottsdale, AZ – The leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, Varicent Software Incorporated, announced today that Wellington West will be implementing Varicent SPM.
Wellington West is replacing their current system with Varicent to gain flexibility around sales administration processes, improve and enhance reporting capabilities, introduce automated workflow and to increase scalability to accommodate future growth strategies. Wellington West is one of the largest and fastest-growing independent full-services investment firms in Canada providing full-service brokerage, capital markets, financial planning and asset management.
”We are very pleased with our decision to work with Varicent. We were impressed with the maturity and flexibility of Varicent SPM and we are confident it will deliver the results we require,” said Dennis Stewner, President, Wellington West Capital Inc. “We are especially excited that Varicent SPM can be used for so much more than simply calculating compensation and it will play a critical role in our continued growth.”
Wellington West has been utilizing an internally developed spreadsheet system that is resource intensive, not scalable and lacks the reporting that the Investment Advisors and management requires. By selecting Varicent’s solution, Wellington West felt assured that they could own and manage the solution and use it as a tool for future growth as well as providing confidence to the sales and administration teams.
In particular, Varicent SPM provides Wellington West the ability to:
- Improve the efficiency of commission processing
- Reduce errors and increase responsiveness to the questions and concerns of stakeholders
- Provide a workflow for Investment Advisor approvals, inquiries and disputes
- Provide greater auditing capabilities, reconciliation and exception reporting
- Develop a more sophisticated reporting platform that can potentially replace other reporting services and help to manage growth
Additional benefits for Wellington West also include using Varicent SPM as a single “book of record” for all the commission business rules rather than maintaining them in multiple separate spreadsheets. Also, the ability to configure Varicent SPM without any custom modifications to the software avoids complications for software upgrades and allows Wellington West to easily keep up-to-date with the most current version.
The automated workflow features of Varicent SPM will also provide Wellington West with the ability to measure and manage the administration team service levels.
Varicent SPM will provide Investment Advisors with up-to-the-day reporting in detail (not just lump sums) in order to provide greater visibility on commissions activity by improving access (through the internet and potentially BlackBerry) which in turn will reduce the number of phone calls to the administration team. This greater visibility will also increase assets by encouraging Investment Advisors to do more business when they are confident that they are getting paid for it.
"Wellington West’s adoption of our software serves as a testament to the increased importance of effective sales performance management systems for rapidly growing businesses," said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, Varicent Software. “We are pleased to enter this relationship and proud to add a company with the reputation of Wellington West to our growing customer list."
About Wellington West
Wellington West Holdings Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides full-service brokerage, financial planning, asset management and capital markets services. In over 17 years since its inception, the employee-owned Wellington West has become one of the largest and fastest-growing independent full-service wealth management firms in Canada with over $9 billion in assets under administration. Among its many corporate achievements, Wellington West has been ranked in the top quartile of the 50 Best Employers in Canada for the past five years, named one of Canada's Fastest Growing Companies in 2007 and in 2010 recognized as one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies for four consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.wellingtonwest.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Starts Off Strong in 2010
Highlights of Q1 include new customer adoption and prestigious industry recognition
Toronto, ON - Varicent Software, an innovator and global leader in providing Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions is proud to announce a successful Q1. Highlights from the first quarter include new customer acquisitions, industry recognition from leading research firm Gartner, and the completion of a research study among senior finance executives on sales incentive compensation management. The study was conducted by CFO Research Services and underwritten by Varicent.
“We are excited to have started the year 2010 on such a positive note”, said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent. “With our innovative solution and a dedicated and talented team, Varicent is poised to continue to lead and shape this burgeoning market space. More organizations are starting to see that automating incentive compensation and sales performance management is no longer a nice to have but a requirement.”
Throughout Q1, Varicent's SPM solution was adopted by various customers in a variety of industries including Financial Services, Medical Device and High-Tech. By using Varicent's complete sales performance management application, companies are able to drive down the cost and time of their sales administration, improve the visibility into their sales behavior, and improve the overall effectiveness of their sales efforts.
Varicent was recognized with a positive rating in the 2010 Gartner Research report entitled “MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software.”
“We believe that receiving a positive rating from Gartner is a great testament to the success of our ability to serve this market with our innovative solution, expanding partner network, service excellence and global support” said Brian Hartlen, VP Marketing, Varicent.
Also in Q1, Varicent announced the completion of a new research study entitled “Managing Sales Incentive Compensation Amid Uncertainty”. The report was prepared by CFO Research Services and underwritten by Varicent, and draws on over 150 survey responses from senior finance executives about their views on sales incentive compensation management. The report focuses on a variety of important topics including, how effective compensation models can boost sales productivity, the need to accurately & easily manage complex incentive plans and the importance of clear visibility into sales behavior.
Varicent continues to grow its organization in support of customers adding nearly 40 new employees globally in the areas of customer support and development.
Varicent is looking forward to its second annual user conference, INSIGHT10 taking place May 16-19 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Attendees will hear the latest in best practices and industry trends, have the opportunity to meet and network with other Varicent users as well as industry thought leaders, and meet with product experts. The conference speaker roster includes executives from General Electric, Deloitte and Accenture, as well as other Varicent customers and product experts.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Receives "Positive" Rating in Leading Analyst Firm's Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software MarketScope Report
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and global leader in providing Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions, today announced that it received a Positive rating in Gartner's report entitled “MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software.”
Michael Dunne, Research Vice President, Gartner and author of the MarketScope reports that “through 2012, enterprises will miss the equivalent of 5% to 10% of annual sales as lost opportunities' that could have been captured through improved management of sales territories, quotas and compensation plans.
“We too, see the rebuilding of sales capacity as one of the key drivers of this market,” said Brian Hartlen, Vice President, Marketing, Varicent. “We believe that receiving a positive rating from Gartner is a great testament to the success of our ability to serve this market with our innovative solution, expanding partner network, service excellence and global support.
Varicent SPM delivers the most innovative approach to effectively managing an organization's variable compensation programs and processes. By adopting Varicent's solution, companies of all sizes are able to save time, money and effort currently being wasted on inefficient processes. They are also able to improve the productivity of their sales force by directly aligning their selling behavior to their overall corporate objectives.
Varicent's complete Sales Performance Management solution includes Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning and Roster Management. Varicent is distinguished by its ability to provide rich analytics, modeling and reporting all within a single application.
MarketScope Disclaimer
The MarketScope is copyrighted March 5, 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
1 Gartner "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software" by Michael Dunne, March 5, 2010.
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New Research Confirms that Finance Executives will Play an Expanding Role in Sales Compensation Management
Research report demonstrates technology improvements can motivate desired sales behaviors and reduce administrative risk and complexity
(Toronto, ON) – The leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, Varicent Software Incorporated, announced the completion of a research study among senior finance executives on sales incentive compensation management. The research report titled “Managing Sales Incentive Compensation Amid Uncertainty,” was prepared by CFO Research Services and underwritten by Varicent. The report draws on a total of 157 complete survey responses from senior finance executives at various sized companies and verticals, examining their views on sales incentive compensation management.
“In this study, we found that companies are under pressure to encourage sophisticated sales behavior through complex sales incentive compensation plans, but finance executives are also concerned with the cost, uncertainty, and difficulty of administering those plans,” said Celina Rogers, Director of Research, CFO Research Services. “Our research shows that finance executives recognize the value of technology in resolving this tension and helping companies strike the right balance between the cost of sales, revenue growth, and profitability.”
Globally, as companies try to revive themselves from the tumultuous economic times of the past 18 months, many need to be very aware of the impact that pay-for-performance programs have on their bottom-line, and how they can focus their efforts to refine these crucial business areas. This report focuses on many topics including:
- How effective compensation models can help drive sales behavior.
- The need to manage complex compensation plans with ease, control and complete visibility.
- The significant value that automated compensation and sales performance solutions can add to any organization’s bottom-line profitability.
Brian Hartlen, Vice President of Marketing, Varicent will be presenting the survey results and his observations at the 2010 CFO Rising Conference and Exhibition taking place March 7-10 in Orlando, Florida.
Some of the findings include:
- 61% of survey respondents say “more sophisticated selling behaviors” rank among the sales improvements most likely to help their companies reach their goals in the next two years. Encouraging these sales behaviors will in turn require additional and more complex management of compensation and other crucial sales performance processes, including effective territory management and quota distribution.
- 75% of respondents currently using technology focused on incentive compensation management said that these solutions have made a positive contribution to sales incentive compensation management across their organizations.
- Many of the respondents cite finance’s analytical skills as a “very compelling” reason for finance to become more involved with sales incentive compensation management (64%), followed by reporting ability (47%) and compliance requirements (40%). Respondents are much less likely to point to finance’s administrative skills as a very compelling reason for greater finance involvement.
“The findings of this research highlight the difficulties, opportunities and future directions that many finance professionals face in today’s economic climate” said Brian Hartlen, Varicent. “Varicent is already helping a lot of organizations that are faced with these same challenges and we use the results to ensure that our future plans are keeping in synch with customer demands.”
The full report can be downloaded at http://varicent.com/resources-white-papers.asp
About CFO Research Services
CFO Research Services draws on the experiences, insights, and observations of senior finance executives to produce its customized research reports. With access to senior finance executives across multiple geographies and industries, CFO Research Services is able to provide its readers with a leading-edge view into the emerging finance agenda, and help them take advantage of key trends in business and financial management. CFO Research Services is the sponsored research group within CFO Publishing LLC, which produces CFO magazine. To learn more and to download recent research reports, visit www.cforesearch.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent & Deloitte Webcast to Highlight Trends and Opportunities in Sales Compensation Processes
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated in collaboration with Deloitte Consulting will present a live, complimentary webcast entitled ‘Sales Compensation Process – Trends and Opportunities.’ This presentation will focus on sales performance and the importance of optimizing commission processes and programs.
Presenting at this event will be Michael Herman, National Leader for Sales Effectiveness at Deloitte Consulting and Paulson Lan, Product Marketing Manager at Varicent Software. Herman will discuss methods to streamline compensation administration that can save you time and align your sales teams with your organization’s strategic objectives. Lan’s discussion will focus on how technology solutions can simplify compensation and sales processes and empower organizations to drive overall sales productivity and revenue.
The webcast will be aired March 16 at 2:00pm EST and is complimentary for attendees. All attendees must register. Please click here to reserve your space.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Technology Leader Sybase Selects Varicent to Provide a Single System for Sales Performance Management
Varicent solution to power on-boarding, compensation plan creation, distribution and calculation as well as robust reporting and analytics
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, the leading innovator in incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, announced today that Sybase, Inc., an industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, has selected Varicent SPM as its single, integrated solution for administering sales performance management activities. Specifically, Sybase will use Varicent SPM for territory management, quota planning, incentive compensation, sales analytics and reporting.
“The Varicent Team earned our confidence, and presented us with a holistic platform for executing our sales performance management strategy,” said Bob Green, Vice President of Finance, Sybase. “We are eager to begin providing better compensation visibility for the sales force, and equipping sales management with performance dashboards, and other enhanced analytics and planning tools. We believe Varicent SPM is the right tool for us to deliver on that vision.”
Sybase had been using a number of disparate software solutions for incentive compensation and sales performance management, but encountered limitations with this approach. Sybase needed a single system that would improve field and management reporting, enhance analytics, and reduce errors – all in an efficient and streamlined manner. Varicent offered the flexibility to consolidate these functions and to retool Sybase’s internal SPM operations, saving valuable time and resources.
Key benefits of Varicent SPM include:
- Integration with existing back-end systems
- Increased visibility to the field with dashboards, analytics and reporting
- Robust workflow capabilities
- A single solution for territory management, quota planning, incentive compensation and sales analytics
"Sybase is known for providing innovative solutions to its customers. We are very pleased that they chose Varicent for their Sales Performance Management needs" said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations for Varicent. "We believe that this is another testament not only to the quality of the solutions we provide, but to the team we have built to support our customers."
About Sybase
Sybase is an industry leader in delivering enterprise and mobile software to manage, analyze and mobilize information. We are recognized globally as a performance leader, proven in the most data-intensive industries and across all major systems, networks and devices. Our information management, analytics and enterprise mobility solutions have powered the world's most mission-critical systems in financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing and government. For more information, visit http://www.sybase.com. Read Sybase blogs: http://blogs.sybase.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Speaking at CFO Rising 2010 Conference
Brian Hartlen of Varicent Software will present new research findings from soon-to-be released research “Managing Sales Incentive Compensation Amid Uncertainty”
(Toronto, ON) – Brian Hartlen, Vice-President of Marketing, Varicent Software will be presenting a session “Finance’s Role in Sales Performance Management” at the CFO Rising Conference on March 8th, 2010 in Orlando, FL. Sales compensation is one of the largest variable expenses for many organizations and helping to manage and gain insight into sales compensation is a key imperative for many finance organizations. New survey results from a research report entitled “Managing Sales Incentive Compensation Amid Uncertainty” reveal the latest thoughts on finance’s new role in sales performance management and incentive compensation.
The report was prepared by CFO Research Services in collaboration with Varicent Software, the world’s leading innovator of Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management Solutions. Hartlen will provide insights into the largest challenges identified in the survey data and provide some valuable insight based on years of experience in Sales Performance Management. This report will be generally available from Varicent after the conference.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Strong Q4 Anchors Record Breaking Year in 2009
New client acquisitions, significant capital raise, major product release and 60% revenue growth supports exceptional year
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and leading provider of incentive compensation management and sales performance management solutions is proud to announce that a strong Q4 has sustained positive company momentum and anchored an outstanding year. 2009 produced record customer wins and Q4 reflected the best quarter on record for new customer acquisitions. In addition, the year was highlighted by Varicent’s $35 million capital raise which was the second largest privately-funded information technology funding deal announced in Q3 2009* behind only Facebook.
“I am very proud of the accomplishments our team has achieved. Against this economic climate, we have realized a historic year and we broke records across the board. Our success can be attributed to our team, our partners and the constantly improving and expanding capabilities of our product,” said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent. “Our results are driven by organizations who appreciate the need to automate incentive compensation and sales management processes to drive down costs and increase productivity.”
2009 highlights include:
CUSTOMERS
Many new companies from across the globe and in varied industries adopted Varicent’s solutions including financial service providers Absa Life, Bank of the West, Convoy Financial Group and Varicent’s first international customer, Sun Hung Kai Financial. Additional new customer wins include MTS Allstream, Time Customer Service Inc., Sherwin-Williams, and Elavon.
PRODUCT
In 2009, Varicent released the latest version of their innovative software, Varicent SPM 6.0. This next generation of Varicent SPM included new capabilities and advanced reporting features to help organizations improve business alignment, streamline sales administration and boost visibility into sales performance. The product was further enhanced by integrating with salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to meet the growing demand for SPM and CRM integration. Varicent SPM also earned the salesforce.com AppExchange certification.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
HCL Technologies, a leading global IT service provider, joined Varicent’s robust partner network in Q4 and will deliver Varicent SPM solutions throughout the Asia-Pacific region and implement Varicent for Microsoft Dynamics CRM throughout North America. TerrAlign, a leading provider of sales optimization solutions, will enhance Varicent’s territory management application with their territory optimization capabilities. Business growth in 2009 was also fueled by the addition of new management team member Bruce Jackson, as Vice President, Solutions Consulting and the hiring of over 80 new employees globally.
VARICENT USER CONFERENCE
In May 2009, Varicent hosted its inaugural user conference, INSIGHT, in Chicago. INSIGHT09 provided an opportunity for Varicent customers, employees and industry leaders to come together for various product training opportunities, sales effectiveness presentations, and discussions relating to Varicent’s company direction as well as opportunities and challenges within the growing SPM industry. After a successful conference in 2009, Varicent is looking forward to INSIGHT10 which will take place May 16-19, 2010 in Scottsdale, AZ.
RECOGNITION
Throughout 2009, Varicent received significant industry recognition for their product innovation and company development. Varicent was the recipient of four awards including the coveted 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 “Companies-to-Watch” award, Ventana Research “Top Vendor” award, CRM Magazine “Market Leader” award and a “Company to Watch” award from Intelligent Enterprise. These awards are a testament to the valuable solutions that Varicent provides to their customers and their strong, consistent corporate performance and development.
Varicent is pleased with their performance this past year and they continue to focus on the future, which they anticipate is ripe with opportunity and prospective growth.
“With a knowledgeable, dedicated team, a superb product and many new market opportunities, we are confident that we can continue the positive momentum we built in 2009. We are honored that so many organizations put their trust and faith into Varicent and we will continue to work hard to deliver on customer expectations. Our primary company goal is to continue to evolve, and maintain our place as the most innovative provider of Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solutions in 2010 and beyond” said Shimmerman.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
* Dow Jones VentureSource - U.S. Venture Capital Financing, 3Q09 -
http://fis.dowjones.com/VS/3QUSFinancing.html
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Varicent Rapid Growth Continues
Strong Q3 highlighted by $35 million funding raise, significant new customer wins and award honors from Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ and CRM Magazine
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leading innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) and incentive compensation (ICM) solutions today announced strong company-wide performance for Q3. Securing the second largest privately-funded IT funding deal for Q3 2009, behind only Facebook, Varicent also realized extensive new customer wins and increased revenues from existing customers. In addition, Varicent was recognized as a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 "Companies to Watch" and named Incentive Compensation Market Leader by CRM Magazine.
Varicent will use the new funds to accelerate its growth and continue its momentum as a market leader. The company plans to accelerate global expansion, increase mid-market penetration and expand to new verticals. The funds will also be used to drive continued product innovation and capability for Varicent's best-of-breed sales performance management solution, Varicent SPM.
"We are having a great year and we attribute Varicent's success to providing organizations the tools and information they need to improve sales effectiveness," said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent Software. "There is an ever-increasing need for organizations to find solutions that close the gap between business strategy and actual sales performance. Increasingly, organizations are turning to Varicent to help them close this gap."
Varicent continues to deliver successful results and maintain its position as a leader in Sales Performance Management. Time and time again, Varicent SPM is acknowledged with positive reviews from customers, analysts and the press. Q3 2009 highlights include:
- Won a coveted 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 "Companies-to-watch" award.
- Named an Incentive Compensation Market Leader for 2009 by CRM Magazine.
- Signed 8 new enterprise customers, including Bank of the West, Absa Life and MTS Allstream. Significant growth within Varicent's existing customers was also realized.
- Received Salesforce.com AppExchange certification. Varicent SPM can be experienced seamlessly from within the salesforce.com user interface. Business users have access to personalized compensation details and commission statements within one interface.
- Hosted a Banking Industry Roundtable with U.S. regional banks. The roundtable discussion focused on linking incentive compensation and profitability.
- Hosted its annual Customer Advisory Board meeting in Toronto, Canada. The event included executives from Varicent and some of its key customers for a series of discussions which focused on opportunities, challenges, and technology advances in the field of SPM. Leaders from various industries including medical devices, technology, media and various service organizations participated in the event.
- Sustained company expansion with over 25 full-time global hires in Hong Kong, London, Toronto and various US locations, growing Varicent's employee base to over 140 worldwide.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others.
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Varicent and Terralign Partner to Drive Greater Efficiencies in Sales Organizations
Complementary partnership will allow organizations to effectively optimize and manage sales territories
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the leading provider of Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation Management solutions and The TerrAlign Group, a leading provider of Sales Resource Optimization solutions are collaborating to provide a comprehensive solution around SPM, focusing on territory management and territory optimization.
TerrAlign provides an advanced planning tool for sales operations analysts to optimally align accounts and opportunities with sales reps. Varicent SPM provides a solution to manage account ownership, enable quota setting, analyze data to design effective compensation plans and make accurate commission payments. Together, customers can optimize their sales territories and manage compensation accordingly.
The partnership is focused on a joint technology investment centered on the development of a connector from TerrAlign into Varicent SPM. The connector allows Varicent SPM users to easily integrate data from TerrAlign within Varicent SPM. In addition, Varicent and TerrAlign developed a joint solution blueprint for Salesforce CRM providing a single access point for Salesforce.com customers.
"The combination of Varicent SPM and TerrAlign provides a solution designed to meet the needs of sales operations professionals who are constantly trying to improve operational efficiencies in the field while dealing with ever changing business conditions," said Ken Kramer, Director Business Development, TerrAlign. "Effective territory alignment can increase revenue, reduce costs as well as reduce the time required to enact new alignments. We are excited to partner with Varicent as our clients often ask us about quota and incentive compensation solutions as part of the overall sales optimization process. We are looking forward to utilizing their territory management tools and expertise as a compliment to our optimization software."
TerrAlign's territory optimization technology gives companies the power to easily design or realign sales territories to maximize resources and geographic potential. By designing sales territories that balance revenues, work and travel time, companies quickly benefit from manageable territories, motivated sales reps, and higher sales performance. TerrAlign's solutions let you easily design and map sales territories geographically to optimize sales resources and maximize profits.
Through its territory management solution, Varicent SPM automates and manages territory assignments and their association to quotas to help companies anticipate and react to frequent territory changes, both permanent and temporary, ensuring accurate sales compensation and performance reporting. Further, organizations improve business insight through the access to and use of timely and meaningful sales territory data.
"Both territory optimization and territory management are crucial elements to consider when developing effective sales plans" said Mark Girvan, VP, Business Development, Varicent Software. "This partnership with TerrAlign will provide business users with additional knowledge and tools to help make sound territory and performance management decisions to help drive their sales production and company growth."
About TerrAlign
The TerrAlign Group (www.terralign.com), founded in 1987, provides Sales Resource Optimization software and services to a wide variety of Global 2000 companies. The TerrAlign Group developed the world's first desktop-based territory optimizer almost two decades ago for a leading pharmaceutical company, and is now the first and only software vendor to deliver a Territory Alignment & Optimization solution for the Salesforce Platform, and is an AppExchange Certified Partner. TerrAlign also provides strategic services that include promotional response modeling, field force sizing, account profiling, call planning, territory optimization, and territory realignments. TerrAlign customers benefit from increased sales revenues and market share, decreased travel costs and reduced turnover.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
©2009 Varicent Software. All rights reserved. Varicent and Varicent SPM are trademarks of Varicent Software Incorporated.
