Taking Care of Business

In 1999 ADVO Inc. of Windsor, Conn. had a homegrown mainframe sales commission system that did not address the company's changing corporate strategy.

"It was transactional, and that was the nature of our [incentive compensation] plan," says Mike Scaringe, director of sales compensation services. ADVO couldn't deploy a more innovative incentive compensation plan within its existing solution. "We changed to more consultative selling, providing value to our clients, and in supporting those efforts, we needed to think about how to redesign our [incentive] plans," he says. ADVO also wanted to improve administrative efficiency.

"We had a system that didn't address that-that couldn't meet the desires or objectives of the company," Scaringe says. When ADVO began looking for help, it sought all the benefits a vendor could deliver, not just commission processing. The company wanted a solution that would help drive business results through incentive compensation expertise. It didn't want simply a new system; it wanted service, best practices expertise, and a team of people to manage the entire incentive compensation process.

Shifting Sales Goals
ADVO chose Synygy to provide complete application and plan management services. This is an outsourcing arrangement. (See below for an explanation of Synygy's deployment options.)

"They had a number of different services they could provide," Scaringe says, including technology maintenance and plan and participant management. The human resources, accounting, and information technology resources ADVO had used internally to support its existing sales commission system could focus on other initiatives to grow ADVO's business.

When investigating an EIM solution, ADVO still had the challenge of changing the mindset of its sales force. Sales reps had to find new buyers and demonstrate ADVO's business-driving value to existing ones. They also had to trust that the outsourcing of ADVO's incentive compensation plan management served up more benefits to them than they were used to.

"We wanted to change the mindset of the sales force from being just ´push product and get my commission,'" he says. "That, from a directional perspective, wasn't promoting the sales force to deliver the right message to our clients." ADVO wanted its sales force to sell its products as key to clients' business growth and success.

Not only did ADVO's team need to learn the new company strategy; Synygy did, too. "We like Synygy's ability to host the solution and its understanding of ADVO to manage our entire incentive compensation operation. Our resources can be focused on other initiatives to grow our business," Scaringe says. "That was our choice. We wanted to support our sales staff, not an incentive compensation plan. We're getting the sales force back on the track of serving our clients."

Smoothing the Incentive Compensation Process
The Synygy implementation in 2000 allowed ADVO to develop incentive compensation plans that met its evolving corporate strategy. ADVO provides Synygy with the parameters for its compensation plans, and Synygy takes the details of the plans and uses its EIM solution to calculate attainments and report on them. Sales reps see their goals, their progress toward them, their reward for goals met, and still get the bigger ADVO business picture.

"The fact that Synygy manages the system allows ADVO freedom from the internal process of competing with other projects for resources. Plans are modified to meet ever-changing business goals," Scaringe says. "And to Synygy's credit, as our plan development evolves, Synygy has been there every step of the process. They ask the right questions so that they understand our business requirements, and they implement our plan to meet our strategic objectives.

"If there's difficulty in executing our plan, they come back and let us know that. At the same time, they're always suggesting improvements to us for the system," Scaringe adds. "The people who work on our team are very well trained. They know ADVO, they know the process, and they know their system, so if there's a problem, they can contact us right away."

Synygy's comprehensive integration of various client data streams, from the customer relationship management solution to the incentive compensation solution to payroll, ensures accurate record keeping and payments processing. "That is one of the greatest benefits of the system-just to have the confidence that the numbers are correct," says Scaringe.

But this is only one deliverable of Synygy's expertise, the resource that ADVO has purchased. Beyond a powerful system is the thorough approach Synygy takes in crafting a solution for its clients. And ADVO has a complete view into this solution.

ADVO doesn't use Synygy's EIM Solution solely to pay incentives out to top performers. The data produced in the EIM solution "is key data that we've come to rely on," Scaringe says. "The data that Synygy provides is not just for our compensation reports to our sales folks. It provides us with incremental revenue reports-bottom-line data to support senior management."

"With Synygy, our reps get individual compensation reports that show them graphically how they're doing on a year-to-date basis," Scaringe says. "The reports give them key information in a one-page snapshot. At the same time, that's backed up with individual reports that organize sales data by their positions and also by their clients. That's a big win for ADVO."

Those reports roll up to the managerial level so that each regional head receives a report on his or her employees' performance and can clearly see which associates are not doing as well as expected and which need just a little shove to reach the next goal. The managers' reports all roll up to a snapshot report for ADVO's sales vice president.

Synygy has not only relieved ADVO of the frontline work of launching compensation plans but has streamlined the reports that go to sales associates, cutting them from as many as 100 pages to a mere five. These quick visuals show rep accomplishments and project the awards that will come from delivering value to ADVO's customers.

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Synygy's Four EIM Deployment Options
Synygy's flexible deployment options allow you to take advantage of Synygy's software, application management services, and/or plan management services. By combining a mix of application management and plan management services, Synygy provides a range of deployment options:

Installed Software. The client handles both the application and plan management. The application is installed and hosted at the client site, and analysts maintain the entire plan management process. This option requires the most in-house resources, from IT systems and expertise to experienced plan analysts.  

Hosted Software-as-Service. Software resides at Synygy's data center, and Synygy provides complete application management. The client uses the application to manage incentive compensation plans.

Installed Managed Services. The software is installed and secured at the client's location while Synygy's dedicated team of experts manages end-to-end processing of the incentive compensation plans.

Hosted Managed Services. The client does not touch the software at all. The software sits on dedicated hardware at Synygy, and a dedicated account team takes care of the entire incentive compensation lifecycle.

Synygy clients may change their selected deployment option at any time. In addition to switching between deployment options, companies have the flexibility of using Synygy's plan management services even when they have deployed Synygy's EIM Solution as Installed software or Hosted software-as-a-service.

5 Key Reasons for Selecting Hosted Managed Services
1. Reduction of administrative burden on internal associates. ADVO redirected its resources to sales support and core-competency improvement for business growth. "There was a lot of time spent in organizing incentive compensation with IT folks and a lot of time spent by IT on upkeep of the old system. That was eliminated so that those people could focus on other initiatives that are important to ADVO's future growth and development," says Mike Scaringe.

2. Flexibility in reward plan creation. Sales reps are motivated to build business partnerships with clients no matter which products are touted. With Synygy's quick turnaround, it easily adapts ADVO's incentive compensation plans when changes occur in its business environment.

3. Leverage of dedicated expertise. Synygy has an account team exclusive to ADVO and has expert knowledge of incentive compensation management and ADVO's business processes. That's knowledge ADVO could not replicate in-house. "We're not the system experts," says Scaringe.

4. Transparency of reward criteria and results. All involved organizational functions at ADVO participate in and benefit from Synygy's Hosted Managed EIM Solution, from the C-suite to the entry-level field sales rep.

5. Regular analysis of incentive compensation plans. Synygy handles ADVO's changing demands and business needs with appropriately improved incentive compensation plans. With Synygy's managed services, ADVO has control and visibility into the entire process.