REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR
COMPANY DIRECTION CUSTOMER SATISFACTION DEPTH OF FUNCTIONALITY TOP 3 VERTICALS
Callidus Software Insurance/Financial Services, Telecommunications, High Technology
Merced Systems Telecommunication, Financial Services, Banking
Synygy Life Sciences, Financial Services, Manufacturing
Varicent Software Financial Services, High Technology, Professional Services
Xactly Software/High Technology, Financial Services, Media/Communications
The Market deployed worldwide. This success may be credited in part to the
Incentive management (IM) software, one of the rare markets company’s embracing of Sales 2.0. Martens says that Merced has
bolstered by recession, continues to see increased adoption, with “allied [itself] with the movement that seeks to combine a mix
nimble vendors reporting record-breaking quarters. This trend of vendors who all provide apps in white-space areas not already
will continue, according to analyst firm Gartner, which sees fully addressed by [large] CRM players.” She adds it’s a smart
investments of IM (or, as Gartner calls the field, sales perfor- move, as these are the areas where “deals are closing.”
mance management) solutions growing 20 percent year over year Synygy, one of the first vendors to compete in this arena,
from 2011 through 2014. While the market overall is prosper- continues to weather shifting trends. Mark Smith, chief exec-
ous, traditional on-premises vendors are losing ground to utive officer and executive vice president of research at Ventana
software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. “SaaS continues to take Research, says, “Synygy is a consistent provider, focused on the
the market by storm,” says Ray Wang, a partner with Altimeter largest of sales organizations.” To continue its reputation as a
Group. The IM space may have been fairly stable in the past market mainstay, analysts say the vendor may do well to
year—a fact reflected in this year’s carbon copy of 2009’s leader- expand its breadth outside of its tight sales focus. Smith notes,
board—but analysts predict shakeups down the road. China “Incentives are now seen as important as part of not just HR
Martens, senior analyst at The 451 Group, says the market is or sales, but across call centers, field service, and even supply
“poised for some still-to-be-defined event or vendor move that’ll chain areas.”
really ramp up user volumes.” Varicent Software is sitting pretty on our leaderboard, com-
ing off a red-letter year in 2009. Last fall, the vendor not only
The Leaders notched a record-breaking year in revenue, but also netted
After Callidus Software handed over its 2008 crown in this cat- $35 million in funding from FTV Capital. Jim Dickie, man-
egory to SaaS-centric vendor Xactly last year, the company has aging partner at CSO Insights, says that one of Varicent’