All other trademarks and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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Varicent Software Secures $35 Million in Funding to Further Accelerate Growth
Company secures second-largest IT funding deal in Q3 2009
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leading innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) and incentive compensation management (ICM) solutions today announced it has raised $35 million in additional funding led by San Francisco and New York-based FTV Capital. RBC Venture Partners and EdgeStone Capital Partners, current investors in Varicent, also participated in the new round of funding.
The deal was the second largest privately-funded information technology funding announced in Q3 2009*, behind only Facebook. This represents both an acknowledgement of the steep growth trajectory for the sales performance management market, as well as Varicent's dominant role in the marketplace. According to Ventana Research, the SPM market is growing at 45% annually and in the U.S. alone is predicted to exceed more than $8 billion in 2010.**
"Varicent has developed a strong solution, assembled a driven, experienced management team, and amassed an impressive customer list. We are extremely enthusiastic about Varicent's leadership position and outlook for continued rapid growth," said Eric Byunn, FTV Capital Partner. "FTV's strategic limited partners - many of the world's largest financial institutions - have a huge corporate pain point in ineffective sales performance solutions. Varicent emerged at the top of our sector research because its solutions are consistently providing corporations with a measurable impact, driving sales effectiveness, increasing revenues, decreasing costs and improving internal visibility."
The funds raised will allow Varicent to continue its momentum as the leader in the SPM market. The company plans to further expand its international business, building on the successful launch of EMEA and APAC operations earlier in the year, accelerate the development of new features and functionality in its innovative sales performance management solution, Varicent SPM, broaden its reach into new verticals, and advance its mid-market penetration.
"FTV Capital is a great partner and brings to us an extensive, highly attractive financial services network - a key industry vertical for Varicent," said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent Software. "We have achieved remarkable success because our solutions deliver real, measurable and positive results to our customers. We look forward to working with FTV's strategic partners to help resolve their unmet needs in SPM."
"The explosive market growth in SPM is being fueled by organizations who realize their path to renewed success requires a focus on improved sales effectiveness and a faster response to new opportunities and challenges," noted Shimmerman. "Sales performance management arms decision makers with the latest and most accurate information on who is selling what to whom. It builds organizational alignment by ensuring that compensation plans are quickly implemented and changed to drive desired behaviors."
"We have two primary goals in adopting sales performance management," said Mark Towne, Director Global Information Services, Smith & Nephew, Inc. "The first was to find a solution that would allow us to quickly model new plans in order to keep up with the ever changing requirement of our business. The second goal was to select a sales performance management platform that our many divisions can standardize on, making our processes and procedures uniform across the business. Varicent SPM was selected based on their ability to provide us the speed, flexibility and visibility for our sales compensation across all of our business units."
Varicent is also pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Byunn, Partner, Head of Software for FTV Capital to Varicent's Board of Directors, effective immediately. In addition to Mr. Byunn, the following directors currently serve on the company's board:
- Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Varicent Software Incorporated
- Marc Altshuller, EVP, Worldwide Field Operations, Varicent Software Incorporated
- Robert Antoniades, Managing Director, RBC Venture Partners
- Bryan Kerdman, Partner, EdgeStone Capital Partners
- Janet Perna, former senior executive at IBM
- David Mahoney, former CEO of Applix Software
About Sales Performance Management (SPM)
SPM is a highly effective new approach in business management that works to close the gap between business strategy and actual sales performance. Varicent SPM is the only solution on the market today that automates and accelerates all the core processes involved in SPM including incentive compensation management, territory management, quota planning and roster management. Its powerful reporting, analysis, modeling and planning tools allow every department within an organization the visibility they need to accurately predict and effectively achieve stronger sales performance.
According to the Gartner, Inc. report Sales Performance Management: How It Relates to and Differs from CPM, "SPM represents a combination of operational and analytic software capabilities that automate and integrate functions for planning, designing, allocating and managing sales territories, quotas and compensation plans. These applications help enterprises improve the organization, direction and motivation of sales teams to achieve sustained improvements in revenue and margin production."
About FTV Capital
FTV Capital is a multi-stage private equity firm that invests in high-growth companies offering a range of innovative solutions. FTV Capital provides entrepreneurs with unique access to its Global Partner Network, a group of the world's foremost financial institutions that have invested in FTV Capital and its portfolio companies for more than a decade. Founded in 1998, FTV Capital has more than $1 billion under management and has offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit www.ftvcapital.com.
About RBC Venture Partners
RBC Venture Partners™ is a dedicated team of venture capital professionals specializing in early-stage investments in software and services for enterprise, financial services, and mobile applications.
About EdgeStone
EdgeStone is one of Canada's leading private equity firms and has managed in excess of CDN$2.3 billion of private capital on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients. EdgeStone provides capital, strategic direction and business and financial advice to help promising mid-market and early-stage companies achieve their full potential. EdgeStone leverages the resources of its broad business network and ensures an alignment of interests to achieve superior returns for all stakeholders. EdgeStone is one of the principal entities of GMP Capital Inc. (TSX:GMP).
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated is an innovative software solutions provider delivering measurable improvements to its clients businesses through its industry-leading sales performance management solution Varicent SPM. Varicent's customers are high-performing companies representing a variety of industries and include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
* Dow Jones VentureSource - U.S. Venture Capital Financing, 3Q09 -
http://fis.dowjones.com/VS/3QUSFinancing.html
** Ventana Research - "Potential Market Size for Sales Performance Management" - Article ID V08-18 - 4/29/2008.
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Absa Life Adopts Varicent SPM to Drive Improvements In Their Compensation Management Processes
One of South Africa's largest financial services groups selects Varicent to manage their incentive compensation and sales performance management needs
(Toronto, ON) – The industry leader in providing incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, Varicent Software Incorporated, is excited to announce that Absa Life has adopted Varicent SPM to improve their sales effectiveness. Absa Life is part of the Absa Group, one of South Africa's largest financial services.
"Varicent's superb application provides us with the flexibility and system configurability that can quickly adapt to our changing incentive compensation and sales performance management needs," said Izak Smit, Managing Director of Absa Life. "We are convinced that their solution, will not only meet our needs today, but also well into the future."
By selecting Varicent's solution, Absa Life will have a single solution that can manage their incentive compensation needs. These include:
- Quickly model and change plans and analyze the impact of those changes
- Provide historical analysis of performance
- Forecast expectations and the impact on future sales
"Absa Life's adoption of our software extends our reach in the EMEA region and furthers our penetration in the banking industry, both of which are key markets for Varicent," said Andrew Armstrong, Vice President and General Manager International, Varicent Software. "We look forward to working with Absa Life as they drive improvements in their compensation management processes."
About Absa Life
Absa Life is part of the Absa Group. Absa Life is a diversified business serving personal, commercial and corporate customers and is the seventh largest Life Assurer in South Africa based on net premium income*.
The Absa Group Limited is one of South Africa's largest financial services organisations, serving personal, commercial and corporate customers in South Africa.
The Group interacts with its customers through a combination of physical and electronic channels, offering a comprehensive range of banking services, (from basic products and services for the low-income personal market to customised solutions for the commercial and corporate markets), bancassurance and wealth management products and services.
*KPMG Insurance Industry Survey 2007
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. For more information, please visit www.varicent.com.
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Varicent and HCL Technologies in Partnership to Deliver Sales Performance Management Solutions
To provide world class Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions for global customers across verticals
(Toronto, ON/Noida/Delhi) – Varicent Software Incorporated, an industry innovator and provider of the most comprehensive Sales Performance Management solutions and HCL Technologies Limited ('HCL'), a leading global IT services provider today announced their global partnership. This partnership would enable HCL to build upon its existing strengths in Microsoft Dynamics which forms a strategic part of HCL's Enterprise Application Services (EAS) practice.
HCL will be a global partner of Varicent's, providing clients with systems integration expertise, delivering Varicent SPM solutions throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and implementing Varicent for Microsoft Dynamics CRM throughout North America. The partnership will help HCL offer their existing clients an additional application suite to further improve sales performance in their organizations. Its vast business benefits include improved sales analytics, visibility, and forecasting capabilities.
"In today's competitive world, sales performance management is increasingly becoming the key decisive factor in influencing the sales force to impact the business performance," says Mr. Ram Krishna, Senior Corporate Vice President & Head of Enterprise Application Services, HCL Technologies. "We are pleased to partner with Varicent and offer SPM solutions to our global enterprise customers. The solutions will enhance our service offerings, create differentiators and add tremendous value to our Microsoft Dynamics capabilities," he further added.
HCL's best of breed implementation services, with Varicent's sales performance management system embedded within Microsoft's Dynamics CRM platform will benefit clients by providing:
- Improved sales analytics, visibility, and forecasting capabilities helping connect pipeline to actual payout and providing increased performance insight
- Eliminating shadow accounting by providing personalized commission statements with transaction details
- The ability to boost sales productivity and provide salespeople more time to sell by automating compensation processes
- Helping drive important sales behaviors and meeting corporate objectives through effective management of sales quotas and territories
HCL is a Gold Certified Partner of Microsoft and has built solutions on the Microsoft platform to deliver vertical services in focused areas providing solutions for significant business issues. HCL has built capabilities on two key Microsoft Dynamics product lines i.e. Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Axapta) and Microsoft CRM. These best-of-breed solutions leverage Microsoft products to address industry pain points and compliance standards. Varicent's Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management solution is a natural extension to Microsoft Dynamics CRM services and will act as prime differentiator for HCL Technologies.
"The partnership with HCL Technologies will bring our global customers significant benefit," said Mark Girvan, Vice President Business Development for Varicent. "HCL has a proven track record in delivering value to their customers, and in implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Combining this with Varicent's world class solution provides the market a very cohesive yet affordable solution."
"We are excited that two of our valued partners have entered into their own partnership," said Susan Hauser, vice president, Worldwide Financial Services Sector and acting vice president of Worldwide Industry & Global Accounts, Microsoft. "Microsoft has the broadest, most comprehensive ecosystem of partners in the IT industry, with the ability to provide customized solutions across all verticals. This newly formed alliance provides an excellent example of the power of our partner ecosystem because it will enable all of us to more easily work together and continue to effectively and efficiently deliver increasing value and better ROI for our customers."
About HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on 'transformational outsourcing', underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 20 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Aerospace & Defense, Telecom, Retail & CPG, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Travel, Transportation & Logistics, Automotive, Government, Energy & Utilities. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of 'Employee First' which empowers our 54,216 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 2.2 billion (Rs. 10,591 crores), as on 30th June 2009. For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Convoy Financial Group, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Sun Hung Kai Financial, and many others. www.varicent.com
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Bank of the West Selects Varicent to Support Sales Strategy and Analyze Performance Metrics
Varicent increases banking industry penetration with addition of full-service regional financial services company to their expanding customer base
(Toronto, ON) – The industry leader in providing incentive compensation (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, Varicent Software Incorporated, is pleased to announce that Bank of the West has selected Varicent SPM to manage both incentive compensation and sales performance throughout the organization.
Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services and operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states.
"Varicent's solution will provide us with the unique ability to more effectively analyze important compensation and sales performance metrics. We will also use Varicent to improve the accuracy of our forecasts and to create effective sales incentive models that can drive the right behavior and maximize our future performance," said Donald Duggan, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Bank of the West.
Varicent's SPM solution was chosen by Bank of the West based on its ability to provide:
- A single system for all compensation plan management that easily integrates with all other existing systems
- A lower total cost of ownership than alternative solutions
- In-depth sales analytics to help understand performance, allowing for accurate forecasting and modeling of future plans
- Streamlined administrative processes including the managing and implementing of plan changes, enhanced reporting and inquiry capabilities, managing of pay adjustments and comprehensive security protection
"Bank of the West's adoption of our solution is more evidence that organizations are realizing the positive impact that effective sales performance management systems can have" said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, Varicent Software Incorporated. "We are pleased to enter this relationship and proud to add an organization with the reputation of Bank of the West to our growing customer list."
About Bank of the West
Based in San Francisco, $62 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com) offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services and operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states. In 2009, for the second consecutive year, Bank of the West was ranked the highest in customer satisfaction among retail banks in the West by J.D. Power and Associates. Bank of the West's holding company, BancWest Corporation, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, among the six strongest banks in the world, according to Standard & Poor's.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
www.varicent.com
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Latest CSO Insights’ Survey Confirms A Key To Improved Sales Behavior and Performance is Sales Performance Management
Varicent sponsored report identifies ingredients that should be part of any organization's compensation and sales performance management plans
(Toronto, ON) – According to CSO Insights' 2009 Sales Compensation and Performance Management Survey released today, Sales Performance Management systems provide the visibility and performance metrics managers need to truly coach their people in order to increase bottom-line profits.
Sponsored by Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, the survey includes observations and insights from over 1,000 organizations. The results provide a comprehensive review of compensation practices and performance management strategies employed over the past year along with their respective outcomes. CSO Insights also presents some analysis and recommendations as to what sales organizations should focus on for 2010.
"This year's survey was very different than in previous years", said Jim Dickie, Managing Partner, CSO Insights. "The economy caused a lot of change in terms of how organizations are compensating their salespeople, so we wanted to get an understanding on what types of sales strategies businesses are utilizing to get them back on track for the upcoming year."
Some highlights include:
- Increased quota levels for sales representatives
- Nearly 1 in 4 companies design their plans anticipating less than half of their sales team will make quota
- Decreased total target compensation for sales representatives
"As a sales compensation and performance management software vendor, we strive to deliver practical solutions that can help organizations overcome their challenges", said Brian Hartlen, Vice President, Marketing, Varicent Software Incorporated. "This survey was a great opportunity not only for businesses to gain insight into developing their 2010 programs, but also for Varicent to better understand the needs of the market."
About CSO Insights
CSO Insights benchmarks the challenges faced by today's sales and marketing organizations, tracking trends in the use of people, process, technology and knowledge to improve sales effectiveness. Each year, CSO Insights surveys thousands of Chief Sales Officers to learn the challenges they see as most critical. They also review offerings from solution providers to retain the position of the experts on options for CSOs.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
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MTS Allstream Selects Varicent SPM On Demand for Sales Efficiency and Performance
One of Canada's leading national communication solutions companies to implement Varicent SPM to manage dynamic compensation plans
(Toronto, ON) – Industry leader and innovator Varicent Software Incorporated is excited to announce that their flagship solution, Varicent SPM, has been selected by MTS Allstream Inc. ("MTS Allstream"). MTS Allstream, one of Canada's leading national communication solutions companies, will use Varicent's solution to manage their enterprise sales efficiency and performance across the organization.
"We are pleased to select Varicent's flexible sales management system -- a system that quickly adapts to the changing demands of our business and can help us better maximize our sales performance," said Joe Rizzi, Vice President Finance, Enterprise Solutions Division, MTS Allstream. "We look forward to implementing Varicent's integrated solution for our sales efficiency and performance."
Varicent SPM's solution provides customers with:
- Business Ownership -- customers can "own" the application; business users can administer compensation and the integrated system will reduce costs
- Speed and Flexibility -- the architecture of the solution can quickly respond to, and easily manage changing compensation plans
- Analytics -- Varicent's solution will increase performance visibility and help forecast future opportunities and sales expectations
- Strong Partnership -- the responsiveness, professionalism and consistency exhibited by the company gives customers confidence that Varicent's solution and support will perform well for them
"We are pleased that MTS Allstream has selected Varicent for their sales performance management and we look forward to a successful relationship" said Mark Girvan, Vice President Business Development for Varicent. "We are looking forward to helping MTS Allstream achieve further productivity and effectiveness."
About MTS Allstream
As one of Canada's leading national communication solutions companies, MTS Allstream provides innovative communications for the way Canadians want to live and work today. The Company has more than 100 years of experience, with 6,000 employees across Canada dedicated to a mission of delivering true value as seen through the eyes of our customers. In 2008, MTS Allstream had nearly two million total customer connections spanning business customers across Canada and residential consumers throughout the province of Manitoba. The Company's extensive national broadband and fibre optic network spans almost 30,000 kilometres. MTS Allstream is a proud sponsor of Cindy Klassen, 2006 World Champion and Canada's greatest Olympian, and a proud contributor to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.'s common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol: MBT). Customers, stakeholders and investors who want to learn more about MTS Allstream services, markets, community commitments and record of creating shareholder value are encouraged to visit: www.mtsallstream.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Chosen as One of Canada's Select "Companies-to-Watch" in the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ Awards
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management solutions won a coveted Companies-To-Watch Award, in one of four separate awards categories that make up the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ Awards, the pre-eminent technology awards program in Canada.
The Companies-To-Watch Award honors early-stage Canadian technology companies. These companies exemplify many of the winning characteristics of Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ ranked companies, which are judged using a longer track record.
"Companies-to-Watch award winners frequently go on to score high rankings in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 once they have a five-year track record," said John Ruffolo, National Leader, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Group, Deloitte. "Varicent has quickly distinguished itself for its innovative technology and entrepreneurship and this award recognizes its potential as a leader in the Canadian technology industry."
Varicent's CEO, Dan Shimmerman, credits creativity and innovation combined with listening to customers in approaching the market and providing the company early stage success. Shimmerman said "Traditional vendors in the Sales Performance Management space focused on just Incentive Compensation Management or Enterprise Incentive Management. Varicent viewed these approaches as process automation and were limiting in terms of potential for business impact. Leveraging our team's years of experience in Performance Management we applied it to the incentive compensation market."
The company provides an innovative Sales Performance Management (SPM) solution which encompasses Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning and Sales Analytics. While managing and automating the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, Varicent SPM aligns sales performance with strategic objectives. Business users gain control over complex compensation plans, the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas and the reporting and analyzing of sales performance.
Shimmerman continued "The Varicent solution addresses the business users' needs and the problems they are trying to solve. Our application is business owned from the start and provides our global customers with the speed, flexibility and visibility needed to manage their sales efficiencies and performance".
The majority of Companies-to-Watch winners are potential global leaders in technology sectors that didn't even exist five years ago. To win the award, companies must display the kind of management expertise and superior technology that mark a successful, early-stage company poised for continued growth.
About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50™
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ program is Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program. Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features four distinct categories including the Technology Fast 50™ Ranking, Companies-to-Watch Awards (early-stage Canadian tech companies in business less than five years, with the potential to be a future Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ candidate,) Leadership Awards (companies that demonstrate technological leadership in four industry subcategories: hardware/semiconductor, software, telecommunications and emerging technologies) and the Deloitte Technology Green 15™ Awards (Canada's leading GreenTech companies that promote a more efficient use and re-use of the earth's resources in industrial production and consumption.) Program sponsors include Deloitte, Gowlings, GrowthWorks, RBC, Wellington Financial, Stonewood Group, HKMB Hub, CATAAlliance, CleanTech Group, IGLOO, ITAC, MaRS and Microsoft. For further information, visit www.fast50.ca.
About Varicent Software Incorporated.
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
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Varicent Stays Sharp in Second Quarter of 2009
Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation leader closes second quarter with continued customer adoption and significant product innovation
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovative and industry leading provider of Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) and Sales Performance Management (SPM) announced impressive performance for the second quarter of 2009. Notable achievements include extensive global adoption of Varicent Software, significant development of the company's flagship product, Varicent SPM and strong financial performance where revenues increased by over 100% over the second quarter of 2008.
"Organizations worldwide continue to adopt sales performance management as a proven and accepted standard of improving sales effectiveness. Varicent has continued to gain global market share through product innovation, a driven sales team and a passion to help our clients be successful" said Dan Shimmerman, CEO Varicent.
The second quarter saw global companies in a variety of industries including financial services, high tech, manufacturing, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals choose Varicent to manage their sales performance and incentive compensation. Some of the new customers acquired in Q2 include Elavon, an end-to-end payment processing firm, the paint and coating manufacturer and distributor Sherwin-Williams, Sun Hung Kai Financial, the leading non-bank financial institution in Hong Kong, Amedica Corporation, an orthopedic implant company, and Convoy Financial Group, the leading independent financial advisory firm in Hong Kong. With an increasingly diverse vertical and geographic distribution of customers and the drive to meet the extensive global demand for SPM, Varicent is poised to carry this momentum throughout the rest of 2009.
Growth in Q2 was also fueled by the release of Varicent SPM 6.0. Varicent is excited about the new release which provides features to improve the alignment of strategies, sales execution and better insight into sales performance. Its new reporting capabilities provide for greater depth of information and expanded delivery options. SPM 6.0 also includes salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration and has the capability to provide users greater visibility and sales data accuracy from their CRM tools.
Varicent's inaugural Users Conference, INSIGHT09, took place in May and was a huge success. The event brought together Varicent customers, partners and other industry leaders to discuss challenges, opportunities and technology advances in the field of Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation. The event's sponsors included Accenture, Deloitte, Microsoft, Watson Wyatt, Arcadia, Glenture, OpenSymmetry and Revelwood.
In the second quarter, Varicent earned industry recognition having been ranked first in product manageability and product adaptability through the Ventana Research 2009 Value Index for Sales Performance Management.
With a successful second quarter and half year behind them, Varicent is intent on looking forward not back. "We are pleased with our great first half of the year, however, we are more focused on finishing strong and remaining on track to achieve another record year in 2009", said Shimmerman.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
www.varicent.com
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Kronos Selects Varicent to Drive Sales Performance Management
Global leader in workforce management solutions to implement sales performance management
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, an innovator and leading provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions today announced that Kronos Incorporated has selected Varicent to manage incentive compensation and performance across its sales and services organizations. Kronos delivers time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics solutions to organizations of all sizes.
The Varicent SPM solution was chosen based on Varicent's ability to deliver flexibility and efficiency, providing Kronos with an effective and efficient solution for its incentive compensation and sales performance management needs.
Varicent was designed to be administered and maintained by business users allowing them to own the entire compensation process for their sales and service organization. By using Varicent, the Kronos compensation team gains the ability to generate and deliver extensive reports and analytics quickly and effortlessly.
