Stephen Hurrell's Analyst Perspectives

Ventana Research is happy to share insights gleaned from the latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Revenue Performance Management (RPM) Value Index is the distillation of a year of market and product research. Drawing on our Benchmark Research, we apply a structured methodology built on evaluation categories that reflect the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal to vendors supporting the spectrum of revenue performance management. Using this methodology, we evaluated vendor submissions in seven categories: five relevant to the Product Experience ﹘ Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability ﹘ and two related to the Customer Experience ﹘ Total Cost of Ownership or Return on Investment and Vendor Validation.

This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of revenue performance management software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Value Index and its effectiveness as a vendor selection and request for information/request for proposal tool.

This Value Index research evaluates the following vendors that offer products for revenue performance management as we define it: Anaplan, beqom, Board International, Clari, Gong.io, InsightSquared, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, SugarCRM, Varicent and Xactly. Six of these 12 suppliers responded positively to our request for information and provided completed questionnaires and demonstrations to aid our analysis of applicable RPM products. Along with briefings and information where provided, all online material that was generally available was used for the analysis. This report includes products available as of December 31, 2021.

The following vendors declined to participate or did not respond to our invitation: beqom, Clari, Gong.io, InsightSquared, SAP and SugarCRM. To organizations considering products from these vendors, we recommend extra scrutiny in your vendor assessment as the lack of participation in the Value Index impacted our thorough evaluation. Vendors that meet our inclusion criteria and do not participate in our Value Index are not representing their industry and commitment to this topic and are assessed on publicly available information, and this could impact their Value Index rating and ranking. Unlike many IT analyst firms that rank vendors from an IT-only perspective or focus on a specific part of RPM, Ventana Research has designed the Value Index to provide a balanced perspective, rooted in an understanding of business drivers and needs aligned to the organizational requirements. This approach not only reduces cost and time but also minimizes the risk of making a vendor selection that will be negatively impactful to the organization. Using the Value Index will enable your organization to achieve highest levels of readiness needed to support RPM in the most effective manner.

We urge organizations to be thorough in evaluating vendors that provide RPM products and offer this Value Index as market research representing this topic and as an RFI evaluation methodology. The Value Index can be used to evaluate existing technology vendors and for evaluating new ones, and use it to be more effective and shorten the cycle time for an RFP to vendor selection.

The Value Index for Revenue Performance Management in 2022 finds Oracle first on the list, followed by Salesforce and Xactly.

Companies that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation Value Index Leader. The Value Index Leaders in Product Experience are:

• Oracle
• Salesforce
• Anaplan

Leaders in Customer Experience are:

• Xactly
• Varicent
• Oracle

Value Index Leaders across any of the seven categories are:

• Oracle, which has achieved this rating in six of the seven categories.
• Salesforce, in five categories.
• Anaplan and Xactly, in three categories.
• Board International, in two categories.
• SAP and Varicent, in one category.

The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how vendors rate across product and customer experience. Vendors with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five Product Experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two Customer Experience categories determines placement on the vertical axis. As a result, vendors that place closer to the upper-right are “Exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as vendors of “Merit.” Vendors that excelled at Customer Experience over Product Experience have an Assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in Product Experience have an “Innovative” rating.

The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how vendors rate across product and customer experience. Vendors with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five Product Experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two Customer Experience categories determines placement on the vertical axis. As a result, vendors that place closer to the upper-right are “Exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as vendors of “Merit.” Vendors that excelled at Customer Experience over Product Experience have an “Assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in Product Experience have an “Innovative” rating.

Note that close vendor scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every organization or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle revenue performance management, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one vendor’s offering a better fit than another.

Although this category is new, many of the capabilities were previously developed for the sales department — or sales performance management, as defined and established by Ventana Research in 2004. This includes incentive compensation as well as quota and territory management, which are applicable to the wider definition of revenue and the broader range of individuals and teams now directly related to supporting revenue generation. Likewise, pipeline management, forecasting and analytics combine to give a more insightful view of current and future revenues.

When reviewing new technologies, it’s important to understand that the key to successful revenue performance management is choosing a provider that solves not just the issue at hand, but also concerns that will become more apparent as organizations contemplate how to support all sources of revenue and those supporting these sources. Aligning all the different groups to overall objectives — as well as balancing newer revenue channels such as e-commerce and self-service — require that vendors recognize the importance of supporting additional personas beyond the typical sales rep, manager, executive and operations team members.

Features, functions and vendor assessments are not the only deciding factors in selecting revenue performance management software. For many organizations, the switch to a wider revenue approach also means that expertise and best practices are also of significance when choosing a vendor, as reflected by capabilities and also customer experience. As cost is rarely not a factor, an organization may face budget constraints such that the TCO evaluation can tip the scale to one vendor or another. This is where the Value Index methodology and appropriate weighting can be applied to determine the best fit of vendors and products to an organization’s specific needs.

Our firm has made every effort to encompass in this Value Index the overall product and customer experience from our Revenue Performance Management blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which vendor and products best fit an organization’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.

You can find more details on our site as well as in the Value Index Market Report.

Regards,

Stephen Hurrell