The Challenge
Sales compensation management on Xactly resulted in added busywork, a lack of strategic insights, and limited visibility for payees.
When Jose Aleman joined Diligent as VP of Commercial Operations a year and half ago, Xactly was being implemented in the organization. The system was not fully utilized since most payees weren’t in the system, with most compensation plans not going through it. As a result, it led to significant reliance on manual work with Excel.
The team was spending most of their time on day-to-day activities and feeding data from various departments into the system. The process was reactive, and focused only on commissions being paid with no room for analysis or strategic planning. Additionally, the team had to rely on other teams to produce reports. Furthermore, the sales teams that were using Xactly were accessing their statements on the system only once a quarter.
With 700+ payees across diverse roles, there was an urgent need for a scalable, modern solution that could support different compensation plans effectively. This realization prompted the search for a new system that could meet Diligent’s evolving needs and provide the necessary strategic value.
Why Everstage?
Everstage joined the evaluation process later than the others, but quickly impressed the team by catching up with other vendors in just a week and a half—a process that had taken months for others to complete.
Additionally, Everstage offered superior usability, an intuitive user experience for payees, and unique features like commission modeling without affecting CRM data. Everstage also focused on delivering total cost of ownership and scalability, combined with robust reporting and analytics, and forecasting capabilities, making it the chosen vendor after a thorough evaluation involving multiple departments.
The Solution
Diligent uses Everstage to process commissions for all their payees, reduce manual work, and focus more on reporting and analytics.
Quick implementation and continued collaboration
The implementation process was characterized by a high level of collaboration between Diligent and Everstage. Frequent meetings ensured that the transition was smooth and that the Diligent team was well-supported throughout the process. Everstage provided not only the technical setup but also guidance on best practices, helping Diligent’s team to become self-sufficient and confident in using the new system.
BI-powered reporting and analytics
With Everstage, Diligent experienced a significant improvement in its ability to build reports and dashboards, offering much-needed visibility across the organization. The powerful reporting engine, coupled with seamless integration with other systems, allowed for dynamic filtering, multi-tab views, and custom security, making Everstage an indispensable tool for analysis and decision-making.
Visibility for payees and managers
While automating the process saves a tremendous amount of time and effort, the ultimate goal is to drive the right behaviors and motivate payees to achieve their targets. This is only possible when payees have visibility into their potential earnings even before a deal is closed. With Crystal commission forecasting, payees experiment with their pipeline data to see, for example, how a 10% discount might impact their commission or how signing a multi-year contract could earn them an accelerator. This real-time insight empowers them to make informed decisions before finalizing a deal.
Moreover, Everstage integrates seamlessly with the tools sellers and managers already use, such as Salesforce, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, so they don’t even need to log into Everstage separately. This accessibility ensures that they can stay focused on their goals without unnecessary disruptions.
The Result
Diligent has transformed their sales compensation function with complete control of the process, strategic shift with powerful insights, and organizational performance visibility.
Strategic shift for the sales compensation team
The move to Everstage not only alleviated the daily operational burdens but also enabled the sales compensation team to focus on more strategic tasks. The team could now conduct impact analysis and evaluate the effectiveness of compensation plans, which elevated their role within the organization. This shift allowed the team to move from a purely operational role to a strategic partner in driving company-wide decisions.
Team Diligent is now excited to explore whether the current compensation plans are effective and to evaluate the productivity of new initiatives like SPIFs.They are learning best practices from the Everstage team and are eager to focus on more strategic, value-added work, thanks to the new system handling the essential day-to-day tasks.
Cost-effective scalability
As a result of implementing Everstage, Diligent successfully managed to keep the total cost of ownership under control while scaling its operations. The company was able to balance software and implementation costs effectively, ensuring that the project remained in a defined budget. Importantly, Everstage allowed Diligent to do more with their existing team, enabling them to handle increased complexity without the need for a proportional increase in headcount. This cost-effective approach not only met Diligent's immediate needs but also positioned them for future growth.
Modern sales compensation management
Legacy systems often remain deeply embedded within organizations because they are familiar and perceived as the "safe" choice. However, for Diligent, sticking with the status quo was simply not an option. The existing system was failing, and attempting to fix a flawed implementation wasn't feasible. The challenge was finding a solution that could deliver on its promises—was Everstage too good to be true?
Those initial concerns were quickly put to rest as Everstage proved not only capable but also far superior to the legacy systems. The modern technology demonstrated that it could deliver on its vision, outperforming established competitors with its advanced features and modern capabilities. As technology evolves, so do the systems that support it, and Everstage has clearly shown the benefits of embracing a solution designed to work with current and future technology.