"After a thorough examination, we were impressed with Varicent's robust technology, industry expertise, company momentum and great reputation," said John Butler, Vice President of Finance, Kronos Incorporated. "Varicent will help Kronos keep pace with our rapidly changing business environment and drive performance through comprehensive reporting and analytics," continued Butler. Varicent SPM will handle more than a dozen plans that vary in structure and pull data in from multiple systems.
"We are excited to partner with Kronos and look forward to a successful relationship," said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President Worldwide Field Operations. "Organizations are quickly recognizing the value Varicent offers for enabling visibility, flexibility and speed into incentive compensation plans and the performance of their sales and services organizations."
About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries - including more than half of the Fortune 1000® - use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. www.kronos.com
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others. www.varicent.com
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Convoy Financial Group Selects Varicent for Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management
Leading financial group in Hong Kong automates compensation to drive productivity and time-to-market
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its flagship product, Varicent SPM, has been selected by Convoy Financial Group (Convoy) to manage its sales performance across the organization.
Varicent Software partnered with Beans Factory, a leading provider of e-business solutions and information integration services in Asia, to introduce Varicent SPM which will be developed as a core engine of Convoy's Sales Performance Management in order to cope with the rapid growth of business in Hong Kong as well as in the Greater China region.
"Varicent SPM was selected based on their ability to provide us the speed, flexibility and visibility for our sales performance across all of our business units. By adopting the Varicent platform, we would be able to extend products and line of business easily so as to cope with our development plan in Asia." said Eric Ng, Chief Operation Officer, Convoy Financial Group.
"We are excited to add Convoy to our growing list of customers in Asia and we are delighted that they chose Varicent to be a key contributor to their overall goal of improving sales effectiveness", said Andrew Armstrong, VP and General Manager International.
Using Varicent SPM, companies can efficiently and effectively manage and automate the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, providing more visibility and accountability into one of the organization's largest variable expenses."We are very happy to be partnering with both Convoy and Beans Factory on this important project", says Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations at Varicent.
About Convoy Financial Group
With the establishment of the subsidiaries including Convoy Financial Services Limited, Convoy Assent Management Limited, Convoy Collateral Limited and Convoy Investment Services Limited, The Group provides diversified services encompassing financial planning services, risk management, asset allocation, retirement planning, estate planning, and trading services for securities. Convoy has set the benchmark as the most sizable professional IFA team in Hong Kong. With objective and competent view, over the years, it has offered superb quality wealth management services to the people of Hong Kong by scheming tailor-made financial plans and reaping optimal returns from their investments.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Sun Hung Kai Financial, Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
About Beans Factory
Beans Factory provides cutting-edge enterprise products, solutions and integration services. With a team of quality and energetic professional consultants, Beans Factory delivers enterprises applications through consulting and turnkey projects. Beans Factory position themselves to serve corporate customers by leveraging best of breed and state-of-the-art open standards technology. Clientele includes Standard Chartered Bank, Convoy Financial, Sun Hung Kai Financials, Ping An Insurance and many others.
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Varicent Launches Further Innovation in Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management Solutions with Latest Release
Varicent SPM 6.0 enables organizations to improve alignment of strategies to sales execution, provide better insight into sales performance and expand information delivery options
(Chicago, IL) – Varicent Software, an innovator and leading provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions today announced Varicent SPM 6.0 at INSIGHT09, the annual users conference for Varicent clients and partners.
This next generation of Varicent SPM includes new capabilities and advanced reporting features for customers who rely on Varicent SPM to meet the increasing demands of their variable compensation programs and the performance of their sales force.
"Sales Performance Management is a top priority in organizations as it helps align sales to critical processes to achieve desired levels of revenue performance", said Mark Smith CEO & EVP Research of Ventana Research, "Varicent's new release brings critical advancements to help organizations maximize their insight and knowledge through modeling and presentation of sales analytics."
Varicent SPM 6.0 features include:
- Presenter - an intuitive, graphical layout capability that enables business users to easily create and distribute highly formatted and interactive sales reports and analysis. Through a single drag-and-drop interface, organizations can quickly and easily create custom reports from compensation statements through to complex sales effectiveness analysis.
- Model Manager - enables application managers to graphically view, compare, and manage multiple compensation models, providing large enterprises the ability to collaborate across different lines of business while streamlining the process of migrating models from test environments into production.
- CRM integration - meeting the growing demand for SPM and CRM integration, Varicent SPM can be embedded directly into Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide higher visibility and accuracy of sales data for various roles within the organization such as field representatives, sales managers, and compensation analysts. In addition, Varicent SPM can also now load data directly to and from Salesforce.com.
"With the release of the Presenter functionality in 6.0, Varicent provides a significant strategic and operational capability that drives the critical role that Varicent SPM plays in many sales organizations", says Andy Jordan, CIO at Nexient Learning. "As the central processing hub of sales data including territory assignments, quota allocations, and incentive compensation plans, Varicent SPM can quickly surface valuable insight to improve sales performance, so the ability to report on that information is absolutely vital."
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2009 Shows Continuing Growth and Influence with Record First Quarter
Varicent's SPM leadership position further validated by market and industry
(Chicago, IL) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced continued upward momentum for Q1 2009.
Varicent recorded 100% revenue growth quarter over quarter for Q1, which is in line with previous record quarters. Market penetration continued, with new customers across diverse industries including retail, publishing, technology, telecommunications and medical devices.
"In looking at who's adopting Varicent, we can confidently state that the need for automated and comprehensive sales performance management spans across all industries," says Dan Shimmerman, CEO. "As organizations face the challenge of driving revenues while managing the bottom line they are becoming increasingly reliant on timely, accurate and actionable information to drive their businesses. They need to see value from their technology investments, and they're getting that value from Varicent - in actual dollars and measurable efficiency gains."
Key business developments in Q1 include:
- Customer growth fueled by substantial adoption of Varicent SPM on-demand offering
- Announcement of INSIGHT09, Varicent's first user conference; bringing together the SPM community to learn about Varicent's direction, hear about product updates and share experiences with other clients and partners. Presenters include Varicent management, Accenture, Deloitte, Watson Wyatt and several customers.
- Industry veteran, Bruce Jackson hired as VP, Solutions Consulting to apply his expertise on an operational level to sales, marketing, delivery and product management.
Industry Recognition includes:
- Cited as one of the "Companies to Watch" in Intelligent Enterprise's 2009 Editors' Choice Awards.
- Received BPM Partners "Beyond the Hype" Award for being an innovator in a specialized BPM category and for providing true SPM.
"Our achievements up until now, and especially throughout the last quarter, are a strong signal that the market, despite an economic downturn, recognizes the value of Sales Performance Management", continued Shimmerman. "We are thrilled that Varicent's dedication to client success, commitment to innovation and investment in partner relationships has resulted in significant adoption of Varicent SPM."
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
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Elavon Selects Varicent for Sales Performance Management
Company to deliver increased visibility and flexibility in incentive compensation management to both internal and external payees
(Chicago, IL) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its solution, Varicent SPM, has been selected by Elavon to improve sales effectiveness for their organization. Elavon provides end-to-end payment processing services to merchants and financial institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and throughout Europe. Elavon has 3,000 employees and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elavon calculates commission payments for 800 sales-related employees and 2,400 partners on a monthly basis, and requires a solution that
- provides online visibility into variable pay for both their internal and external payees
- is owned and managed by business owners
- delivers a flexible and powerful set of capabilities
- streamlines the dispute resolution process
"We had an exacting set of requirements," said Jamie Walker, chief financial officer, Elavon. "We put all the vendors through some demanding proof steps during our selection process, and Varicent performed extremely well as an organization. They had the best solution to meet our needs."
Varicent was chosen as the solution for Elavon's Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation needs because of the:
- Flexibility of the Software - The ability to easily extend the data model to meet
Elavon's precise needs - Lower Cost of Ownership - The architecture, leveraging the Microsoft stack, the flexibility combined with a proven implementation methodology provide a lower cost of ownership
- Varicent Team - The responsiveness of the organization, the professionalism in delivering support to Elavon during the selection process allows them to really understand the application and what would be required for success
"Elavon is a rapidly growing organization who continually provides innovative solutions to their clients. We are very pleased that they chose Varicent for their Incentive Compensation Management needs" said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations for Varicent. "We believe that this is another testament to not only the quality of the solutions we provide, but of the team we have built to support our customers."
About Elavon
Elavon's Global Acquiring Solutions organization is a part of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB). Elavon provides end-to-end payment processing services to more than one million merchants in the United States, Europe, Canada and Puerto Rico. Solutions include credit and debit card processing, electronic check services, gift cards, dynamic currency conversion, multi-currency support, and cross-border acquiring. Elavon's services are marketed through multiple alliance partner channels including financial institutions, trade associations and ISOs. Elavon has solutions to meet the needs of merchants in specialized markets including small business, retail, hospitality/T&E, health care, education and the public sector.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin-Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
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Sun Hung Kai Financial Selects Varicent for Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management
Leading financial institution in Hong Kong automates compensation to drive productivity and time-to-market
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its flagship product, Varicent SPM, has been selected by Sun Hung Kai Financial (SHKF) to manage its compensation programs across the organization.
As Hong Kong's leading non-bank financial institution, SHKF boasts a wide variety of offerings such as wealth and asset management, corporate finance, and principal investments, and employs a multi-tiered sales team with numerous product lines. Despite global economic volatility, SHKF has been experiencing ever-increasing growth in the market, especially in the wealth management area, that is exceeding the capacity of its existing support staff. Varicent Software partnered with Beans Factory, a leading provider of e-business solutions and information integration services in Asia, to implement Varicent SPM in order to automate SHKF's compensation processes.
"We knew we needed a solution that was robust enough to handle the complexity of our compensation models, but we didn't want to have to rely on IT services whenever we make changes", said Kevin Tai, Chief Operating Officer, Wealth Management & Brokerage, SHKF. "Varicent SPM gives business users the ability to fully manage the compensation process without requiring deep technical skills, which is a significant improvement in productivity as well as time-to-market."
Varicent SPM was chosen as the solution of choice because of the visibility of critical sales information that it gives to a variety of business roles. Field sales representatives, for example, are able to view their commission statements down to the transaction level, and any dispute resolution processes are fully logged and automated. Sales managers have a complete and in-depth view of team performance in order to maximize sales effectiveness. And executives can get real-time updates about the business through dashboards and reports. Above all, Varicent SPM demonstrated the flexibility to manage not only SHKF's current sales processes, but also the highly anticipated growth in sales volume, sales professionals, and products, which all play a crucial role in compensation and sales performance management.
"SHKF sees this engagement as the beginning of a valuable relationship with Varicent", continued Tai. "Our first step is to automate our incentive compensation processes, but what really impressed us was Varicent SPM's comprehensive capability around territory management, quota planning, and sales analytics. Varicent SPM will help us drive a competitive edge for our sales organization almost immediately."
SHKF's implementation of Varicent SPM will be led by Beans Factory with the assistance of Varicent's services group. "We are very happy to be partnering with both Sun Hung Kai Financial and Beans Factory on this important project", says Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations at Varicent.
About Sun Hung Kai Financial
Sun Hung Kai Financial, is the leading non-bank financial institution in Hong Kong. The Group currently has approximately HK$50 billion in assets under management, custody and/or advice, and more than HK$11 billion of shareholders' equity. Its core areas of focus include wealth management and brokerage, asset management, corporate finance, consumer finance as well as principal investments. Listed on the HKEx (stock code: 86), the Group has an extensive branch and office network in over 60 locations in Hong Kong, Macau, China and Singapore.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, Linksys by Cisco, Sherwin Williams, Manpower, Autodesk, Getty Images, Starwood Hotels, Time Customer Service, and many others.
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Sherwin-Williams Selects Varicent Sales Performance Management Software to Manage Variable Compensation
Sherwin-Williams to roll-out broad based incentive compensation solution to 18,000 employees globally
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its solution, Varicent SPM, has been selected by Sherwin-Williams to manage compensation and performance for their global sales organization. The Sherwin-Williams Company is a leading manufacturer and distributor of paint, coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial and retail customers around the world.
Sherwin-Williams plans to implement Varicent SPM along with process improvements over the next year. Sherwin-Williams is focused on driving improvements in sales effectiveness and implementing best practices around compliance. "After a thorough evaluation, we determined Varicent was the best solution to meet our needs," said Randy Ross, Director of Compensation, Paint Stores Group. "We liked Varicent's comprehensive approach, and flexibility, that will allow us to be more strategic in the areas of territory management, incentive plan design, and performance analytics," continued Ross. Sherwin-Williams plans on rolling out Varicent to more than 18,000 employees across their organization.
"Sherwin-Williams have a great vision for a complete sales performance management solution, going beyond basic incentive compensation," said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President Worldwide Field Operations, Varicent. Using Varicent SPM, companies can efficiently and effectively manage and automate the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, providing more visibility and accountability into one of the organization's largest variable expenses. "We are delighted to be partnered with Sherwin-Williams as they implement these significant improvements in overall sales effectiveness," continued Altshuller.
About The Sherwin-Williams Company
Founded in 1866, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution and sale of coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The company manufactures products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams®, Dutch Boy®, Krylon®, Minwax®, Thompson's® Water Seal®, and many more.
With global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams® branded products are sold exclusively through a chain of more than 3,000 company-operated stores and facilities, while the company's other brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers,home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors.
The Sherwin-Williams Global Group distributes a wide range of products in more than 30 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.sherwin.com.
About Varicent Software Incorporated
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning, and many others.
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Varicent to Deliver Sales Performance Management Capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Integrated solution gives organizations a holistic view on customer management and sales effectiveness on the Microsoft platform
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation and sales performance management (SPM) solutions today, announced an integrated solution with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The Varicent SPM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration will enable sales managers and sales professionals to:
- Have a complete view of sales performance, compensation results and key performance indicators
- Create visibility into inquiries, compensation and plan approvals from a single application
- Manage other incentives including Management by Objectives (MBOs)
- Facilitate the development and management of quota plans
Using Varicent, organizations can derive significant business value from their Microsoft Dynamics CRM investment by extending its capabilities to sales performance and providing a single solution that addresses the needs of various departments across the organization. Bridging Marketing, Finance, Sales and Human Resources, the integrated solution facilitates alignment between field activities, and corporate strategy. "We are very excited about this opportunity to work closely with Microsoft and the Dynamics CRM product team," said Brian Hartlen, Vice President Marketing at Varicent. "Having an integrated CRM and SPM solution will increase CRM's relevance to sales,motivating increased adoption rates. The sales audience will gain visibility into actual and potential commissions through enhanced sales reporting, analysis, modeling and forecasting available within this unique integrated offering."
"Organizations need CRM solutions that can easily model and automate CRM processes that span the enterprise," said Brad Wilson, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "The integrated solution shows the innovation of Microsoft partners like Varicent and the flexibility of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. In conjunction with Varicent's sales performance management solutions, Dynamics CRM will provide a shared awareness about the revenue generation activities within a company to drive sales more effectively."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning, and many others.
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Time Customer Service Selects Varicent Sales Performance Management Software to Improve Incentive Sales Compensation
Company to Provide Timely Commission Payments for Partners and 3rd Parties through Automation
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its solution, Varicent SPM, has been selected by Time Customer Service, Inc. as its new contract accounting system to manage, model, analyze and report on incentive compensation plans and sales performance for partnerships and 3rd parties.
"We needed a solution to handle our rapidly growing channel of contract based partners that gives us the performance we required, flexibility of introducing new deal types, and ability to handle the complex eligibility rules associated with a subscription based model while we scale and continually grow our business," said Barry Elliott, VP Finance and Administration, Time Customer Service, Inc. "Varicent was chosen because they fully understood our business processes, and how our incentive compensation needs are different from organizations with a traditional direct sales team."
"We are pleased that Time Customer Service selected Varicent for their incentive compensation and sales performance management needs," said Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations for Varicent. "We have seen a growing demand from channel based organizations that need to be much more responsive to their rapidly changing environments." Using Varicent SPM, companies can efficiently and effectively manage and automate the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, providing more visibility and accountability into one of the organization's largest variable expenses. Time Customer Service plans to use Varicent SPM to calculate and trigger payment of partner incentives for new subscriptions and renewals across their well-known magazine titles that include Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Time, People and many others. Varicent will also be used to track future commission exposure against the deferred revenue stream related to the subscription and generate detailed statements for their partners to understand their payouts and track program success.
About Time Customer Service
Time Customer Service, Inc., a subsidiary of Time Inc., provides fulfillment services for a broad array of marketing partners in a variety of direct marketing businesses. Time Customer Service, Inc. clients include many world-renowned magazines and publishers. Its fulfillment services range from retail back office to simple data processing; from list management to cutting edge hybrid merchandise direct marketing and traditional customer service.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning, and many others.
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New Appointment Continues Momentum at Varicent
Industry veteran brings expertise in sales strategy and enabling technologies
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced the appointment of Bruce Jackson as Vice President, Solutions Consulting.
Bruce brings more than 10 years of consulting experience in strategic planning, business process optimization, technology assessment and system integration engagements across diverse industries. Most recently he led the Business Solutions team for Iconixx, a leading consulting firm focused on sales incentive strategies and enabling technologies.
In that role, Bruce led the business solutions team in advising clients on business strategy and technology enablement within core Sales Performance Management and Sales 2.0 fundamentals including sales and marketing alignment, sales incentives and performance management and sales channel effectiveness.
"We are very excited to welcome Bruce to the Varicent team," says Marc Altshuller, Executive Vice President. "He is a respected industry influencer and has an innate understanding of how sales solutions and technologies are evolving to meet the new pressures of the market. His insights and expertise will help to drive our vision for Sales Performance Management."
In his new role at Varicent, Bruce will engage with all departments across the company including sales, marketing, delivery and product management. He will advise and guide on an operational level in sales discovery and delivery, marketing content development and provide implementation subject matter expertise.
"When respected experts like Bruce join Varicent, it further validates the value and potential of our solution," says Altshuller. "Leaders want to be associated with leaders, so they have a dynamic environment where they can continue to develop expertise and impact the industry."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
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Record Results Continue as Market Demand Grows for Varicent SPM
Varicent entrenches leadership in sales performance management
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, continues to build on its momentum as a leader in the quickly evolving SPM market.
Remarkable revenue growth in 2008 was fueled by record customer demand, with notable companies including Getty Images, Smith and Nephew, Shaw Industries, Time Customer Service, Farmers Insurance, Nexient Learning, Gexa Energy, Manpower and more realizing the potential and value of Varicent SPM.
"There is no disputing that the current economic turmoil is affecting everyone," says Dan Shimmerman, CEO of Varicent. "But our growth highlights that solutions which deliver on the promise of improving the bottom line have infinite value. We will continue to be aggressive in strengthening our position as a dominant SPM player. Our recently launched global operations in EMEA and APAC, our strong partner network and new product innovations will help us to build on our successful track record of growth and delivering results."
Key business developments include:
- Corporate expansion with the hire of key senior executives, the launch of EMEA and APAC operations and an expanded Board of Directors
- Significant expansion of partner network including partnerships with Accenture, Deloitte, Revelwood, Arcadia, OpenSymmetry, Beans Factory and Suvitech
Key product developments include:
- Launch of unique graphical user interface so that Compensation Analysts can manage the applications themselves
- Successful product launches integrating Varicent SPM with Microsoft solutions
- Growth of on-demand and on-premise delivery options for increased flexibility
- Industry-first mobile application for sales performance management
Industry recognition includes:
- Positive rating from Gartner's MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management1
- ISV/Software Solution of the Year Award, Microsoft 2008 Impact Awards
- Market Leaders Incentive Management, Finalist, 2008 CRM Market Awards
"We are looking forward to the year ahead because the market has told us time and again that effective sales compensation management is a key priority," continues Shimmerman. "We are committed to helping companies shore up their bottom lines by improving sales effectiveness through speed, flexibility and visibility."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
1Gartner "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2008.
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Record Revenue, Customer Wins, Global Expansion, New Partners And Industry Recognition Drive Momentum
Varicent Software continues unprecedented growth in second and third quarters of 2008
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced record achievements for the second and third quarters of 2008.
Revenue results were strong for both quarters driven by a number of new customer acquisitions and significantly larger orders for Varicent SPM. Q2 revenue was up 40% over Q1 2008 and in Q3, Varicent generated record revenues and a 35% revenue increase over Q2 2008 showing evidence of a growing market demand for Varicent solutions.
"Our remarkable growth in 2008 confirms that companies realize the revenue and efficiency opportunities that can be achieved by implementing effective sales performance management," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO of Varicent. "With current economic volatility, companies worldwide are choosing Varicent SPM so they can keep the sales force focused on driving revenue while reducing the cost of sales."
To support its growing customer base, Varicent initiated several new customer focused programs:
- The addition of 24x7 contact center support ensuring seamless and accurate issue qualification for our growing list of global organizations.
- A new Client Support Handbook detailing guidelines and best practices for Varicent SPM.
- Introduction of a formal Customer Advisory Board to give advice on Varicent SPM and the future vision of the solution.
- Announcement of Varicent's inaugural User Conference, INSIGHT09, taking place in Chicago from May 3 - 5, 2009.
Other notable highlights from Q2 and Q3 2008 include:
- Received a Positive rating from Gartner's MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software1.
- Expanded globally with new offices in the UK and Hong Kong; Andy Armstrong, sales compensation industry veteran and former Callidus VP hired as Vice President and General Manager International.
- Added many new customers including Shaw Industries Group, the largest worldwide carpet manufacturer; Smith & Nephew, a medical devices company that develops advanced medical products for healthcare professionals around the world; Nexient, the largest Canadian corporate training and consulting company; Getty Images, a provider of images and services that help the world's visual communicators do their work.
- Awarded the ISV/Software Solution of the Year Award at the 2008 Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards, which recognizes excellence across Microsoft's community of Canadian technology partners.
- Appointed Janet Perna, former General Manager at IBM Software in the Information Management division and David Mahoney, an award-winning executive and former CEO of Applix and Banyan to the Board of Directors.
- Launched Varicent SPM 5.1, which offers enhancements including payee profile, updated sensitivity module, multi-language support, improved processing speed, branding options, Microsoft CRM integration and integrated statistics and monitoring program.
