Vodafone NZ Transforms Sales Teams’ Behavior and Drives Strategic Goals with Xactly’s Flexible SPM Platform

The Challenge

Prior to implementing Xactly in 2015, Vodafone New Zealand used a large access database to handle its incentive compensation payments. These payments were also distributed and communicated through a complex excel spreadsheet via email bi-monthly. This method didn’t allow Vodafone to change plans quickly, and left leaders with no audit trail. This left both administrators and internal customers frustrated by the lack of visibility and manual processes. According to Carey Urlich, System Lead, Commissions, “in the early days of using Xactly, automation was the first key initiative. We wanted to use the platform to reduce processing time and easily introduce more complex plans while maintaining accuracy.” The second phase of Vodafone’s use of Xactly changed the focus to plan enhancements that would drive specific rep behavior that was tied to company goals.

The Solution

Once Vodafone mastered the automation piece of compensation using Xactly Incent™, company leaders moved on to the next phase—up-leveling its plans to align with strategic company goals. The organization knew that compensation could be a more powerful driver of sales reps’ behavior. “By automating the payment process, Vodafone has been able to develop and improve the outcomes for internal customers and ensure complete accuracy of payments. Surveys of internal teams show that Xactly has been well received and improves the effectiveness of our sales teams,” said Edina Sebestyen, Commissions Manager, Vodafone.

In late 2018, Vodafone began thinking about how specific plan changes would get them closer to achieving the overarching objectives of the company. “Last year, a big focus was teamwork within the retail department, so the compensation plans incented sales people to work together. When this plan change didn’t drive the specific results the company wanted, Xactly’s flexibility allowed us to change plans easily to incent both team attainment and individual performance,” added Urlich. In retail, it’s important for salespeople to be able to see what they are achieving during the month so they can adjust their behavior and hit their targets. Prior to implementing Xactly, Vodafone sales reps didn’t have this kind of transparency that allows the team to achieve more.

Leaders at Vodafone use the platform’s analytics capabilities to click in to see how people are doing and spot check performance so that any issues or problems are caught and remedied earlier. “Xactly helps us stay current with the latest in SPM. We trust that the plans we build in the platform help drive Vodafone forward” added Edina Sebestyen, Commissions Manager.

The Results

• Decrease in manual processing time for payments from two full days to a few minutes.
• Higher quota attainment than ever due to increased visibility.
• Increased reporting capabilities from two excel statements sent to reps monthly to a myriad of live dashboards and reporting through Analytics.
• Increased information availability from no visibility throughout the month to daily active tracking.