Spreadsheets seen as dissatisfying, unsatisfactory

Just in case those of you in the industry needed help getting through next week, Centive and Theikos now have a reason for your existence. And those of you who run business without CRM, you’re listening, too.

Centive, an on-demand strategic sales compensation management solutions provider, and Southborough, Mass.-based Theikos, a provider of CRM-related services and solutions, have released announced survey results indicating an overwhelming dissatisfaction with spreadsheet-based sales compensation management systems and their “inability to drive sales performance.”

Completed this month, the survey of U.S. sales and finance executives sponsored by Centive and conducted by Theikos found that 92 percent of respondents continue to use spreadsheets or homegrown-based systems to manage sales compensation, despite said dissatisfaction.

In hard figures, the dissatisfaction comes in the form of the seventy percent or so that believe these systems were less than satisfactory in providing strategic value. Cost of implementation has got to be the only thing holding these folks back, right? Unless people really do just like to complain…

Other survey results included:

• 61 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the ability of their sales incentive management system to support financial reporting and compliance initiatives.

• 66 percent rated their current system as "unsatisfactory" in terms of ability to model new compensation plan scenarios.

• 70 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the timeliness and quality of reporting and analytics in their sales incentive management system.

• 74 percent reported an inability to provide real-time data to sales and finance executives and sales representatives.

• 88 percent reported no integration between their CRM and sales compensation systems.

To drive home the point, Centive CMO Bob Conlin stated that "These results validate findings of [earlier surveys which have shown] that the majority of mid-size companies today fail to manage sales compensation strategically or to invest their sales incentive dollars effectively.”

Theikos is a provider of services and solutions for the on-demand world. Theikos is a gold-level Salesforce.com partner and leading AppExchange developer, with offerings including implementation, development services, outsourcing services, and software from the AppFactor On-Demand Solutions division. Founded in 2000, Theikos is headquartered in Southborough, Mass. (that’s outside Boston, press material points out to The Chump) and has offices in the United States, India and Singapore.

Centive, headquartered in Burlington, Mass. (a bit further outside of Boston), is a leader in on-demand strategic sales compensation management.