"It has been a tremendous year for Varicent," continued Shimmerman, "We have grown our customer and partner base, expanded our business infrastructure and broadened our influence. While we celebrate that success, it also encourages us to continue driving our vision of sales performance management deeper into the industry. Our proven ability to improve sales effectiveness through speed, flexibility and visibility will undoubtedly make Varicent SPM the solution of choice for companies looking to drive revenue while cutting costs."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
1Gartner "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2008.
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Varicent Wins ISV/Software Solution of the Year in 2008 Microsoft Partner Program Impact Awards
Canadian technology partners and their commitment and leadership in the channel community recognized at annual Microsoft Awards
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions announced today that it has been selected as the winner in the ISV/Software Solution of the Year at the 2008 Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards. The sixth annual IMPACT awards recognize excellence across the large and diverse community of Microsoft's Canadian technology partners. The winners were announced at a gala event in Toronto on November 13, 2008.
"As real leaders in their fields, technology partners like Varicent continue to help customers optimize their business performance," said Lora Gernon, Senior Director, Partner Group, Microsoft Canada Co. "Our annual IMPACT Awards celebrates top technology partners who have shown true passion through their tremendous service to customers and innovative solutions."
Varicent was chosen as the winner in ISV/Software Solution of the Year for its solution, Varicent SPM. Varicent SPM helps organizations improve sales effectiveness by offering a comprehensive solution that includes Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning, and Performance Analytics. Varicent delivers the most innovative solutions that address the complex and rapidly changing needs of organizations that need to dramatically improve their incentive compensation and sales performance processes and systems.
"This award recognizes the exceptional solution Varicent provides for our clients," said Mark Girvan, Vice President Business Development, Varicent. "By providing our clients a comprehensive solution around variable compensation plans and sales performance, they have the ability to easily administer the most complex sales models and compensation plans, increasing both their efficiency and effectiveness while providing visibility and insight."
About the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards
In 2003, Microsoft Canada replaced all of its previous technology partner awards with a unified program that also recognizes customer service, marketing, and contribution to the community.
The IMPACT Awards include categories that recognize top technology partners for excellence in four categories: Solution Awards; Business Awards; Marketing Awards; and Community & Initiative Awards.
The Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards are open to Systems Integrators, Large Account Resellers, Direct Market Resellers, Value Added Resellers, Distributors, Systems Builders, Authorized Education Resellers, Certified Partners for Learning Solutions, Microsoft Certified Partners, Independent Software Vendors, Channel Suppliers, Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) Partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers.
For a list of all 2008 winners, and more information on the Microsoft for Partner IMPACT Awards, please visit http://www.microsoft.ca/awards.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
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Varicent Selected as ISV/Software Solution of the Year Finalist in Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards
Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards recognize top Canadian technology partners for customer support and service successes
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software announced that it has been selected as a finalist in the ISV/Software Solution of the Year category for the 2008 Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards. The sixth annual IMPACT Awards recognize excellence within the Microsoft technology partner community in Canada as well as the innovative solutions and value they deliver to customers.
"Partners are at the core of Microsoft's business model and Microsoft has always relied upon a strong network of technology partner companies to bring technology to customers and provide the foundation for delivering solutions to the marketplace." said Lora Gernon, Director, Partner Group, Microsoft Canada Co. "We are proud to celebrate companies like Varicent at the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards as they help drive business growth and customer satisfaction through their stellar demonstration of industry leadership."
Varicent was chosen as a finalist in the ISV/Software Solution of the Year category for its solution, Varicent SPM. Varicent SPM aligns sales performance with strategic objectives though pay-for-performance by offering a comprehensive solution that includes Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management, Quota Planning, and Performance Analytics. Varicent delivers the most innovative technology that addresses the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise including finance, sales, HR and IT departments.
"We are very happy to be named a finalist for this award" said Brian Hartlen, VP Marketing, Varicent. "This acknowledgement further validates the strength of our product and the value we bring by combining our sales performance expertise with Microsoft platforms to enable information workers with better visibility, control and insight into their variable compensation programs."
Varicent, along with other technology partner winners and finalists in each of the award categories, will be honored at a gala event in Toronto on November 13, 2008.
About the Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards
In 2003, Microsoft Canada replaced all of its previous technology partner awards with a unified program that also recognizes customer service, marketing, and contribution to the community. Microsoft Canada has outlined 30 categories to highlight the Partner Program competencies to honour the achievements of top technology partners.
The Microsoft Partner Program IMPACT Awards were open to Systems Integrators, Large Account Resellers, Direct Market Resellers, Value Added Resellers, Distributors, Systems Builders, Authorized Education Resellers, Certified Partners for Learning Solutions, Microsoft Certified Partners, Independent Software Vendors, Channel Suppliers, Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) Partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
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Sales Compensation Industry Veteran Andy Armstrong Joins Varicent
Former Callidus Vice President Joins Varicent to Head Varicent's Global Expansion
(Toronto and London) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced the appointment of Andy Armstrong as Vice President and General Manager International.
Formerly Vice President and General Manager International with Callidus Software, a leading Incentive Compensation Management Software vendor, Armstrong's remit is to drive forward the global expansion of the Toronto-based company.
Dan Shimmerman, CEO of Varicent Software said, "We are delighted to attract someone of Andy Armstrong's calibre. Varicent has grown 100% year on year and we needed someone with Andy's experience to shepherd our expansion in EMEA and Asia Pacific regions."
Armstrong is currently setting up a European headquarters in the UK and will be recruiting Channel Partners to sell Varicent SPM, which has already attracted clients such as Manpower, Smith & Nephew, Dice.com, and Starwood Hotels. "I'm delighted to be working with a dynamic team and a fast-growing company with an innovative and proven solution. I'm looking forward to working with our global systems integrators and reseller partners to accelerate Varicent's impressive growth globally."
Varicent Software focuses on delivering complete sales performance management applications through direct operations and increasingly through strong partnerships with global systems integrators like Accenture and Deloitte, but also through a network of resellers and regional systems integrators. "Leveraging these relationships and growing the partner ecosystem will be a high priority for Andy" continues Shimmerman. "We plan to move quickly in order to capitalize on the global market opportunity."
Gartner gave Varicent Software a 'positive' rating in Gartner's MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software1. Varicent is considered to be a strong competitor and innovator in the Sales Performance Management market. Formed in 2003, Varicent has customers across many industry sectors, including high-tech, banking, insurance, medical devices and service industries.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, Shaw Industries, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning, and many others.
1Gartner "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2008.
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Varicent Partners with The Glenture Group to Align Pay-For-Performance Initiatives with Corporate Strategy
Partnership provides complete Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions
(Seattle) – Microsoft BI Conference 2008 -- Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with The Glenture Group, a leading corporate performance management consulting firm based in Chicago. The partnership will enable Varicent and Glenture to drive innovation and build joint incentive compensation and corporate performance management solutions.
Glenture is a Microsoft Gold Partner, with strong expertise in Business Intelligence and ERP. The company has recently built a sales performance management (SPM) practice based on Varicent SPM, with managing partner Joshua Chung acting as practice lead.
"We are very excited about Glenture's commitment to sales performance management, as evidenced by its recently launched practice," says Mark Girvan, Vice President of Business Development at Varicent. "The combination of Varicent's product line, and Glenture's CPM background provide a winning combination for companies looking to implement new pay-for-performance processes that tie compensation right back to corporate strategy."
The Varicent partnership is an important step for Glenture in advancing their thought leadership, and advancing their success in designing and implementing corporate performance management solutions. "We have a history of delivering valuable solutions to enterprise customers," says Jim Archuleta, Managing Partner, Glenture. "Sales Performance Management is a natural extension to the value we provide customers. After assessing the market it was clear to us that Varicent was the natural choice based on their technology, vision and willingness to work with partners."
Varicent and Glenture will be launching the new partnership at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference taking place in Seattle Oct 6-8, 2008.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Shaw Industries, Nexient Learning, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Chase Paymentech and many others.
About Glenture
Glenture is a management and technology solutions firm that helps companies improve corporate performance management through targeted information technology solutions. We enhance financial planning and measurement capabilities through improved forecasting, planning, budgeting, reporting and consolidations, and other performance related areas. For more information on Glenture, please visit http://www.glenture.com/.
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Shaw Industries Group Inc. Chooses Varicent for Variable Compensation Management and Planning
2000 payees will use solution to manage variable compensation
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced that Shaw Industries Group has chosen Varicent SPM to track variable pay for 2000 payees across its commercial and residential lines of business.
Shaw Industries Group Inc. is a $5 billion subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and is the world's largest manufacturer of tufted broadloom carpet. With its previous process, Shaw spent a significant amount of time, resources and costs to manage variable compensation. The company was also experiencing challenges in accommodating plan changes, new plans or any type of new pay structure because of an inability to compare scenarios and model strategies.
"We wanted a quick return on investment as well as the ability to position ourselves for business enablement so we can change with the market," says Roger Mathis, Corporate Sales Administration at Shaw. "With our semi-automated process, we're spending 14 days a month managing compensation. Our goals include reducing process costs, lessening dependency on IT resources, increasing the payee's understanding of compensation calculations, and eliminating errors and shadow accounting."
Shaw chose Varicent because it provides a comprehensive approach to incentive compensation, sales performance, quota management, and territory optimization. Expected business benefits for Shaw upon implementing Varicent SPM include:
- Eliminating security risks
- Minimizing legal exposure
- Increased efficiency
- Advanced Performance Analytics
- Minimized dependence on key personnel
- Improved modeling capabilities
- Improved links between incentive compensation and performance metrics
Beyond the business benefits, the relationship between the Varicent and Shaw teams was a key differentiator. "Varicent is more than another software vendor; they are business people with similar opportunities to ours," says Valerie Kilgore, Sales Administration Manager at Shaw. "They understand the importance of speaking our language and establishing strong connections at the executive level. As a result, we are creating a partnership where Varicent is helping us at both the transactional process and strategic levels."
Varicent is equally excited about the opportunities inherent in the partnership. "Having an industry leader like Shaw recognize the potential in Varicent SPM is very exciting," says Brian Hartlen, Vice President, Marketing at Varicent. "We look forward to the opportunity to help Shaw achieve sales effectiveness through improved compensation management."
Varicent, in cooperation with its partner Revelwood, is beginning the engagement immediately, with go-live anticipated in early 2009. Shaw will begin using Varicent's modeling capability right away to develop 2009 plans. The first phase of the project involves automating compensation management for the Commercial and Residential lines of business. Future phases are expected to include Performance Analytics and Mobility.
"The solution is more than a way to improve our transactional processes so we pay people correctly," says John Godwin, Executive VP Residential Sales and Marketing at Shaw. "It is a critical strategic tool that allows us to combine world class technology with the differentiated expertise of the Varicent team to enable our business in new and innovative ways."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning, and many others.
About Shaw
Shaw Industries Group Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is the world's largest carpet manufacturer and a leading floor covering provider with more than $5 billion in annual sales and approximately 31,000 associates. Headquartered in Dalton, Ga., the company manufactures and distributes carpeting, rugs, hardwood, laminate and ceramic tile for residential and commercial applications worldwide. A recognized leader in environmental stewardship, Shaw has implemented hundreds of sustainability initiatives and cradle to cradle design solutions, collectively termed the Shaw Green Edge. For more information on Shaw, please visit http://www.shawfloors.com.
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Global Medical Devices Company Selects Varicent Performance Management Software
Company Sought Solution to Facilitate Flexible, Changing Incentive Compensation Plans
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced its solution, Varicent SPM, has been selected by medical devices company Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN; NYSE:SNN), to manage, model, analyze and report on incentive compensation plans and sales performance. Varicent SPM was selected after a comprehensive competitive evaluation.
"We have two primary goals in adopting sales performance management," said Mark Towne, Director Global Information Services, Smith & Nephew, Inc. "The first was to find a solution that would allow us to quickly model new plans in order to keep up with the ever changing requirement of our business. The second goal was to select a sales performance management platform that our many divisions can standardize on, making our processes and procedures uniform across the business. Varicent SPM was selected based on their ability to provide us the speed, flexibility and visibility for our sales compensation across all of our business units."
"We are excited to add Smith & Nephew to our growing list of customers," said Brian Hartlen, vice president of marketing, Varicent. "We are pleased that they chose Varicent to be a key contributor to their overall goal of improving sales effectiveness."
Using Varicent SPM, companies can efficiently and effectively manage and automate the process of calculating and reporting variable-based pay, providing more visibility and accountability into one of the organization's largest variable expenses.
In a phased deployment, Smith & Nephew will use Varicent SPM for incentive compensation management (ICM), Territory Management and Quota Planning across the Orthopedics, Endoscopy, and Advanced Wound Management divisions.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Rogers, About.com (a New York Times company), and many others.
About Smith & Nephew
Smith & Nephew is a global medical technology business, specializing in Orthopedic Reconstruction, Orthopedic Trauma and Clinical Therapies, Endoscopy and Advanced Wound Management products. Smith & Nephew is a global leader in arthroscopy and advanced wound management and is one of the leading global orthopedics companies.
Smith & Nephew is dedicated to helping improve people's lives. The Company prides itself on the strength of its relationships with its surgeons and professional healthcare customers, with whom its name is synonymous with high standards of performance, innovation and trust. The Company operates in 32 countries around the world. Annual sales in 2007 were $3.4 billion. For more information on Smith & Nephew, please visit http://global.smith-nephew.com.
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Varicent Receives "Positive" Rating in Leading Analyst Firm’s Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software MarketScope Report
August 1st, 2008 (Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), announced today that it received a "positive" rating in Gartner's "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software.1"
The report states "Growth of the sales ICM software market accelerated to approximately 20% year-over-year in the calendar year 2007, up from 15% in 2006." While the market is showing healthy grow rates, there is still plenty of opportunity: Gartner reported that "less than 10 percent of sales organizations with more than a hundred persons receiving variable compensation have deployed prepackaged Sales ICM applications, with North America representing more than 80 percent of the world market. Sales ICM continues to attract significant interest from organizations of varying sizes and in different industries - largely as a result of the difficulties with accurately calculating variable compensation for sales channels."
"In my opinion, Gartner's rating of Varicent as 'positive' in the Sales ICM market further validates our position as a leader in the space," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "We have worked tirelessly over the past few years to establish ourselves as a leader in this market. We are truly proud of what I see as Gartner's validation of our progress."
Added Shimmerman, "We see increasing interest in Sales ICM and sales performance management as organizations continue to try and improve their sales force effectiveness. We are well positioned to capitalize on these market demands."
Varicent SPM 5.0, the most recent release of Varicent's flagship software, delivers the most innovative approach to managing complex variable pay programs and processes. In addition to delivering the core components of ICM, territory management, quota planning and performance analytics, Varicent SPM 5.0 enables companies to broadly deploy Web-based SPM and ICM reporting, analysis and dashboarding and easily manage compensation plan communications and disputes.
MarketScope Disclaimer
The MarketScope is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning and many others.
1Gartner "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management Software" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2008.
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David Mahoney, Award-Winning Executive, Former CEO of Applix and Banyan, Named to Varicent Software's Board of Directors
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), announced today that David Mahoney has joined Varicent's board of directors.
Mahoney was most recently the CEO of Applix, a provider of business performance management (BPM) and business intelligence (BI) software. While in this role he increased the value of Applix more than 800 percent, and completed a successful acquisition by Cognos, an IBM Company. In his role at Applix, Mahoney was named a 2005 New England High Tech All-Star for his work turning around Applix. Among his other many career highlights, Mahoney founded and served as CEO with Banyan Systems, the first network operation system product company.
"Since Varicent's founding, I've admired Dan and his management team's vision and drive to be the leader in the Sales Performance Management market," said David Mahoney. "I am eager to help them continue the company's success and growth."
"David Mahoney has deep experience guiding high tech companies," said Dan Shimmerman, president, Varicent. "His experience, combined with his proven track record, will be an invaluable contribution to our Board of Directors. We welcome David to our team."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, Smith & Nephew, Nexient Learning and many others.
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Former IBM General Manager Janet Perna Joins Varicent Software's Board of Directors
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced that Janet Perna has joined Varicent's board of directors.
Perna is the former general manager, information management for IBM's Software group. In that role Perna established IBM as a market leader in database, enterprise content management and information integration. Under her leadership, the group increased information management revenue by more than 150 percent. Perna currently serves on the board of directors of Deltek, and was recently on the board of directors of Cognos.
"Varicent has a compelling offering and is gaining great market acceptance," said Janet Perna. "I look forward to working with Dan and the management team during the next phase of Varicent's growth."
"Janet Perna is a well respected industry veteran with considerable experience in dealing with enterprise software," said Dan Shimmerman, president, Varicent. "Her experience and leadership will help guide Varicent along its rapid growth path, exceed customer expectations and deliver innovative technology for the sales performance management market."
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Nexient Learning Selects Varicent Software for Sales Performance Management
Varicent Selected Based on Richness of Functionality in Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of the only comprehensive application for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has been selected as the SPM solution for Nexient Learning, the largest corporate training and consulting company in Canada.
Nexient is turning to sales performance management as part of a larger customer sector strategy aimed at improving their sales and service effectiveness. Nexient has grown through acquisition, which created an environment of disparate sales systems and compensation strategies. The company's management and its sales representatives are challenged by the lack of visibility and transparency into sales activity across the entire organization. Nexient has implemented a standardized approach to the sales roles, customer coverage, and sales reporting across its business but required technology to support its process improvements. Varicent SPM (Sales Performance Management) will unburden sales management and sales representatives from manually tracking and calculating activities. Ultimately, automated consolidated and segmented performance reports that are timely and transparent will improve their sales effectiveness and promote revenue growth.
With Varicent SPM, Nexient Learning's sales representatives and sales managers will be able to view and understand up-to-date incentive compensation information, saving them significant time and energy. Varicent SPM will pull source data on sales from Salesforce.com and Training Partner, calculate the incentive earnings, and display that information in personalized dashboards.
"Our evaluation of sales performance management consisted of two parts," said Donna de Winter, CEO, Nexient Learning. "First, we examined building and maintaining our own incentive compensation management solution. Second, we looked at currently available software. Ultimately, we decided Varicent was the right organization with the right solution to manage the complexity inherent in Nexient Learning's sales compensation plans."
In evaluating the options available, Nexient ultimately chose Varicent SPM for its:
- Extremely simple system administration, requiring minimal IT support;
- Single solution that included analytics, such as the ability to perform ad-hoc analysis, 'slice and dice' information down to the transactional level required by the sales and management teams;
- Advanced workflow capabilities to streamline approval, dispute and other processes;
- Planning and modeling features to help with future compensation plans.
By choosing Varicent SPM, Nexient gets an open-architected solution that can link into numerous source systems such as CRM, general ledger, payroll, ERP and more. Additionally, Varicent SPM brings territory management, quota planning and performance analytics, vital SPM components that companies rarely consider when building custom applications.
"Nexient gains not just automation of sales and incentive compensation," said Brian Hartlen, vice president of marketing, Varicent. "But, more importantly, in a dynamic business like Nexient's, Varicent SPM provides both the speed and flexibility to quickly create, manage and implement whatever incentive compensation and bonus plans and processes they determine best for the organization."
Nexient Learning is taking a phased approach to deploying Varicent SPM. In two phases, Varicent SPM will:
- Handle ICM for the company's entire sales force and well as the management team;
- Calculate, track and report on Management by Objectives (MBOs) and other bonus plans for non-sales employees;
- Leverage Varicent's Territory Management, Quota Planning and Performance Analytics for incorporating performance management best practices into Nexient's sales management processes.
Once fully deployed, Nexient's Varicent SPM application will integrate with many different source systems and BI solutions, including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Rogers, About.com (a New York Times company), and many others.
About Nexient Learning Inc.
Nexient Learning Inc. is the largest corporate training and consulting company in Canada. Nexient delivers the broadest choice of top caliber, industry-recognized curricula in information technology, business process improvement and leadership and business skills. Nexient's learning services include learning management systems, curriculum development and strategic consulting. With 17 locations across Canada, Nexient offers innovative learning solutions in both classroom and online formats. Nexient is traded on the NEX as "NXL.H". For more information on Nexient Learning Inc., please visit http://www.nexientlearning.com.
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Varicent's SPM 5.0 Simplifies and Integrates SPM with CPM Through Integration with Microsoft-Based Solutions
Varicent SPM Integrated with Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server; Varicent Achieves Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced that its newly released Varicent SPM 5.0 features integration with Microsoft® PerformancePoint® Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server. The combined solution makes it possible for organizations to deliver a holistic solution for both sales and corporate performance management.
Specifically, Varicent SPM 5.0 now:
- Offers synchronization of sales performance management data - including details on territories, quotas, incentive compensation and related analytics - with Microsoft PerformancePoint Server.
- Includes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server dashboards, providing customers with a single, integrated source of corporate information.
- Enables Varicent SPM 5.0 Quota Planning directly in the financial planning mode of Microsoft PerformancePoint Server, delivering a single application for both financial and quota planning.
"PerformancePoint and SharePoint are used extensively by companies to help improve corporate performance by providing critical information to business management about the drivers of their business," said Brian Hartlen, vice president of marketing, Varicent. "By integrating Varicent SPM 5.0 with these key Microsoft-based solutions, we are making it easier for our customers to bring sales performance management activities and information in line with other performance management activities. This promises to further speed the widespread adoption of sales performance management."
Varicent Achieves Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status
Varicent, previously a Microsoft Certified Partner, has now achieved Gold Certified Partner Status in the Microsoft Partner Program. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, with a goal of maximizing business potential for partners and their customers.
"We congratulate Varicent Software for achieving Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, demonstrating their commitment to delivering innovation and value to customers," said Lora Gernon, director, Partner Group, Microsoft Canada Co. "The Microsoft Partner Program delivers tools and resources to help technology providers such as Varicent Software succeed and make an impact on the marketplace."
This distinction shows that Varicent has demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft-based technologies. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of expertise with Microsoft-based technologies.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Rogers, About.com (a New York Times company), and many others.
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Varicent Software Partners With OpenSymmetry to Help Clients Increase Sales Effectiveness
Partnership Guides Customers to Increased Sales and Profit
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of the only comprehensive application for sales performance management (SPM), today announced a strategic partnership with OpenSymmetry, the largest independent consultancy specializing in sales performance management.
Sales performance management, or SPM, allows companies to:
- Significantly reduce manual labor and costs incurred when managing sales and incentive compensation (such as MBOs, KSOs, etc.) with spreadsheets and home-grown applications;
- Efficiently and effectively roll out new incentive compensation plans; and
- Use incentive compensation plans to drive specific employee behavior that maps back to corporate objectives.
"Sales performance management is a rapidly growing market, but there are few consulting firms with a single focus on and specialization in SPM," said Mark Girvan, vice president of business development, Varicent. "OpenSymmetry's unparalleled expertise will help organizations transform the sales function into highly effective, high performing teams."
OpenSymmetry, which was recently named by Moss Creek Capital LLC as the largest independent consultancy specializing in sales performance management, aids companies in analyzing and defining sales compensation plans, creating RFPs and evaluating best-of-breed solutions for SPM, and helps develop, test and train end users on SPM applications.
"Varicent brings to the market a unique perspective - looking at the solution holistically, not as Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) with bolted-on features," said Robert Blohm, director of business development, OpenSymmetry. "As we work with our clients to identify the best software to meet their specific needs, Varicent's differentiated approach and innovative technology stands out from other approaches to SPM."
Varicent SPM is a complete sales performance management solution for finance, sales, human resources and IT. Varicent SPM automates, manages and aligns enterprise-wide incentive compensation plans with strategic objectives. It includes territory management, quota planning and performance analytics to enhance sales performance and evaluate the effectiveness of incentive programs.
About OpenSymmetry
OpenSymmetry, with offices in Austin, Texas and London, England, is a leading consulting and integration firm that offers highly specialized services focused on delivering Sales Performance Management solutions to clients worldwide. OpenSymmetry's core competence lies in its ability to deliver functionality and flexibility to meet customers' business objectives. For more information on OpenSymmetry, please visit http://www.opensymmetry.com/index.shtml.
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Former PeopleSoft Consulting Regional Vice President Joins Varicent as Vice President of Global Services
Rick Vaughan to Lead Worldwide Client and Partner Consulting Programs
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced Rick Vaughan, former regional vice president for PeopleSoft Consulting, has joined Varicent as vice president of global services.
"The market opportunity for sales performance management and rapid growth of Varicent made my decision to join Varicent very easy," said Rick Vaughan, vice president of global services. "I look forward to working with Varicent clients deploying the industry's most innovative sales performance management solution."
In his new role, Vaughan will lead Varicent's growing global services practice, which works directly with customers and solution partners to deploy Varicent's flagship solution, Varicent SPM. Vaughan's focus will be driving enterprise deployments that deliver a compelling return on investment. Vaughan will also oversee partner training and certification, and Varicent's client education offerings.
"Rick's experience helping organizations deploy PeopleSoft will be extremely valuable to Varicent," said Dan Shimmerman, president, Varicent. "More and more, clients are looking to take sales performance management across the enterprise, delivering vital business information to large numbers of executives, finance, HR, sales and other employees."
Vaughan served ten years with PeopleSoft/Oracle, most recently being group vice president of Oracle Consulting. In his numerous roles with PeopleSoft and Oracle, Vaughan focused on strategic accounts, developed project proposals, status and management tools that were adopted company-wide and achieved numerous corporate objectives.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the most innovative sales performance management solution addressing the needs of business professionals across the entire enterprise. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of their complex variable compensation programs, automating the assignment of territories, the collection and approval of quotas, and reporting and analyzing sales performance include Waste Management, KLA-Tencor, AAA, Sonus Networks, Manpower, American Century Investments, Rogers, About.com (a New York Times company), and many others.
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Varicent Software Expands Partner Ecosystem with Merador Partnership
New Reseller and Consulting Services Respond to Increased Market Demand
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of the only comprehensive application for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has further expanded its reseller partner program, adding Merador to the growing number of business intelligence and performance management consultancies joining the Varicent partner ecosystem. Merador, based in Burlingame, Calif., specializes in solving clients' performance management challenges with a business perspective, demonstrated project management process and deep technical expertise.
"Merador's experience combined with Varicent's sales performance management solution delivers real value to organizations looking to improve their sales effectiveness," said Mark Girvan, vice president, business development, Varicent. "According to Ventana Research, the sales performance management market is growing at 45%1 and Varicent needs partners like Merador to meet this exploding market demand for complete Sales Performance Management solutions. Merador's philosophy that performance management is a business problem best addressed by business users is a perfect fit for Varicent's approach of business line ownership and maintenance."
As part of the agreement, Merador will resell and help businesses deploy Varicent SPM, the industry's most innovative solution to better managing sales compensation, territories and quotas. Merador will work with clients to incorporate incentives (such as MBOs, annual bonuses) and sales compensation plans into Varicent SPM's powerful modeling capabilities to make it easier to understand the implications of plans, role of new plans, and adjust existing plans.
"Varicent's partner program was the clear choice for Merador with their innovative and complete SPM solution and focus on business ownership for the SPM application," said Ron Baden, vice president, national practices, Merador. "Merador's deep performance management expertise and demonstrated project management process allows us to deliver complete solutions for our clients improved sales effectiveness."
Varicent SPM is a complete sales performance management solution for finance, sales, human resources and IT. Varicent SPM automates, manages and aligns enterprise-wide incentive compensation plans with strategic objectives. It includes territory management, quota planning and performance analytics to enhance sales performance and evaluate the effectiveness of incentive programs.
1"Potential Market Size for Sales Performance Management," Ventana Research. April 29, 2008
About Merador
Merador is a leading consulting firm specializing in corporate performance management, allowing our clients to enhance their strategic decision making. Merador helps clients dramatically improve their ability to plan, monitor and analyze the direction of their business. Merador combines top notch business and technical expertise with professional project management to provide a trusted advisor relationship for our clients.
Merador solutions continue to have effect long after their deployment with clients typically seeing greater than 10x returns on their investment. Merador offers a full range of services including program consulting, implementation services, software sales, training and support. With Merador, our clients have confidence in success. For more information on Merador, please visit http://www.merador.com.
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Varicent Software Achieves Record Quarter for First Quarter 2008
Demand for Varicent SPM On Premise and On Demand Aligns with 45 Percent Projected Market Growth
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced another record quarter of sales and revenue for the first quarter of 2008. The interest in, and competitive selection of Varicent SPM, is part of a strong, growing market trend. According to Ventana Research, the potential market size for sales performance management could exceed $8 billion in the U.S. alone by 20101.
"There is a pressing need for sales organizations to come closer to achieving their maximum potential, and improving the quality of their information and the capabilities of the technology they use are the primary means for doing that," states Mark Smith, CEO and executive vice president of research, Ventana Research. "We see a shift away from narrow investments in sales force automation to ones that support the management of operations and performance-driven activities and processes that improve the outcomes of sales efforts."
Varicent's strong first quarter results were fueled by strong license fees and new customer wins. More and more new clients are purchasing Varicent SPM to leverage all its modules for incentive compensation management (ICM), territory management, quota planning, performance analytics and Varicent Mobile.
"While growth was strong across all of the business, it was particularly gratifying to see the adoption of Varicent SPM by large enterprise customers this quarter," said Dan Shimmerman, president, Varicent. "These organizations demand flexibility, scalability and business unit ownership of their applications and their selection of Varicent SPM further validates our innovative approach to sales performance management."
Other First Quarter Highlights
In addition to realizing record results, Varicent saw a number of significant new developments in the first quarter 2008. These included:
- Hired industry veterans Brian Hartlen as vice president of marketing and Martin Saipe as vice president of corporate development;
- Opened new headquarters in Toronto, expanding and upgrading Varicent's offices by 300 percent and adding state-of-the-art features;
- Increased the Varicent workforce by 30 percent to meet current and future product development, customer and market demands;
- Appointed Shawn Yeager, director of business development, to manage Varicent's partner relationship with Microsoft;
- Re-launched, revamped and expanded Varicent's training program for both customers and partners; and
- Varicent was named a 'Noteworthy' vendor in the performance management space by BPM Partners.
"Our significant customer wins reflect our leadership position in both incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM)," continued Shimmerman. "We are also excited about the latest release of Varicent SPM 5.0 and by what's being planned for the next releases, which will continue to help our customers improve their overall sales effectiveness."
1 Potential Market Size for Sales Performance Management, Ventana Research, April 28, 2008.
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Varicent Software Responds to Growing Market Opportunity by Expanding Management Team, Relocates Worldwide HQ
Company Appoints Brian Hartlen Vice President of Marketing, Martin Saipe Vice President of Corporate Development, Expands Toronto-based Headquarters
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of the only comprehensive application for sales performance management (SPM), today announced significant corporate expansion. Varicent has added two industry veterans to its well-regarded management team. Brian Hartlen and Martin Saipe have joined Varicent in the roles of vice president of marketing, and vice president of corporate development, respectively. Varicent also announced its move to a new corporate office, tripling and upgrading its office space.
"The sales performance management market is strong, and Varicent is on a fast growth path. To respond to the opportunities and continue to deliver innovative products and superior customer service, we've increased both our executive talent and facilities," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent.
"Both Brian Hartlen and Martin Saipe will be vital in Varicent's continued growth and success," added Shimmerman. "The fact that these respected executives were eager to join Varicent is an extremely strong testament to the fact that we are well positioned for a successful future."
As vice president of marketing, Hartlen will be responsible for Varicent's marketing and brand strategy, corporate communications, product marketing and demand generation efforts.
"Varicent has done a tremendous job of creating awareness and 'buzz' for the company," said Hartlen. "This, combined with Varicent's strong customer base and innovative solutions make this a very exciting opportunity. I look forward to building on this momentum to ensure Varicent is a 'must include' for any organization looking to improve their incentive compensation management and sales performance management."
Hartlen brings Varicent more than 30 years experience in marketing enterprise software. This award-winning marketer's background includes stints at Kalido, Comshare and Geac.
Saipe, in his new role as vice president of corporate development, will help Varicent with developing and implementing a plan for strategic growth and expanding Varicent's presence in the worldwide SPM market.
"Industry analysts predict SPM will continue to be a 'hot' software category for many years," commented Saipe. "As the most innovative vendor in a hot category, Varicent has a wealth of opportunity. I look forward to helping Dan and the team take advantage of those opportunities."
Saipe comes to Varicent with ten years of corporate legal experience, working most recently as senior legal counsel at The Bank of Nova Scotia. While at The Bank of Nova Scotia, Saipe was responsible for advising on strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, material outsourcings, material vendor relationships and software licensing relationships. Prior to that, Saipe served as director of corporate legal affairs at Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., where he provided in-house legal advice on mergers and acquisitions and securities law. His experience also includes three years with Osler Hoskin and Harcourt LLP, a leading full service law firm headquartered in Toronto.
Varicent's new offices, located at 36 York Mills Road, more than triple the company's Toronto-based facilities. Varicent's headquarters houses the majority of the executive team (including Hartlen and Saipe), development, customer support and marketing. Varicent also has a West Coast operations office in Portland, Oregon, and field offices throughout the continental U.S.
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Varicent Reduces Costs of Managing and Maintaining SPM and ICM With Latest Release of Varicent SPM
Varicent SPM 5.0 provides innovative approach to managing complex variable pay programs and processes
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of sales performance management (SPM) solutions today announced the general availability of Varicent SPMTM 5.0, the latest release of its flagship solution for effectively managing incentive compensation and sales performance.
Varicent SPM 5.0 introduces:
- A newly designed user portal that allows organizations to more broadly deploy Web-based SPM reporting, analysis and dashboarding throughout the enterprise
- Enhanced workflow, data collection, task management and audit capabilities to better manage and control the most complex variable pay plans and processes
- Improved dispute resolution functionality for faster, real-time management and tracking of field inquiries
- Powerful Web Form builder so business users have more flexibility in the design and rollout of Web-based input templates, performance scorecards and compensation reports
- Varicent ComposerTM, a new graphical management capability that gives business users unmatched visibility and control of sales performance management business processes
"Varicent continues to show its thought leadership in sales performance management. They understand the tremendous complexity that most organizations have to deal with to automate and administer company-wide incentive compensation programs, as well as expand their performance management foot-print across the business," said Ken Wolf, CEO, Revelwood. "With SPM 5.0 and their new Composer capability, simplified user interface, enhanced workflow and other functionality they have set a new standard for the way that SPM applications should be managed and controlled."
Varicent SPM 5.0 Highlights
Broader Reach
Varicent SPM 5.0 includes a new, simplified user interface designed for business professionals across the enterprise - sales representatives, management, finance, HR personnel and executives. The new user interface enhances human interaction and usability of the solution. This makes SPM accessible to more casual users who need to gain insight into sales productivity, profitability and performance.
"After evaluating several approaches to sales performance management, we found the look-and-feel of Varicent to be the easiest to use across our organization," said Donna de Winter, CFO, Nexient Learning. "The ability to successfully deploy and use software is largely dependent on the user experience. All our employees on variable pay programs will be able to easily view and understand their compensation earned, expected and paid out."
Innovation
Varicent SPM 5.0 includes a new, innovative component, Varicent Composer that is designed to provide users with a significantly simpler way to manage the complexity inherent in any Sales Performance Management set of processes. Varicent Composer enables system administrators to create and edit graphical representations of calculations, business rules and data flows, thereby giving them greater visibility and control over incentive compensation rules, territory assignments, deal crediting, adjustments, overlays and exceptions which are usually buried deep in custom configuration, or code. This new visual illustration tool provides a better visual representation of the entire process from source data through to final compensation payouts.
Managing Complexity
"SPM only works if you address the needs of the business users," said Rod Radojevic, vice president of product marketing, Varicent. "To be successful in today's business climate, speed and flexibility is a necessity. Leading organizations realize that giving business professionals the ability to manage both processes and systems is a key element to making sales performance both more efficient and effective."
Varicent SPM 5.0's simple user interface is backed by a powerful, highly scalable calculation engine that leverages an Excel-based syntax, allowing business users to easily replicate and manage their unique, company-specific compensation models directly in Varicent SPM. This empowers the business user to control the application, including the integration with source systems (such as ERP, General Ledger, CRM and payroll) and to schedule routine tasks such as importing and exporting information to and from other core systems. Business users gain the ability to have a comprehensive review and approval wrapped around business processes while also managing compensation plans, creating and scheduling automated maintenance tasks, and configuring the system directly. Varicent SPM 5.0 nearly eliminates day-to-day IT support requirements.
"The idea of incentive compensation may seem very simple: pay X for achieving Y," continued Radojevic. "In reality, though, each company has a unique and specific approach to compensation plans, managing approvals, resolving disputes and paying out compensation earned. Spreadsheets, custom coding, and simple commission calculation engines automate these processes to some degree, but do not address the increasing sophistication and complexity of a lot of today's incentive plans and processes. Varicent 5.0 has both the flexibility and power to allow organization to test, analyze and implement the plans, approvals and processes the way that they want.
Varicent SPM 5.0 combines best practices for incentive compensation with the need for a solution that adapts to customer's operational requirements. It includes built-in business rules, and supports the creation and maintenance of any type of unique or customized business process flows. With Varicent SPM 5.0, companies can also easily configure their own approach to payment approvals, retroactive period adjustments, exception alerts, performance scorecarding, MBO management, field inquiries, document sign-offs, data collection and reporting.
Meeting the increasing need for better visibility and compliance, Varicent SPM 5.0 introduces enhanced audit and security mechanisms for more system control, better audit trails and improved user activity tracking. Users can drill into summarized audit reports to get detailed transactional information. The solution's audit reporting and analytics capabilities are designed to meet ever-changing compliance and audit requirements.
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IntraLinks Turns to Varicent for Sales Performance Management
Varicent Brings Cost Savings for Incentive Compensation Management and Makes Key Sales Data More Available for Strategic Decision Making
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), announced today Varicent SPM has been selected by IntraLinks, the leading provider of online workspaces for secure document exchange, as its sales performance management solution. IntraLinks will use Varicent SPM to manage its complex sales incentive compensation plans, which require management of accounts that span territories, differing rules for new business versus renewal business, quotas across business segments, accelerators and team bonuses.
"After evaluating the options in the marketplace, we decided Varicent was the best product to manage incentive compensation for IntraLinks," said Michael H. Bruzik, vice president, financial information systems, IntraLinks. "We wanted an SPM solution that would help grow our business by putting the right tools and information in the hands of our sales executives and management team, whether they were in their offices or on-site with clients."
IntraLinks plans to use several components of Varicent SPM, including incentive compensation management (ICM) and Varicent Mobile. These aspects of SPM will help IntraLinks to drive specific individual and team sales behaviors, continuing the company's successful growth in the online workspace market.
"Varicent's BlackBerry®-based information delivery platform (Varicent Mobile) was particularly compelling since the people who need this information are frequently not in front of a computer," continued Bruzik.
"Previously, IntraLinks relied on an internally designed, Excel-based application to track incentive compensation plans," said Marc Altshuller, vice president of worldwide field operations, Varicent. "They selected Varicent SPM to make incentive compensation easier to manage and gain visibility into quota planning and sales performance analytics."
About IntraLinks
IntraLinks® On-Demand Workspaces™ connect business communities and accelerate the intelligent flow of information and documents among participants. Through IntraLinks' secure, neutral, online environments, companies are better able to compete globally by accelerating essential business processes, simplifying communication and fostering rapid workflow. IntraLinks is easily accessible anywhere, anytime, using a web browser.
Since 1997, more than 700,000 participants representing over 80,000 organizations worldwide have used IntraLinks On-Demand Workspaces™ to communicate and collaborate on thousands of projects and transactions. IntraLinks has been adopted widely in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries, where its clients include AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, FDIC, TD Securities, Thomas Weisel Partners and WestLB, among hundreds of others. Founded in 1996, IntraLinks is headquartered in New York with offices around the world. For more information on IntraLinks, please visit http://www.intralinks.com/.
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As Sales Performance Management Imperative Increases, Varicent Software Sees Record Growth and Customer Adoption Throughout 2007
Need for Visibility into Incentive Compensation Plan Success, Employee Performance and Profitability Drives Worldwide Brands to Turn to SPM for Strategic Decision Making Support
(Toronto, ON) – Sales performance management continues to establish itself as one of the hottest software categories in the market today. Varicent, an innovator in this new category, has achieved significant traction in this market, as witnessed by triple digit growth for the calendar year ended 2007, numerous new Fortune 1000 customer additions and the release of significant new functionality that this demanding market requires.
"Sales performance management remains at the forefront of new technology initiatives as senior management focuses on driving its top line," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent Software. "Our clients rely on our solution, Varicent SPM, to help identify profitable business areas, align business processes, and most importantly, grow revenue."
Financial Highlights
Varicent booked record-breaking revenues for 2007. In addition realizing significant growth in its customer base from the previous year, Varicent SPM was selected by many more Fortune 1000 organizations, driving up the company's average deal size.
Client Acquisition
Throughout 2007, Varicent secured a record number of new clients, and extended projects and enterprise-wide adoption with existing clients. Varicent engagements grew both in scope and size. Worldwide brand leaders adopting Varicent SPM included multiple Fortune 1000 companies, including AAA Auto Club South, American Century Investments, AmSan, Autotrader, Chase Paymentech, CommVault, Dice, Emblem Health, F5, Global Insight, Health Insurance Plan of NY (HIP), IBERIABANK, Intralinks, Manpower, Mitel, Neff Rentals, RH Donnelley, Rogers Communications, Secure Computing, Sonus Networks, Spectra Logic, TechTarget, Towne Realty, Washington Mutual and Waste Management.
Independent Analyst Coverage
2007 also saw greatly increased analyst coverage and awareness of Varicent, and the incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) markets. Research on Varicent and the market included reports from: Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Bloor Research, The 451 Group, BPM Partners and Ventana Research. Highlights include:
- Special mention in BPM Partners' 2007 Beyond the Hype Webcast
- Rated 'Promising' in Gartner's Sales Incentive Compensation Management MarketScope 20071
- Cited for having "on premise and hosted deployment options among SPM offerings" in Forrester's November 2007 "Best Practices for Sales Performance Management RFPs."
Technology Leadership and Expanded Partnerships
Varicent continued to invest in advancing its core technology, Varicent SPM, and expanding its technology partnerships to deliver truly innovative solutions to meet the demanding needs of today's enterprise customer. In 2007, Varicent enhanced the functionality of Varicent SPM, went into general availability with its Varicent SPM On Demand version, and launched Varicent SPM Mobile, the industry's only SPM solution available on BlackBerry® smartphones.
Varicent's expanded relationships with technology partners is one of the ways it is able to rapidly deliver new functionality. Partner highlights include
- The partnership with Applix was extended through its acquisition by Cognos, and later IBM.
- Varicent became a Microsoft Certified Partner and participated in the launch of Microsoft's PerformancePoint 2007.
- Varicent partnered with Vaultus Mobile Technologies for the Varicent SPM Mobile offering, and entered into the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program with Research in Motion (RIM).
- Through formal and informal partnerships with consulting firms including Watson Wyatt and Iconixx, Varicent participated in a number of thought leadership activities, driving a complete solution including methodologies, processes and technologies that customers demand.
- The company's reseller channel was expanded both in size and geography with the addition of Revelwood, The Axiom Group, Meridian and Tridant out of Australia, as certified resellers.
Corporate Expansion
Following a breakout year in 2006, Varicent entered 2007 with significant additions to the management team, expansion of offices, and increased investments in sales and marketing. Varicent brought on board senior executives Rod Radojevic as vice president of product marketing, Jordan Shnier as vice president of finance, and Mark Girvan as vice president of business development.
To support the growing adoption of SPM and Varicent client needs, the company expanded its West Coast operations, and hired new sales representatives throughout the continental U.S. and increased its marketing team. These efforts paid off richly in increased sales, awareness and opportunities.
1 Gartner "MarketScope for Sales ICM, 2007" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2007.
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Varicent Highlights Role of Incentive Compensation in Employee Satisfaction
Varicent's Rod Radojevic Speaking on Trends in Incentive Compensation at HRPAO's Innovate '08
(Toronto, ON) – Rod Radojevic of Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), will be presenting on incentive compensation's role in employee satisfaction, and other key benefits of incentive compensation programs, later today at the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario's (HRPAO) annual conference and trade show, Innovate 08 (http://www.hrpao.org/conf2008/). Radojevic's sold-out session, "Incentive Compensation Trends: Better Management, More Employee Satisfaction," will give attendees a comprehensive overview of hot topics in incentive compensation management (ICM) and its impact on a company's bottomline.
"The benefits to ICM are numerous and meaningful," said Radojevic, vice president of product marketing, Varicent. "In addition to delivering better employee satisfaction through more visibility and information on incentive compensation earned, paid and expected, new approaches to ICM can significantly reduce the overhead and costs associated with managing variable compensation programs, while also providing the opportunity for greater profits."
Attendees will learn:
- How to calculate the economic impact of new incentive compensation plans before implementing them;
- What leading companies are doing to ensure their incentive compensation plans align with strategic business goals;
- Why sophisticated analysis can uncover key data on revenue, profitability and performance
To receive a copy of Radojevic's sold-out presentation, please visit: www.varicent.com/HRPAOpresentation. The presentation will be available later today.
HRPAO is the premier human resources (HR) association in Canada and is internationally recognized for its knowledge, innovation and leadership. HRPAO has more than 16, 000 members in 28 chapters in Ontario and other locations worldwide. HRPAO's annual conference, Innovate '08, offers internationally acclaimed Keynote Speakers and industry experts sharing how to gain competitive advantage through the evolution and innovation in the HR domain.
Radojevic has more than 15 years of experience in finance, performance management and performance management-related technologies. His background includes roles with Infor, The Home Depot, General Motors, PricewaterhouseCoopers and other leading organizations. Radojevic is a certified public accountant and an American Management Association faculty member.
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Varicent Named a 'Noteworthy' Vendor in BPM Partners' Annual Beyond The Hype Webcast
Inclusion of Varicent and Sales Performance Management in Research Highlights Growing Importance of Tying Individual Performance to Corporate Success
(Toronto, ON) – Toronto - January 23, 2008 - Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) was called out as 'noteworthy' in the recent Beyond the HypeTM Webcast, featuring independent research conducted by BPM Partners, and produced by Business Finance Magazine. The annual Webcast, based on the 2008 BPM Partners' Pulse Survey, surveys end users on their adoption plans for business performance management (BPM) and other performance management categories. Based on the survey results, Beyond the Hype also rates vendors such as IBM (Cognos), Oracle (Hyperion), Microsoft and others on their customer satisfaction.
"Varicent, a previous Beyond the Hype 'Best New Vendor,' is successful and has momentum for its comprehensive offering in sales performance management," said Craig Schiff, president and CEO, BPM Partners. "In fact, our survey results show, and we believe, that BPM success will be driven by adoption at the individual user level. From compensation to operational performance, aligning the goals of the individual with the goals of the corporation will be the ultimate driver of BPM success and profitability."
In addition to the vendor assessments, Beyond the Hype surveyed end users about their plans and reasons for adopting BPM. The findings included the reasons companies turn to BPM:
- To improve the company's performance;
- To reduce labor and/or costs;
- To improve operational analysis;
- To fix painful processes; and
- To reduce cycle/closing time.
Continued Schiff, "These survey findings further point to the importance of BPM categories such as sales performance management."
"As evidenced by this survey and other research, sales performance management is far more strategic than simple commission calculation," said Dan Shimmerman, president, Varicent Software. "Rather, this survey shows, and our customers validate, that SPM is a key component to bettering corporate performance."
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Mitel Calls on Varicent for Comprehensive Sales Performance Management
Leading International Communications Firm Selects Varicent SPM to put the 'Mojo' Back in Sales Performance
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and pay-for-performance programs announced today that Mitel®, the trusted provider of IP communications, applications and solutions, has selected Varicent SPM as its sales performance management platform. Varicent SPM will be integrated with Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com and some home-grown applications to incorporate the source data into the sales performance management platform. Mitel will roll out the solution to its sales representatives in North America and Europe.
"Mitel has a clear vision of how sales performance management can help the company achieve its sales goals," said Marc Altshuller, executive vice president, worldwide operations, Varicent. "By selecting Varicent SPM, Mitel has the tools to react quickly to market changes and opportunities and to drive behavior by providing more communication, process and visibility into its incentive compensation plans."
Varicent SPM will benefit many levels of employees at Mitel: sales reps, compensation analysts, and executives. Varicent SPM provides:
- Mitel's sales reps a Web-based SPM dashboard to track, react to, and reach for opportunities based on individual quotas and performance to date;
- Mitel's compensation analysts the ability to automate Incentive Compensation Management (ICM);
- Mitel's compensation analysts Territory Management, Quota Planning and Performance Analytics;
Mitel's executives to truly provide incentives for sales reps to close deals that align with strategic business goals.
"We believe sales performance management is something every company should have," said Paul Butcher, COO, Mitel. "With Varicent SPM we can change the incentive compensation paradigm at Mitel. Instead of reps looking back at what they earned, they can use Varicent SPM to look towards ways to earn more money, and put the 'mojo' into their sales performance."
Mitel examined its ICM procedures and processes and realized the company needed a better way to drive the behavior of, and communicate incentive compensation plans to its sales force. After a competitive evaluation consisting of product demonstrations and customized Proofs-of-Concept, Mitel selected Varicent SPM.
In addition to automating the ICM process, Varicent SPM will enable Mitel to reduce errors, reduce employee turnover, increase morale and, ultimately, increase sales.
About Mitel
Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with offices, partners and resellers worldwide, Mitel is a leading provider of integrated communications solutions and services for business customers. Following its merger with Inter-Tel, Inc., Mitel offers customers greater flexibility and choice of solutions, from basic business communications to sophisticated unified communications, from pre-packaged to tailored applications, and from an outright capital purchase to a managed service. For more information on Mitel, please visit http://www.mitel.com .
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Manpower Turns to Varicent Software to Align Variable, Incentive Pay with Strategic Business Goals
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and variable pay programs, today announced the U.S. operations of Manpower Inc., a world leader in the employment services industry, selected Varicent SPM as its variable pay management platform. Manpower will rely on Varicent SPM to facilitate, administer, manage, report on and analyze all the company's variable pay programs across the U.S.
"Manpower is a prime example of the vanguard for managing variable pay programs," said Marc Altshuller, executive vice president, worldwide operations, Varicent. "Manpower is making sure the company's incentives drive strategic business initiatives. By turning to Varicent SPM, Manpower employees and executives will have up-to-date information on goal status, variable pay earned and paid out, and the big picture - how the company is tracking to achieve specific goals."
With Varicent SPM, Manpower will manage 25 different variable pay programs: sales commission plans for the sales force, MBO (Management by Objectives) programs and annual bonuses for all eligible employees and other enterprise-wide variable pay plans. Throughout Manpower's U.S. operations, Varicent will be processing almost 1,000,000 transactions on a monthly basis.
"Manpower's approach to variable pay addresses current and future issues," said Vivian Adashek, financial systems manager for Manpower. "With Varicent SPM we will consolidate the many systems and spreadsheets currently tracking our 25 different plans; that is our immediate need. On a more strategic and forward-thinking level, Varicent SPM will provide us with the information needed to properly motivate our employees at many different levels, and make sure the metrics align to drive strategic growth of the company."
After a competitive evaluation of solutions available today, Manpower selected Varicent SPM.
"Not only did Varicent deliver exactly what we were looking for, but they also gave us a very high comfort level in their commitment to client success and continuing pledge to expand the product functionality. After due diligence on the company's financials and growth plans, and positive reference calls with existing clients, we knew Varicent was the right vendor for us," continued Adashek.
Varicent SPM will create a single view of variable pay across Manpower by importing and then exporting relevant data from source systems that include: PeopleSoft HCM, JD Edwards, and eventually PeopleSoft Financials, all delivered to the market by Oracle.
In the initial deployment phase, Manpower will rely on several components of Varicent SPM: Incentive Compensation Management, Territory Management and Quota Planning. Other phases may include Performance Analytics and Varicent Mobile.
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Varicent Delivers Industry-First Mobile Application for Sales Performance Management
Leading Incentive Compensation Management Vendor Arms Sales Force, Service Workers and Executives with Ability to View Compensation Information on BlackBerry Smartphones
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and enterprise-wide incentive compensation management, today announced the general availability of the industry's first mobile application for variable pay, incentive compensation and sales commission reporting and analytics. Varicent Mobile, developed in partnership with Vaultus Mobile Technologies, leverages the BlackBerry® smartphone platform from Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM).
"The demand for providing mobility in sales has continued to increase in importance to leading organizations to ensure the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness." Said Mark Smith, CEO & EVP, Research at Ventana Research. "Varicent's advancements in mobilizing their sales performance management application is a key step in advancing the industry and ensuring that organizations can optimize their sales performance."
Varicent Mobile is available as a module to Varicent's flagship application, Varicent SPM. Varicent SPM delivers rapid return-on-investment by automating the calculation and reporting of commissions, bonuses and other variable pay programs; modeling the impact of changes to these programs, territories and quotas; and delivering real-time and ad-hoc reporting and analysis.
Since the average sales executive, sales manager and senior manager can be away from their desks 50% of more the working day, many enterprise applications are simply unavailable to the users much of the time. By delivering variable pay and business analytics information to BlackBerry® smartphones, vital information is immediately available to key business decision makers; keeping them more connected, and giving them the tools to make better, more informed business decisions.
For example:
Executive management can access real-time key operational metrics, actual vs. planned results comparisons, and have other key business information that will help identify misalignment between organizational strategies and incentive compensation plans.
Sales management and sales reps can view real-time reports on sales results by territory, customer, region, product line and other variables;
Varicent Mobile's workflow and alerting functionality facilitates key business processes such as payroll cycles, monthly financial closes, payment inquiries and other business critical activities. Eliminating wasted time and effort across the enterprise.
Sales reps can view their commissions and bonuses to date, further eliminating wasted, rare office time on "shadow accounting."
"Mobile applications are no longer a 'nice to have,'" said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "The people who benefit the most from Varicent SPM - sales representatives, managers and company senior executives - are rarely at their desks. By delivering strategic business information - such as where we are driving revenue and where we can improve revenue - to these people anytime, any place, further increases the high-level, strategic value of variable pay management."
According to a report by Aberdeen Group, mobile enterprise applications is a strategic priority among Best-in-Class companies. The report findings include:
Nearly 65 percent of companies surveyed say the use, or plan to use mobile sales tools;
58 percent of respondents see access to real-time data and its ability to drive the sales process as one of the top three reasons to deploy mobile applications;
Half of "Best-in-Class" companies believe mobile sales applications will have a major impact on the way they conduct business, impacting both revenue and profit.
"Varicent Mobile truly addresses the unique mobile needs of both the 'feet on the street' sales reps and executives managing national and international companies," said David Birnbach, CEO, Vaultus Mobile Technologies. "With this new mobile solution, reps and managers have anywhere, anytime access to their sales and commission compensation data. Sales Performance Management can no longer be limited to the desktop back in corporate, or even a field office. Varicent is leading the way, in delivering this information to on-the-go mobile workers - and the delivery vehicle of choice is overwhelmingly BlackBerry smartphones."
Varicent and Vaultus will demonstrate Varicent Mobile and its value-add to variable pay management programs in a live Webcast on December 12, 2007, 2:00pm ET. To register for this demonstration, visit http://www.varicent.com/Dec12Webcast/
For more information on Varicent Mobile view the product data sheet and 2007 incentive program at: www.varicent.com/mobile. To download technical white papers on Varicent Mobile's security features and data synchronization, visit: http://www.varicent.com/solutions_knowledgecenter.php
In related news, Varicent also announced today it has joined the BlackBerry Alliance Program (see related release).
About Vaultus
Based in Boston, MA, Vaultus is a mobile software company that enables firms to leverage the benefits of the BlackBerry® solution -- beyond email. Vaultus' award-winning Mobile Application Platform enables workers to have instant mobile access to their enterprise applications, and Vaultus' Mobile Application Studio enables IT departments to cut mobile deployment time in half, while dramatically reduce support costs. Enterprise mobility. Simple and Secure. For more information on Vaultus, please visit http://www.vaultus.com.
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Varicent Software Joins BlackBerry Alliance Program
In Related Announcement, Varicent Introduces Industry's First Mobile Application for Sales Performance Management, Incentive Pay Programs
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and enterprise-wide incentive compensation management, has joined the BlackBerry® ISV Alliance Program.
"Like most global companies, our executives and our sales representatives are fanatical users of their BlackBerry smartphones, and are rarely actually at their desks during traditional business hours," said Brice Scheschuk, CFO, Globalive Communications Corp. "From the individual sales rep to our senior executives, we rely on the data delivered by Varicent SPM to help understand our progress toward individual and corporate sales goals. By delivering this information in real-time, anytime, anywhere our executives are, we've significantly increased the strategic knowledge of our revenue-generating employees, while reducing the number and urgency of information requests on our finance staff."
The BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program provides solution providers like Varicent with resources to help develop applications for use on BlackBerry smartphones and to increase the visibility of those applications among BlackBerry users and wireless carriers.
"Studies show our core users - people in the field and executive management - are at their desks less than 50 percent of their working time," said Mark Girvan, vice president of business development, Varicent. "As part of our launch of Varicent Mobile, we've joined the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program. We look forward to working closely with RIM to provide our clients with a mobile application that allows them to realize an increased return on their investment of their deployment of Varicent SPM."
"Companies realize the value of having data and business intelligence delivered immediately to their employees wherever they are," said Jeff McDowell, vice president, global alliances, RIM. "Varicent's ability to provide mobile field sales representatives and senior managers with access to information on sales performance and commission payout directly from their BlackBerry smartphone demonstrates their commitment to delivering increased value to their end users.."
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Varicent Introduces Varicent Perform! Enhanced Global Services for Clients and Partners; Methodology Expedites Return on Investment for Incentive Compensation Management
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and incentive compensation management, today formally launched its enhanced global services program, Varicent Perform! Varicent Perform! includes a methodology for rapid return-on-investment, Varicent 'Bootcamp,' and partner certification.
"Software is only one part of a successful incentive compensation management solution," said Ken Barbe, vice president of global services, Varicent. "We've created Varicent Perform! to formalize the best approach for rapid deployment of and ROI with Varicent SPM."
The Varicent Perform! methodology has a simple approach: it's repeatable and reusable for productive consistency. Varicent Perform! instills program governance, a strict QA review discipline, and project scorecards. The goal of Varicent Perform! is to deliver reliable, cost-effective implementations of the highest quality, and in a timely manner. Varicent Perform! includes an online tool for clients to have 100 percent visibility into the Varicent project phases.
Varicent Perform! Partner Certification
Varicent consulting and select reseller partners will be eligible to participate in Varicent Perform! once they have completed certification. Varicent Perform! certification includes an in-depth Bootcamp, which introduces them to and tests them on the Varicent Perform! methodology and client engagement phases.
Partners who complete the Varicent Perform! certification will learn:
- Varicent SPM implementation best practices
- Core product training and model optimization
- Instruction on Varicent Perform! methodology and Varicent Global Services approach
- Key components for successful Varicent SPM client engagements.
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Varicent Software Exceeds Goals for Third Quarter 2007
Among Third Quarter Highlights, Varicent Rated 'Promising' in Leading Analyst Firm's Sales Incentive Management MarketScope
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced a record quarter for third quarter 2007. Highlights for this quarter include continued quarter-over-quarter growth in new customer bookings; earning a 'Promising' rating in Gartner's Sales Incentive Compensation Management MarketScope 2007; and a 400 percent increase in revenues from third quarter 2006.
"The Sales performance management and incentive compensation management market has great momentum across the industry," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "Varicent's new customer acquisition, converting existing competitor customers into new Varicent customers, and overall 'buzz' has us far outpacing the other vendors in this market. With the resources we have invested in sales, services and marketing throughout 2007, we are on target for a record year for the company."
Among the new customers selecting Varicent SPM (on premise) or Varicent SPM On Demand over Callidus, Synygy, Xactly and Centive are: Secure Computing, Mitel and F5 and many others, particularly in the insurance, financial services and high technology markets. These are just some of the customers recognizing the ROI of Varicent and the profit opportunities delivered by SPM.
In addition to signing a number of new reseller partners, Varicent announced this quarter it has become a Microsoft Certified Partner and was one of two ISV partners participating in the Microsoft® PerformancePoint™ 2007 media launch in Canada.
On the technology partner front, Varicent announced a formal partnership with Vaultus Mobile Technologies to deliver the industry's first sales performance management application for Blackberry smartphones.
Continued Shimmerman, "In addition to these successes contributing to the bottom line, they also position us for even further success in the future."
About MarketScope
The MarketScope is copyrighted July 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. For more information on MarketScope, please visit .
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Varicent Adds The Axiom Group to Reseller Partner Program
Axiom Group's Expertise in Enterprise Performance Management Leveraged for Sales Performance Management
(Toronto and Portland, Oregon) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has signed another reseller in North America, further expanding its sales and distribution channel. Axiom Group, a technology consulting company specializing in the sale, implementation and support of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions, has joined the growing list of Varicent resellers and consultants.
"With its ability to impact the corporate bottom line, sales performance management is increasingly viewed as a strategic, enterprise application," said Mark Girvan, vice president, business development, Varicent. "Axiom Group, with its deep experience in the performance management market and focus on developing and maintaining 'raving fan' clients, will play a significant role in helping clients get the most out of their Varicent SPM deployments."
As a Varicent partner, Axiom Group will develop a consulting practice around Varicent SPM on premise. They will assist clients in developing and modeling compensation plans, automating commission, Management by Objectives (MBOs), and other incentive pay programs, and deliver the ability to plan and analyze territories and quotas and other business metrics throughout the enterprise.
"We are excited about our new partnership with Varicent, the clear choice for sales performance management. Varicent SPM completes our suite of performance management products and establishes a critical solution to organizations with a significant sales team," said Jason Guppy, founder and chief consultant, Axiom Group. "With the addition of Varicent SPM, our clients now have one place to go for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, consolidations, strategic planning, capital planning, activity-based costing, dashboards, scorecards and compensation management."
About Axiom Group
Headquartered in Portland, Ore., Axiom Group is a technology consulting company specializing in the sale, implementation and support of EPM products. The firm's first priority is developing and maintaining 'raving fan' clients.
Axiom Group maintains an unparalleled dedication to client satisfaction and expertise in providing sophisticated financial modeling solutions. The management team of Axiom Group has a 15 year proven record in providing EPM solutions to clients spanning a variety of industries including healthcare, financial services, hospitality, entertainment, manufacturing, high technology and services. For more information on Axiom Group, please visit .
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Varicent Becomes Microsoft Certified Partner
Leading Sales Performance Management Vendor Also Participates in Microsoft's Launch of PerformancePoint 2007
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has achieved certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program. Additionally, Varicent was the only ISV participating in yesterday's launch of Microsoft® PerformancePoint™ 2007 and media roundtable in Toronto, Canada. With this certification, Varicent becomes the only SPM or incentive compensation solution provider who is a Microsoft Certified Partner.
"Analyst research shows sales performance management is a 'hot' area for extending business intelligence and generating significant impact on the bottom line," said Mark Girvan, vice president, business development, Varicent. "Given the broad applicability of SPM, we want to provide an open platform, and deliver as many technology options as possible for our customer base. Becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner, and participating in launch activities of PerformancePoint 2007, are significant proof points of our commitment to delivering an open solution."
As a Certified Partner, Varicent has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft-based technologies -- including SQL Server™ and beta versions of PerformancePoint 2007 -- and proven ability to help meet customer needs. As part of being a Certified Partner, Varicent will receive training and support from Microsoft.
"Traditionally, business intelligence (BI) and performance management solutions have been limited to a small number of users, primarily in finance," said Ryan Dochuk, product marketing manager, business intelligence, Microsoft Canada Co. "This is another great example of how technology solution partners like Varicent can integrate with Microsoft's BI and performance management technologies to put vital performance information into the hands of users not just in finance, but also in sales, human resources and executive management."
Launch of Microsoft PerformancePoint 2007
Together with Microsoft Canada, Varicent participated in the media launch for PerformancePoint 2007. The event included a roundtable of select Microsoft technology partners and customers. In addition to Varicent's CTO, Neil Whitney, featured speakers included Ryan Dochuk, Microsoft Canada, Dennis Brink, T4G, Joel Martin, IDC, Jean-Louis Marin, GPX International Tire, Ed Raffin, National Money Mart and Dr. Clinton Free, Queen's School of Business.
The event focused on the need businesses have for pervasive business intelligence and the impact it has on the organizations, and also included product demonstrations. Varicent demonstrated its flagship product Varicent SPM in action with PerformancePoint 2007 as its OLAP (online analytical processing) engine, powering Varicent SPM's advanced analytics.
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Varicent and Revelwood Partner to Bring Performance Management Best Practices to Sales Operations
Visionary Sales Performance Management Company Signs Reseller Agreement with Revelwood, a Premier Technology Consulting Firm Focused on Performance Management
(Toronto and Parsippany, New Jersey) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has entered into a reseller partnership with Revelwood Inc., a premier technology consulting firm with a core focus on performance management solutions. With this agreement, Revelwood will resell Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, and provide implementation and deployment consulting services to new clients.
"Sales performance management (SPM) is a key progression from corporate performance management (CPM), or business performance management (BPM)," said Mark Girvan, vice president, business development, Varicent. "SPM is extremely successful when leveraging best practices in finance, sales and performance management. Revelwood has a proven history of success, best practices, and vast expertise in performance management, and will provide great value to corporations selecting Varicent SPM."
Better sales performance management and incentive compensation management practices enable companies to understand and react to sales opportunities. Varicent SPM is a comprehensive solution that enables companies to implement, manage and profit from company-wide pay-for-performance programs. Rising in popularity, pay-for-performance programs motivate and reward employees of at all levels to meet and exceed performance expectations, while delivering greater profits for corporations.
"Implemented strategically, sales performance management has the potential to have an even greater impact on companies than business performance management alone," said Ken Wolf, CEO, Revelwood. "Performance management provides the foundation for better accuracy, control and insight. Extending that to sales operations creates an opportunity to increase revenues and profitability."
"Varicent's much-lauded solution, Varicent SPM, combines solid financial software features with a visionary approach to modeling and administering incentive compensation plans, managing and planning territories and quotas and performing advanced analytics on the related data," continued Wolf.
The partnership between Varicent and Revelwood includes co-marketing activities, the first of which is a webinar on September 20, 2007 at 1:00pm EDT. Moderated by Revelwood's Wolf, the webinar will feature Steve Player, program director of Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT) North America and Rod Radojevic, vice president of product management, Varicent, discussing strategies for incentive compensation plans to drive overall corporate results. To register for this event, visit: http://www.revelwood.com/events.
About Revelwood
Revelwood provides performance management solutions that enable companies to predict, measure, evaluate and impact business performance. Offering products, implementation services, training and support, Revelwood brings ease, speed and flexibility to planning, reporting and analytics-all on a single, common platform.
Since 1995, Revelwood has provided solutions for numerous innovative companies including CBS, Dow Jones, Madison Square Garden, Wells Real Estate Funds, LifeMasters and TV Guide. For more information on Revelwood, please visit http://www.revelwood.com.
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Varicent Adds Overseas Reseller, Bringing Leading Sales Performance Management, Incentive Compensation Management Solution to Australia
Visionary SPM Company Signs Reseller Agreement with Tridant; Tridant Becomes First Varicent Consulting Partner in Australia
(Toronto and Melbourne, Australia) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has entered the Australian marketplace, offering its visionary solution, Varicent SPM, through the performance management consultancy, Tridant.
"As our 2007 BPM Pulse Survey showed, extending business performance management into sales operations is a key priority for executives," said Warren Slabe, managing director, Australia/New Zealand, BPM Partners. "Since many leading companies in Australia have embraced BPM, sales performance management is a logical next step."
Better sales performance management and incentive compensation management practices enable companies to understand and react to sales opportunities. Varicent SPM is a comprehensive solution that enables companies to implement, manage and profit from company-wide pay-for-performance programs. Rising in popularity, pay-for-performance programs motivate and reward employees at all levels to meet and exceed performance expectations, while delivering greater profits for corporations.
Gartner, the well-known advisory firm, states in a recent report, "SPM represents a combination of operational and analytic software capabilities that automate and integrate functions for planning, designing, allocating and managing sales territories, quotas and compensation plans. These applications help enterprises improve the organization, direction and motivation of sales teams to achieve sustained improvements in revenue and margin production.1"
"Varicent has established a position as a visionary in the SPM market," said Mark Girvan, vice president, business development, Varicent. "Varicent SPM delivers the most comprehensive approach to SPM, while also providing a rapid and easy path to implementation. Through our partnership with Tridant, we are extending the benefits and opportunities provided by SPM to the Australian market."
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Tridant provides business performance management (BPM) solutions and services throughout Australia. For its client engagements, Tridant uses a Performance Management Framework that addresses all decision makers, analysts and users in the performance management ecosystem. This framework focuses on incorporating the benefits of robust and proven technology with a common and consistent definition of the right information, and the need to align individual's performance with their organization's goals and objectives. Importantly, the Framework removes any doubts relating to information accuracy and relevancy.
"Tridant has a legacy of success in the business intelligence (BI), business performance management (BPM) and financial analytics areas," said Alec Jeffery, executive director, Tridant. "By incorporating Varicent SPM into our arsenal of solutions, we are combining our expertise with the leading solution on the market to help our customers achieve greater results by adopting a pay-for-performance culture."
Tridant brings both horizontal performance management and vertical expertise to corporations turning to sales performance management. The firm has vast experience working with clients in the finance, HR, operations and sales and marketing roles, as well as in the mining and resources, telecommunications, FMCG, hospitality and retail sectors.
1Sales Performance Management: How it Relates to and Differs From CPM, by Michael Dunne and Nigel Rayner, June 15, 2007, Gartner.
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Varicent and Vaultus Mobile Technologies Announce Partnership to Make Sales Performance Management Mobile
Alliance Will Deliver the Industry's Most Powerful Sales Performance Management Solution Directly to BlackBerry Smartphones
(Toronto and Boston) – Varicent, the leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions, today announced an alliance with Vaultus Mobile Technologies. With this agreement, Varicent will leverage Vaultus' award-winning technology to mobilize its best-in-class Varicent SPM solution; giving Varicent users the ability to access Territory, Quota, Incentive Compensation Management (ICM), and Performance Analytics solutions directly from their BlackBerry® smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM).
With millions of corporate customers, the BlackBerry wireless solution has become the de facto standard in enterprise mobility. The Varicent-Vaultus alliance will enable customers to quickly and easily manage sales territories, quotas and incentives- and to perform ad hoc analysis and reporting on performance metrics directly on their BlackBerry smartphone- anywhere, anytime, even if they are away from wireless coverage. This expands on Varicent's key value proposition of driving corporate and individual performance through the alignment of sales performance with strategic objectives, by keeping users more connected to these critical Varicent tools and in constant alignment with the strategic objectives of the enterprise.
"Sales and business executives are inherently mobile professionals, and their performance has an enormous impact on a company's success." said Keith Waryas, Director of Marketing for Vaultus. "Enabling these key contributors to access Varicent SPM directly from a BlackBerry smartphone will help make them even more productive when they are away from their desks, and enable tighter alignment between the strategic objectives of the enterprise and the activities and goals of their sales teams."
Mark Girvan, Vice President of Business Development, Varicent, comments, "Varicent's work with Vaultus and commitment to enabling mobile SPM is further evidence of our visionary product direction that puts us far ahead of the competition. Vaultus' expertise and industry reputation fit perfectly with our focus on world-class technology. This alliance will ensure clients using the Varicent-Vaultus solution will have the best technology on the market."
To learn more about Varicent on the BlackBerry, and how it can help your organization, visit: http://www.varicent.com/mobile
About Vaultus
Based in Boston, MA, Vaultus is a mobile software company that enables firms to leverage the benefits of the BlackBerry® solution -- beyond email. Vaultus' award-winning Mobile Application Platform enables workers to have instant mobile access to their enterprise applications, and Vaultus' Mobile Application Studio enables IT departments to cut mobile deployment time in half, while dramatically reduce support costs. Enterprise mobility. Simple and Secure. For more information on Vaultus, please visit http://www.vaultus.com.
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Spectra Logic Manages Growth With Sales Performance Management From Varicent
Selects Leading Sales Performance Management Solution, Leveraging Incentive Compensation Management, Advanced Analytics and Quota Planning, For Strategic Corporate Insight; Anticipates Superior ROI
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has been selected by Spectra Logic, the leading innovator in data archive and backup. Spectra Logic has turned to Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, to bring visibility and foresight into the company's sales, growing revenue and strategic planning.
"While one of our key requirements for Spectra Logic's SPM implementation was accurate commission management for our outside representatives, we wanted even more out of SPM," said Brian Rome, CFO, Spectra Logic. "Specifically, we required an SPM solution that delivered scenario planning and analytics that would enable us to see what investments in sales are actually driving revenue growth."
Like many well established companies, Spectra Logic had stringent requirements for the system, conducted rigorous due diligence before selecting Varicent SPM over competing products from Callidus, Centive and Xactly.
After seeing a customized Proof-of-Concept demonstration, featuring Varicent SPM, Spectra Logic compared the product features to both their requirements and competing solutions. With Varicent SPM's ability to automate and control incentive compensation calculations, model territories and quotas and perform advanced analytics for better strategic insight and aligning corporate goals with individual performance, Spectra Logic realized Varicent SPM more than met its needs.
Based on its rigorous and conservative ROI analysis, Spectra Logic anticipates that the strategic insight in compensation plans, territories and quotas delivered by Varicent SPM, will have a significant impact on the company. "We wanted to be sure that our investment in Varicent would not only pay for itself, but also contribute to the bottom line," stated Rome.
"This system will also allow our sales force to have greater visibility to sales data on a near real time basis, in addition to their commission calculations; helping them maximize their earning potential while driving sales," continued Rome.
Another consideration for Spectra Logic was Varicent's on-premise offering. Spectra Logic wanted to avoid performance, security and other concerns of a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution. Rome added "We believe we will also get more value from Varicent SPM over the life of the system with the solution on site."
As Spectra Logic continues its roll out of Varicent SPM, the company will use the software for visibility into Spectra Logic's current and future sales quotas. With Varicent SPM, Spectra Logic will better understand how the sales force meets its quotas, who delivers on the quotas, how best to structure the sales force, and what product areas the company should focus on. Ultimately, this leads to a more nimble organization, making strategic decisions that drive revenue growth.
"Sales performance management is not just about solving the pain of commission calculation," said Marc Altshuller, executive vice president, worldwide field operations, Varicent. "Rather, sales performance management is a key component for maximizing revenue, remaining ultra competitive, and having business foresight. Spectra Logic is the perfect example of a leading Varicent customer realizing the complete opportunity of the software."
Sales performance management focuses on sales planning, modeling and dashboarding for territory management, quota planning, commission and incentive compensation calculations and management, and sales performance analytics. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, helps companies better manage, measure and understand the economic impact of their variable compensation programs.
About Spectra Logic Corporation
Spectra Logic is the leading innovator in data archive and backup. The company helps customers all over the world protect data better with hardware and software products that enable users to reduce risk, lower cost and save time. Spectra Logic's archive and backup products are designed specifically for secondary storage needs, are compatible with every major tape and disk format, and come with integrated encryption and key management options through the intuitive BlueScale operating system and management interface. The company's tape, disk and encryption solutions are designed to evolve over time and make an excellent investment for IT managers who are projecting growth and planning for many years into the future. Since Spectra Logic was founded in 1979, several innovative creations and industry-first products have been introduced to the market, including: Archive and Backup Services (nTier-2007); hardware-based, VTL encryption with compression (RXT-2006); and hardware-based, library-enabled encryption with compression (BlueScale Encryption-2005); and integrated tape and disk in a single library (Spectra T950 with RXT-2004). For more information on Spectra Logic Corporation, please visit http://www.spectralogic.com.
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80 Percent Of Executives Rate Current Incentive Compensation Management Approach As Difficult
Varicent and BPM Partners' Sales Performance Management Survey Still Open for Your Participation; Complete the Survey and Receive a Customized Score to Benchmark your Organization's Sales Performance Management Effectiveness
(Toronto and Stamford, Conn.) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) and BPM Partners, the leading independent authority on business performance management, today unveiled a sneak peek at results from the recently launched 2007 Sales Performance Management (SPM) survey. Early results show that more than 80 percent of executives responding indicated that their current incentive compensation management solutions range between somewhat difficult and extremely difficult to use.
To date, many companies still rely on cumbersome spreadsheets or stand alone home-grown compensation management systems, creating errors, inefficiencies and a lack of visibility into sales performance and operations.
The survey queries finance, human resources, sales and IT executives on incentive compensation management, territory alignment, quota planning and sales performance analytics. To participate in the survey, go to: www.varicent.com/survey
"The 2007 BPM Pulse Survey showed that sales performance is a high priority for business performance management projects," said Craig Schiff, president and CEO, BPM Partners. "This new survey on sales performance management delves into the pain points many companies have in trying to manage variable pay programs intended to achieve better overall corporate performance by identifying issues and motivating individuals."
In addition to the astounding amount of participants considering their SPM approach as difficult, the survey finds more than half of the executives rate their current compensation plans as somewhat effective or ineffective.
This survey asks respondents 15 questions on their adoption of SPM and their ability to link corporate goals to individual performance in order to create a pay-for-performance culture. It also asks brief questions on specific components of SPM, including territory management, quota planning and incentive compensation calculation.
Respondents to the survey receive a customized score rating SPM initiatives as compared to leading best practices for sales performance management.
About BPM Partners
BPM Partners is the leading independent authority on business performance management (BPM) solutions and a founding member of the BPM Standards Group. BPM Partners' vendor-neutral consultants guide companies through their BPM initiatives from start to finish, helping companies attain the maximum value from their business performance management initiatives. This is done through hands-on services that provide insight on how to collect and analyze the right information to address specific business goals. BPM Partners leads clients through requirements definition, vendor selection, and deployment of departmental or enterprise-wide BPM systems. In 2006 BPM Partners was named a 'Small Jewel' in Consulting Magazine's annual selection of the most innovative consulting companies.
By analyzing and then matching the client's requirements with the appropriate vendor, BPM Partners helps companies narrow the selection of vendors from a lengthy industry list that includes Applix (Nasdaq: APLX), Business Objects/Cartesis (Nasdaq: BOBJ), Clarity Systems, Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN), Infor, Longview Solutions, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Oracle/Hyperion (Nasdaq: ORCL), OutlookSoft/SAP (NYSE: SAP), SAS and others. For more information on BPM Partners, please visit http://www.bpmpartners.com.
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Varicent Receives "Promising" rating in Gartner's MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management (ICM)
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), announced today that it received a "Promising" rating in Gartner's "MarketScope for Sales Incentive Compensation Management (ICM), 20071. Varicent was one of 11 vendors evaluated in the report.
According to the Gartner report, "Enterprises with more than 100 sales representatives, complex selling models or partner channels should begin investigating Sales ICM offerings." The report highlights key trends stimulating market growth and prevailing trends to during the next two years. Additionally, Gartner rates the overall market segment as "promising."
"We think Gartner's insightful MarketScope report is just one more objective analyst report to reference Varicent's vision and strategy for sales performance management (SPM)," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "As our clients know - and the industry is learning - we are delivering a broad suite of functionality for SPM, and our offering is beating the competitors in large and complex deals."
In the report, Gartner states, "Sales ICM applications should help organizations gain efficiencies, insights and versatility in creating, deploying, and administering compensation plans meant to guide and motivate direct and indirect sales personnel." This rapidly growing market is attracting interest from companies looking to use variable pay programs to grow profits.
Varicent's flagship offering, Varicent SPM, offers a functionally broad sales ICM solution that is written to support both IIS, Apache or WebSphere and deployed on-premise, supporting Oracle, Microsoft SQL and IBM UDB databases. Further, Varicent SPM works with a number of OLAP solutions for complex analysis - Applix TM1, Oracle-Hyperion Essbase, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.
MarketScope Disclaimer
The MarketScope is copyrighted 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
1Gartner "Marketscope for Sales ICM, 2007" by Michael Dunne, July 30, 2007.
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Varicent Software Continues Rapid Growth In Second Quarter 2007
Visionary Sales Performance Management Company on Track for Record Year
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced continued rapid sales and company growth for the second quarter, 2007. This quarter continues a multi-year trend for Varicent and positions the company for a record year in 2007.
"This past quarter saw significant movement and events for Varicent and the SPM market in general," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "Varicent's expanded sales team closed major deals for our offering, and the company was included in several leading analyst reports."
Among the brand name new customers choosing Varicent over competing solutions are AAA Auto Club South, Health Insurance Plan of New York (HIP) and TechTarget.
Varicent also continued its corporate growth, bringing on Ken Barbe, vice president of Global Services, formerly in a similar role with WorkBrain, and expanding its US operations in Portland, Oregon.
As part of its growing brand awareness, Varicent was covered in the following analyst reports and articles:
- Gartner, "Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2007," by Michael Dunne et al., June 21, 2007, #G00148219
- Gartner, "Sales Performance Management: How it Relates to and Differs from CPM," by Michael Dunne and Nigel Rayner, June 15, 2007, #G00148568. Access a copy courtesy of Varicent at: www.varicent.com/SPMreport/
- Bloor Research, "Sales Performance Management Gains Market Favour," by Gerry Brown, July 10, 2007, appearing on http://www.it-director.com/business/content.php?cid=9629
- Multiple references in B-Eye-Network, DM Review and CFO Magazine
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Leading Industry Analyst Firm Includes Varicent in Vendors Serving New Software Market - Sales Performance Management
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) was noted in a recent Gartner report, "Sales Performance Management: How It Relates to and Differs From CPM." The report by Gartner analysts Michael Dunne and Nigel Rayner was issued on June 15, 20071.
According to the Gartner report, "SPM represent a combination of operational and analytic software capabilities that automate and integrate functions for planning, designing, allocating and management sales territories, quotas and compensation plans. These applications help enterprises improve the organization, direction and motivation of sales teams to achieve sustained improvements in revenue and margin production."
Moreover, "Current solutions strive to combine territory and quota management functions with sales incentive compensation management applications, accompanied by analytics to explore, detect and understand trends in sales results in relation to original planning assumptions. Ideally, such solutions will enable sales organizations to plan, execute and supervise key tasks for preparing and guiding salespeople in a set of seamless, cohesive and transparent processes that lead to continuous improvements in sales execution."
In addition to defining SPM and differentiating it from CPM, the Gartner report covers sales incentive compensation planning, territory management, analytics and how linking SPM and CPM can impact revenue targets, cost assumptions and results.
Among its recommendations, Gartner suggests, "When investigating SPM, initially focus on the compensation management domain with independent, best-of-breed vendors that are pioneering this market."
To read the report in full, go to: www.varicent.com/SPMreport/
"This Gartner report validates what we hear from our customers - that SPM has a significant impact on the bottom line," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent Software. "Additionally, SPM should be considered an integrated, corporate initiative, not a process divorced from other enterprise applications and activities."
1Sales Performance Management: How it Relates to and Differs From CPM, by Michael Dunne and Nigel Rayner, June 15, 2007, ID Number: G00148568
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Varicent Expands West Coast Operations
Portland Office Relocates to Bigger Space, Adds Employees to Better Service Rapidly Expanding Varicent Customer Base
(Toronto and Portland, Oregon) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM) today announced it has significantly expanded its West Coast operations, based in Portland, Oregon, by relocating to bigger office space near downtown Portland and hiring more staff in the sales operations department.
"Varicent has been acquiring new customers at a market-leading rate," said Dan Shimmerman, president and CEO, Varicent. "To better serve our existing and new customers and to support our efforts in continuing to expand our customer base, we saw a need to expand our West Coast operations."
Varicent's Portland office, located on SW Griffin Drive, will service all of Varicent's North American customers and help support the company's global expansion.
The sales performance management market is an emerging and rapidly growing market. According to a recent survey by BPM Partners, more than 75 percent of companies implementing business performance management initiatives will include sales operations in their performance management plans. Gartner forecasts the business performance management/corporate performance management market to grow to more than $900 million by 2009.
Varicent has been recognized as a hot, rapidly growing leader in the sales performance management market.
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Varicent and BPM Partners open survey on Sales Performance Management Best Practices
Survey Participants Receive Customized Report Comparing Their Organization's Sales Performance Management Processes vs. Best Practices Organizations
(Toronto and Stamford, Conn.) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), and BPM Partners, the leading independent authority on business performance management (BPM) solutions, today announced the opening of a benchmarking survey on sales performance management.
To take the survey, go to http://www.varicent.com/survey
The sales performance management (SPM) survey will ask respondents 15 questions on their adoption of sales performance management (SPM) and their ability to link corporate goals to individual performance in order to create a pay-for-performance culture. It will also ask brief questions on specific components of sales performance management (SPM), including territory management, quota planning and incentive compensation calculation.
Respondents to the survey will receive a customized score rating their sales performance management (SPM) initiatives as compared to leading best practices for sales performance management.
Sales performance management (SPM) focuses on sales planning, modeling and dashboarding for territory management, quota planning, commission and incentive compensation calculations and management, and sales performance analytics.
About BPM Partners
BPM Partners is the leading independent authority on business performance management (BPM) solutions and a founding member of the BPM Standards Group. BPM Partners' vendor-neutral consultants guide companies through their BPM initiatives from start to finish, helping companies attain the maximum value from their business performance management initiatives. This is done through hands-on services that provide insight on how to collect and analyze the right information to address specific business goals. BPM Partners leads clients through requirements definition, vendor selection, and deployment of departmental or enterprise-wide BPM systems. In 2006 BPM Partners was named a 'Small Jewel' in Consulting Magazine's annual selection of the most innovative consulting companies.
By analyzing and then matching the client's requirements with the appropriate vendor, BPM Partners helps companies narrow the selection of vendors from a lengthy industry list that includes Applix (Nasdaq: APLX), Business Objects/Cartesis (Nasdaq: BOBJ), Clarity Systems, Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN), Infor, Longview Solutions, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Oracle/Hyperion (Nasdaq: ORCL), OutlookSoft, SAP (NYSE: SAP), SAS and others.
For more information on BPM Partners, please visit http://www.bpmpartners.com.
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Iberiabank Corporation Counts on Varicent for Sales Performance Management
Varicent SPM Provides Dashboard for Self-Service Reporting, Aligns Individual Metrics with Corporate Objectives
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it has been selected by IBERIABANK Corporation, (Nasdaq: IBKC), to deliver a comprehensive sales performance management platform for its Retail Banking Business. IBERIABANK Corporation is turning to Varicent Sales Performance Management (Varicent SPM) to deliver a self-service dashboard for all Retail Banking sales representatives to track and monitor their performance, while also ensuring individual performance is reflecting the overall strategic goals of the bank.
"Our corporate philosophy is to exceed customer satisfaction at every point of contact," said Michael Naquin, Senior Executive Vice President, IBERIABANK Corp. "By deploying SPM across our Retail Banking business, we feel our Retail Banking sales representatives will have up-to-date information via a dashboard, and our processes will be better adapted for greater customer service."
IBERIABANK Corporation selected Varicent SPM to help support an increased focus on growing deposit and loan balances and other key business drivers. Additionally, Varicent will provide the company more comprehensive workflow between management, branch offices and individual bank employees, enable self-service monitoring via a performance management dashboard, and deliver management tools for more agile decision making.
"One of our goals in evaluating technology options on the market was to not just solve today's problem, but also anticipate tomorrow's challenges," said Jack Deano, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "We felt Varicent delivered both the core ICM component and the additional SPM features that would integrate easily with our existing enterprise systems."
"SPM solutions provide the foundation for pay-for-performance programs," said Marc Altshuller, executive vice president, worldwide field operations, Varicent. "Many studies show that pay-for-performance programs are growing in importance and strategic value, regardless of industry. Varicent customers such as IBERIABANK understand that sales performance management gives them a competitive advantage."
Sales performance management focuses on sales planning, modeling and dashboarding for territory management, quota planning, commission and incentive compensation calculations and management, and sales performance analytics. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, helps companies better manage, measure and understand the economic impact of their variable compensation programs.
About IBERIABANK
With $4.6 billion in assets (as of March 31, 2007), IBERIABANK Corporation is the second largest financial holding company based in Louisiana.
IBERIABANK Corporation operates two bank subsidiaries: IBERIABANK and Pulaski Bank and Trust Company. With acquisitions of Pulaski Bank and First Community Bank in early 2007, IBERIABANK Corporation also significantly expanded its lines of business with the acquisition of Pulaski Mortgage Company and Lenders Title Company.
IBERIABANK Corporation now offers clients:
- 50 bank branches and six mortgage offices in Louisiana
- 11 bank offices, four mortgage offices, and 12 title offices in Central Arkansas,
- 20 bank offices, one mortgage office, and one title office in Northeast Arkansas,
- Three mortgage offices, four title offices, and one bank Loan Production Office in Northwest Arkansas,
- Three title offices in Northern Arkansas,
- Two bank offices, five mortgage offices, and one bank LPO in Memphis, Tennessee/Northern Mississippi,
- One bank and two mortgage offices in the Tulsa area and Ardmore, Oklahoma,
- Two mortgage offices in the St. Louis, Missouri area,
- Four mortgage offices in the Dallas, Texas area, and
- An internet credit card delivery platform system.
IBERIABANK Corporation stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbol IBKC. More information can be found at www.iberiabank.com. For more information on IBERIABANK, please visit .
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Varicent Software Realizes Outstanding Results for First Quarter 2007
Company Success Demonstrates Growth of Sales Performance Management Market
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent™ Software, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced outstanding sales results for the first quarter of 2007. This breakout quarter included significant large customer wins, pushing the envelope of the number of payees relying on Varicent to deliver accurately and timely information on pay-for-performance programs.
"Numerous studies and analyst reports all indicate that performance management solutions such as Varicent SPM are high on the priority list of corporations today," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "Our first quarter sales results, which increased significantly and builds on nearly 15 quarters of profitability, is proof that SPM is a real need in the marketplace and that large companies are investing in the solution."
New customers selecting Varicent over competitors include: American Century Investments, AmSan, CommVault, IBERIABANK, Rogers Communications, SpectraLogic, Towne Group, Waste Management and more.
Additionally, Varicent achieved several corporate milestones this quarter, including:
- Hiring Jordan Shnier, vice president of finance;
- Appointing Mark Girvan vice president of business development;
- Continued expansion of the U.S. sales force, recruiting corporate performance management, business intelligence and accounting software veterans; and
- Establishing a sales support office in Portland, Oregon.
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Varicent Appoints Mark Girvan Vice President of Business Development
Industry Veteran To Build Channels, Develop Strategic Partnerships
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced Mark Girvan has joined the company as vice president of business development. Girvan, an industry veteran with more than 15 years experience with enterprise software and strategic consulting firms, will lead Varicent's channel and partner initiatives.
"Varicent is on a fast-growth path," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "In the past few months we've added executives to the management team, increased the sales staff, and prepared for a tremendous 2007. Mark brings us valuable experience building out channels for enterprise software firms and will be instrumental for Varicent to become the market leader in sales performance management."
Sales performance management is an aspect of business performance management focusing on planning, modeling, dashboarding and reporting, managing territories, commission and incentive calculations and analytics for companies to understand the economic impact of variable compensation programs.
Girvan comes to Varicent from Platform Computing, where he was the director of channel sales. Previous experience includes serving as a senior consultant with The McKenna Group, an associate with A. T. Kearney, and roles at Secure Computing and Kolvox Communications. Girvan holds an MBA from Ivey School of Business and a BA from Queen's University.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the only complete sales performance management solution addressing the needs of the entire corporation. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of variable compensation programs include KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC), Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT), Waste Management (NYSE: WMI), Rogers (NYSE: RG), About.com (a New York Times Company), and Pacific Blue Cross.
For more information on Varicent, please visit http://www.varicent.com. .
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Jordan Shnier Joins Varicent as Vice President of Finance
Shnier Brings Expertise in Finance to Rapidly Growing Sales Performance Management Vendor
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced Jordan Shnier has joined the company as vice president of finance. In his role, Shnier will oversee all areas of finance and administration for Varicent.
"Varicent is rapidly growing to meet the needs of our expanding customer base," said Dan Shimmerman, CEO, Varicent. "As we add more and more global enterprise customers, we are carefully expanding our own infrastructure. Jordan brings us expertise in shepherding start-up technology firms to become significant market players."
Shnier is a Chartered Accountant who most recently worked with a Toronto-based private equity firm where he was responsible for overseeing all financial requirements, while also providing operational guidance to the firm's portfolio companies. Prior to that, Shnier served as an independent financial consultant to various technology start ups. His experience also includes five years with Deloitte and Touche, and leading the financial function at Davinci Technologies through its development and growth phase that ultimately led to a sale to CSG Systems (Nasdaq: CSGS).
Varicent was recently named the "Best New Vendor" in its space and provides sales performance management software to global enterprises. Sales performance management is an aspect of business performance management focusing on extending best practices into sales operations. Comprehensive SPM software includes planning, modeling, dashboarding and reporting, managing territories, commission and incentive calculations and analytics. SPM enables companies to understand the economic impact of variable compensation programs.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the only complete sales performance management solution addressing the needs of the entire corporation. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of variable compensation programs include KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC), Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT), Waste Management (NYSE: WMI), Rogers (TSX: RCI), About.com (A New York Times Company), and Pacific Blue Cross.
For more information on Varicent, please visit http://www.varicent.com.
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2006 Results: Breakout Year for Varicent Software
"Best New Vendor" Sees Third Consecutive Year of Triple-Digit Growth and Profitability; Company Positioned for Continued Success in 2007
(Toronto) – Varicent™ Software Incorporated, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced 2006 was a breakout year for the company. Completing its third consecutive year of triple-digit revenue growth and profitability, the company is well positioned to capture even more mindshare and market share in the rapidly emerging market of sales performance management software.
"Organizations are embracing operational performance management processes and many are discovering the direct need for sales performance management in delivering better transparency, efficiency and increased profits," said Mark Smith, CEO and executive vice president of research, Ventana Research. "Varicent is delivering for the industry by presenting a holistic, finance-based approach to sales operations and performance needs while delivering on sales compensation requirements."
Business performance management is a combination of business processes, select measures (metric, key performance indicators) and systems that enable organizations to understand, act on and influence its business performance. Sales performance management, a subset of this, focuses on sales planning, modeling and dashboarding, quota and territory management, sales commission and incentive calculations, and sales analytics. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent Sales Performance Management (SPM), helps companies better manage, measure and understand the economic impact of their variable compensation programs.
"Variable compensation -- the cornerstone of sales performance management - is the single largest variable expense for most large enterprises," said Varicent CEO Dan Shimmerman. "With average overpayments ranging between three to five percent, variable-based payments can be a significant source of lost money for companies. Varicent's customers have reversed this trend by deploying Varicent SPM to bring more control and insight into pay-for-performance programs."
Specific highlights of Varicent's performance in 2006 include:
Signing a significant number of global enterprises in 2006, such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Adaptec, KLA-Tencor, Savvis, Sonus Networks, SunGard, Chase Paymentech, Global Insight, and Waste Management;
Delivering high return on investment (ROI) for deployed customers including Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, Omneon Video Networks, Greater Bay Bank, Kyphon and Heritage Health Systems;
Increasing deployed SPM applications to more than 20 countries, including payees in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Spain, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and other countries;
Adding implementation partners Iconixx, based in Houston, Texas, and Northwest EIS-OLAP, headquartered in Vancouver, Washington; and
Expanding the sales and pre-sales organization to service existing and new customers.
Additionally, in 2006 Varicent recruited a key executive for the company's management team. Rod Radojevic, previously with Extensity and Comshare, was named vice president of product management. Radojevic is leading product management and marketing initiatives, and will be a frequent speaker at industry tradeshows and conferences.
Continued Shimmerman, "Industry analysts project solid growth for the entire sales performance management market. Coming off of the successes of 2006, we are poised for an even more successful year of growth and expansion in 2007. In fact, Varicent started the year by being named the 'Best New Vendor' in business performance management in BPM Partners' annual Beyond the Hype? Web cast. Our plans for 2007 include filling out the executive management team, further expansion of the sales force and increased focus on our marketing and development efforts."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the only complete sales performance management solution addressing the needs of the entire corporation. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of variable compensation programs include KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC), Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT), Waste Management (NYSE: WMI), Rogers (TSX: RCI), About.com (a New York Times company), and Pacific Blue Cross. For more information on Varicent, please visit http://www.varicent.com. .
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Varicent Named Best New Vendor by BPM Partners in annual Beyond the Hype Web Cast
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Cited as Providing a Leading Platform in the Under-Served Market of Sales Performance Management
Varicent™ Software Incorporated, the only provider of complete solutions for sales performance management (SPM), today announced it was named "Best New Vendor" in BPM Partner's annual Beyond the Hype™ Web cast, evaluating the vendors and offerings in business performance management software.
"Varicent addresses the under-served aspect of sales performance management, a key facet of an overall BPM initiative," said Craig Schiff, CEO, BPM Partners. "Varicent's management team has extensive experience in performance management, business intelligence and budgeting software. This domain expertise combined with proven technology puts Varicent in an enviable position to deliver solutions to the market place."
Business performance management is a combination of business processes, select measures (metric, key performance indicators) and systems that enable an organization to understand, act on and influence its business performance. Sales performance management is a subset of this, focusing on planning, modeling, dashboarding and reporting on territories, individual sales representatives, commission and incentive calculations and analytics for companies to understand the economic impact of variable compensation programs.
"Variable compensation is often the single largest variable expense of a company," said Varicent CEO Dan Shimmerman. "Varicent helps companies to have better visibility, accuracy and accountability into this information, while also enables implementing pay-for-performance programs. Combined, these lead to greater overall profitability for our customers."
Varicent SPM aligns sales performance with strategic corporate goals by providing components for Territory Management, Quota Planning, Incentive Compensation, and Performance Analytics. Varicent SPM is a flexible, configurable technology that adapts to corporate processes, addressing the unique aspects of any large company.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated delivers the only complete sales performance management solution addressing the needs of the entire corporation. High performing companies relying on Varicent for better visibility and control of variable compensation programs include KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC), Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT), Waste Management (NYSE: WMI), Rogers (TSX: RCI), About.com, and Pacific Blue Cross. For more information on Varicent, please visit http://www.varicent.com. .
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Varicent Software Reports Strong 3rd Quarter Revenue and Earnings
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a market leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced record revenue and earnings for its third quarter ended September 2006. Licensing revenue for its flagship product, Varicent Sales Performance Management was up 93.7% from the second quarter 2006, and total revenue for the quarter was more than doubled from prior quarter results.
"We continue to make improvements in all parts of our business and are extremely pleased with our strong financial results and profitability," said Varicent CEO Dan Shimmerman. "In addition to our healthy revenue growth, our profit margins have been increasing and the services side of our business continues to expand. It's particularly noteworthy that we have attracted significant interest with enterprise customers, as our product has now proven itself superior in performance, functionality and scalability to our competitors," continued Shimmerman.
Varicent added a record number of new customers in the quarter, including KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) in San Jose, CA; Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT) in White Plains, NY; Technisource, in Little Rock, AK; MetaSolv Software, in Plano, TX; Adaptec (NASDAQ: ADPT) in Milpitas, CA; Savvis (NASDAQ:SVVS) in St. Louis, MO; SunGard Higher Education in Malvern, PA; Walton International in Calgary, AB; and Global Insight in Waltham, MA.
"It has been an exceptional quarter for us in all facets of our business. We will continue to invest in our growth and are very optimistic about the Company's outlook for the future," said Dan Shimmerman.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft's .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent's homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
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Varicent to Present at the "Beyond Budgeting Round Table"
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions today announced that it will be an expert presenter at the "Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT) Special Interest Group Meeting for Financial Services & Consumer Products". This workshop will be held at the AMA Executive Conference Center in New York City on Wednesday September 27th to Friday September 29th, and Varicent will be discussing how companies in Financial Services and Consumer Products industries can properly align incentive plans with their corporate objectives.
Incentive compensation is a vital component in motivating employees and reinforcing strategic goals and initiatives. The Consumer Products and Financial Services Industries face similar challenges in defining and implementing incentive compensation plans that motivate employees and help to achieve the organization's long-range strategic goals. In addition to addressing this important topic the workshop will feature Bennett Stewart, author of "The Quest for Value" and nationally recognized expert on incentive compensation, teaching attendees how to better define value-based measures and how to link compensation directly to value received by the organization.
Attendees will also benefit from hearing other expert presenters and case studies, including examples from successful incentive compensation management initiatives at Unilever, Bose, American Express and AIG.
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft's .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent's homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
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Varicent Spotlight on 'Business Intelligence Network'
(Toronto, ON) – In an exclusive interview with Claudia Imhoff and the Business Intelligence Network (www.BeyeNETWORK.com), Marc Altshuller, Executive VP of Worldwide Field Operations for Varicent Software, discussed how his company bridges the gap between performance management and variable-based pay programs, thus enabling large organizations to effectively align sales operations with strategic objectives.
"The vast majority of global sales forces use incentive compensation plans to motivate and encourage salespeople to maximize profits," said Altshuller. "Varicent's Sales Performance Management (SPM) application helps global organizations properly align sales and operational objectives by automating the incentive compensation management process and empowering management with sales modeling, analysis and reporting capabilities. By using Varicent, our clients significantly reduce administrative costs and achieve better results."
"Varicent's Sales Performance Management delivers a flexible solution capable of handling the unique needs of each organization," says Claudia Imhoff, President for Intelligent Solutions. "Their product automates the administration and calculation of incentive plans, examines sales performance, evaluates the effectiveness of the incentive plans - and also provides OLAP-based reporting."
"The Business Intelligence Network Solution Spotlights are intuitive dialogues with innovative solution providers, and these spotlights provide a cutting-edge introduction to the new products and services we know are of interest to the business intelligence community," says Powell, Publisher and Editorial Director of the Business Intelligence Network. "The network publishes five newsletters serving more than 115,000 readers across a wide variety of industries, making us the largest newsletter-based information source for business intelligence, performance management, data warehousing and data quality."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft's .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent's homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
About Business Intelligence Network
The network's flagship site BeyeNETWORK.com leads the industry with up-to-the-minute news, newsletters, articles, executive spotlights, podcasts, expert-hosted channels and blogs. Experts include Claudia Imhoff, Bill Inmon, Craig Schiff, Colin White, David Loshin, and others. BeyeBLOGS.com is a business intelligence-specific community blogging site which provides an open forum about industry issues and challenges. BeyeSEARCH.com offers the first and only editor-driven directory and search engine specially built to serve this industry. BeyeRESEARCH.com provides research and case studies from leading authors and experts in business intelligence. For more information on Business Intelligence Network, please visit http://www.b-eye-network.com.
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Varicent Achieves Landmark Success in Q2 2006
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a market leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, today announced record results for its second quarter ended June 30th, 2006. The company achieved tremendous growth in the quarter, remained highly profitable, and continued to attract a significant number of new clients.
"Our record revenues and improved profitability reflect the success of our strategy," said Dan Shimmerman, Varicent's President and CEO. "Software license revenues for Varicent's flagship product, Sales Performance Management (SPM), grew at a much higher rate than we had anticipated. Our bottom line for the quarter was exceptional due to our revenue growth and the higher profit margins from increased licensed sales."
In the second quarter, new customers included Kyphon (Nasdaq: KYPH) in Sunnyvale, CA; Heritage Health Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Universal American Financial (Nasdaq: UHCO) in Houston, TX; Copano Energy (Nasdaq: CPNO) in Houston, TX; Arrow Financial Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SallieMae (NYSE: SLM), in Niles, IL; Nimsoft in San Mateo, CA; Pacific Blue Cross in Vancouver, BC and Holt Cat, in San Antonio, TX.
In addition, Varicent continued to strengthen its partner and value-added reseller (VAR) network across the globe.
"We are firing on all cylinders at Varicent and it's a fun place to be," said Dan Shimmerman. "With a full month of third quarter now under our belts, it looks like we will shatter our projections for our full year 2006 results. We have earned the trust of our large, loyal and rapidly growing customer base, and are winning away business from our competitors, who have failed to match Varicent's superiority in product functionality, technology and customer service."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent's flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft's .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent's homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
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Pacific Blue Cross Optimizes Incentive Management with Varicent SPM
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions announced today that Pacific Blue Cross has chosen Varicent Sales Performance Management (SPM), Enterprise Edition to better align incentive plans with corporate performance objectives.
"The Varicent solution enables us to rapidly calculate our variable-based pay plans across our company," stated John Crawford, Senior Vice President, Financial Services. "The solution will help us maximize selling and operational behavior by providing more transparency to our incentive programs."
"Varicent offers the industry's most comprehensive Sales Performance Management solution, designed to scale to the specific and complex requirements of large organizations like Pacific Blue Cross," said Alka Gautam, vice president, marketing, Varicent. "Varicent automates the entire incentive compensation cycle --from input and calculation through to tracking and refining, approval and final payment -- and provides our customers with the functionality they need to better manage sales performance and make informed business decisions."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent’s flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft’s .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent’s homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
About Pacific Blue Cross
Pacific Blue Cross is British Columbia's leading provider of extended health and dental benefits, a position they've proudly held for more than 65 years. They are leaders in British Columbia through their comprehensive knowledge of unique regional health benefit needs, a thorough understanding of the health care system and an innovative response to the changing health care needs of Canadians.
As the province's largest benefits provider, Pacific Blue Cross processes more than 15 million claims annually. The health benefits of their nearly two million members and dependents are provided through more than 8,000 employee group plans for businesses, governments, unions and associations, and through individual plans. For more information on Pacific Blue Cross, please visit http://www.pac.bluecross.ca.
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Globalive Communications Expands Existing Varicent Deployment to OneConnect
(Toronto, ON) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions is pleased to announce that Globalive Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications solutions to niche markets, will expand its existing Varicent deployment by rolling the application out to OneConnect, a subsidiary of Globalive and a leading independent provider of hosted IP multimedia communications.
Globalive first deployed Varicent Sales Performance Management (SPM) software when the company needed a better, more accurate way of calculating sales commissions for its wholesale business with sales reps who target large deals within a small customer base, and for its B2B business with many sales agents doing smaller deals with thousands of customers. For the project, Globalive selected Varicent to import call records, properly compute incentive plans for each rep and provide accurate, timely reporting and analytics capabilities.
As part of this extended rollout, Globalive and OneConnect will now both use Varicent's business process workflow functionality to vastly simplify and streamline the process of submitting, approving and/or disputing commission payments to its national sales team.
By deploying Varicent at OneConnect and leveraging Varicent's Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) functionality, Globalive expects to further reduce the number of steps and amount of manual labor required to reconcile commission payments and disputes with individual reps. This will expedite the approval process and ensure that commission runs can occur on a timely basis without the need to revert back to manage disputed transactions.
"Varicent has been a strategic partner of ours for a long time and they share our vision of using technology as a springboard for smarter, faster, and more efficient business process management," said Brice Scheschuk, CFO for Globalive. "Once we made the decision to streamline the process of our variable pay plans at OneConnect, we knew that Varicent would be the right vendor to get us up and running fast. By standardizing on Varicent for our complete sales performance needs, we also benefit from lower total cost of ownership and easier administration."
"Companies need a sales performance solution that is closely tied to their overall sales strategy," said Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO of Varicent Software. "That is why we extended the functionality of Varicent to include tighter sales activity monitoring, and why customers like Globalive and OneConnect select Varicent for their end-to-end solution."
About Varicent
Varicent Software Incorporated is a leading provider of Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions. Varicent’s flagship product, Varicent SPM, enables organizations across multiple industries to effectively design and mange incentive pay calculations across the company. Varicent SPM is a web-based solution built on Microsoft’s .NET framework, and its patented rules-based calculation engine can manage the most complex compensation plans. Varicent’s homepage is http://www.varicent.com.
About Globalive Communications
Globalive Communications Corp. is a leading provider of telecommunications solutions to niche markets. The company develops innovative applications and delivers first-rate services to clients internationally. Globalive leads the market in hospitality operator services, audio and web conferencing, VoIP, billing and clearing of call records and low-cost long distance calling for both hotels and residential clients, cellular #TAXI service, and competitive payphone services. Globalive is a recipient of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies Award 2004 and was ranked #1 as the Fastest Growing Company in Canada on the 16th annual PROFIT 100. For more information on Globalive Communications, please visit http://www.globalive.com.
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Varicent and Applix Partner to Provide Customers With Greater Understanding and Control Of Sales Analysis, Metrics and Performance
(Toronto and Westborough, MA) – Varicent Software Incorporated, a leader in incentive and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, and Applix Inc. (NASDAQ: APLX), a global provider of Business Performance Management (BPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) applications, today announced a strategic partnership to provide a new Sales Performance Management solution to help organizations improve control and analysis of sales metrics and drive increased profitability.
Increasingly, organizations are demanding sophisticated business process automation tools that also provide advanced reporting and analytics functionality. This joint offering will combine Varicent's market leading Sales Performance Management Enterprise Edition, used to manage the complex business process of variable-based payment calculations, with Applix's industry-leading real-time analytics TM1® application to provide advanced Web-based analysis and "slice-and-dice" functionality to deliver greater performance, scalability and manageability to customers' sales operations.
"The combination of Applix TM1 and Varicent's SPM Enterprise Edition will accelerate the high level of growth and interest we now enjoy in the Sales Performance Management arena," said Marc Altshuller, Varicent's executive vice president. "By offering our new SPM solution with Applix TM1, we're deliveri