Solution Brief

INCENTIVES ADMINISTRATION
The Power of Incentives
Incentive Compensation is
a strategic tool for
aligning business activity
with business objectives.
The combination of SAP
ERP and Vistex Incentives
and Paybacks Module (IP)
provides a proven solution
to manage commissions
and other incentive
programs including
brokerage and royalties.

Key Features
Easy Plan Administration
Robust Calculation
Excellent Reporting
Capabilities

Incentive programs act as powerful tools for organizations

striving for improved business performance. When
designed and managed correctly, these programs help
companies keep critical front-line employees and channel
partners focused on the right activities-and on delivering
results that can dramatically boost the bottom line. They
are often the driving force of an organizations ability to
achieve their goals.
But running an effective sales incentive or commission
program can pose significant challenges. Often, such
programs are managed using little more than spreadsheets
and manual processes for gathering information and
calculating incentives and commissions. At the same time,
these programs are becoming more complex, as sales
models become increasingly sophisticated and competition
increases. In a world of partnerships and alliances,
incentives are also being used to reward non-employees,
such as dealers, distributors and contract sales
representatives that meet sales and growth targets.
Sales Incentives may be based on total volume sold in an
assigned timeframe, or promoting a particular product mix.
Management Incentives may be based on corporate
revenue and profitability or the performance of individual
business divisions. Customer Satisfaction surveys and
Management by Objectives (MBO) scores may factor into
the mix as well.
As a result, companies often find their sales incentive and
other commission programs to be complicated, errorprone, laborious and time-intensive. Reports and feedback
to participants can be delayed, inaccurate, and unclear.
And administrators are likely to spend too much time
handling routine matters and putting out fires, rather than
focusing on long-term goals.

Supporting the Complete Process

SAP ERP is a comprehensive, integrated portfolio of

solutions designed for your industry. To help
companies streamline the management of incentive
programs, Vistex, an SAP Software Partner, gives you
the tools needed to model, administer, report and
analyze even highly complex incentive plans. The
Incentives and Paybacks Module (IP) lets you
integrate relevant information, calculate commissions,
manage payments and, ultimately, ensure that incentives
help drive better business performance.
The combination of SAP ERP and IP Module enables
you to:
Manage a variety of incentive agreements and
programs from the simplest to the highly complex
Use enterprise pricing data and user-defined rules
and formulas to calculate incentive amounts
Model potential incentive plans and use what-if
scenarios to develop effective new approaches to
incentives
Easily make adjustments to plans and payments
before, during and after the payout of the incentive
Set targets and quotas and monitor actual results
against budgeted amounts
Use sales data from SAP Sales and Distribution
(SD), SAP Business Warehouse (BW), SAP CRM, or
external data providers as the basis for incentives
Base payouts on predetermined time schedules or
updated real time based on actual customer payments
that come through SAP Accounts Receivable
Support plan participation roll-ups based on
organizational hierarchies
Complete integration with SAP Payroll, SAP
Accounts Payable or external Payroll systems for
incentive settlement
Enable plan participants to stay up-to-date with their
performance record via electronic statements sent
periodically, or on demand
Analyze programs and report results to monitor the
cost and effectiveness of incentives using a userfriendly ad-hoc reporting tool

Maintain a clear audit trail of incentive accruals and

settlement to support corporate finance and accounting
compliance efforts
Give plan administrators a workbench that provides a
single point of access for the tools and information
needed to manage incentive programs
Easily share incentive tracking and reporting
information via enterprise portal technology
Extract data into SAP Business Warehouse (BW) for
almost unlimited reporting options
The IP Module is fully integrated and embedded in the
SAP ERP software. This allows incentive processes to
easily share information with all areas of the company, such
as finance, sales and human resources. The complete
integration of Vistex and SAP also means there are no
interfaces or upfront integration costs to manage, and
ongoing maintenance and upgrades are seamless. And
because SAP solutions are based on the SAP NetWeaver
platform, it offers easy integration and flexibility in virtually
any IT environmentall of which helps ensure a low total
cost of ownership.

Sound Incentives, Solid Business Benefits

With SAP ERP and IP Module, you can simplify the

management of complex incentive plansand ensure
that plans are flexible, accurate, and effective. That in
turn, can help your company to:
Enhance revenue with highly motivated employees
and channel partners that are focused on the right
customers, and on delivering results
Reduce program costs with more accurate
information, a reduced need for management
intervention, and fewer delays, errors, and disputes
Keep programs in step with changes in markets and
strategies, through the ability to monitor performance in
a timely fashion and quickly model potential new
programs
Drive continuous improvement, with the ability to
analyze performance and costs, and by freeing
compensation specialists from routine work and
enabling them to spend more time on aligning
incentives with strategy.
Build participant trust and reduce shadow
accounting as a result of consistent and correctly
calculated incentive compensation

Why consider Vistex IP Module for Incentives

Administration?

An embedded solution inside your SAP environment

has inherent advantages over a best of breed solution
which has to be integrated with your SAP system to send
all the master and transaction data on a continuous basis.
It is evident that the ERP system is your transaction
backbone and is best suited for incentive calculation and
administration. Besides, the incentive data needs to be
transferred to Financials for expense recording, which
typically resides in your ERP environment. This
guarantees a full audit trail in ONE system.
Additionally, disputes are easily managed when
compensation administrators and plan participants work
from one set of numbers the right numbers in your
ERP environment. The IP Module provides the tools to
support the entire incentives lifecycle.

Typical Incentives Lifecycle

www.vistex.com

Vistex, The SAP Pinnacle

Your organization has invested in SAP solutions. Your
investment needs to yield more value.
Vistex provides packaged solutions and services that
extend core SAP functionality and add dramatic value to
your SAP investment.
Powered by SAP NetWeaver, Vistex delivers stylish,
innovative add-ons to SAP functionality that allows
customers to fully exploit the strengths and potential of
their SAP systems. We leverage our extensive business and
technical expertise to deliver unprecedented solutions to
SAP users that demand more value from their installed
SAP systems.
Our flagship product, the Incentives and Paybacks (IP)
Module, is comprised of two fully-integrated embedded
SAP add-on applications, SAP Incentives
Administration by Vistex and SAP Paybacks and
Chargebacks by Vistex, both of which have been
branded as Global Solution Extension Products by SAP,
licensed and supported by SAP through the SAP Service
Marketplace since mid-2004. These solutions have been
implemented by several SAP customers to better manage
Incentive Compensation, Rebates, Paybacks/Billbacks, and
Chargebacks. Our newest solution, Foundation Data for
SAP streamlines the maintenance of pricing structures and
material, customer, and vendor master data.
Founded in early 1999 and headquartered in Chicago,
USA, Vistex solutions have been deployed by several SAP
customers. Since its inception, Vistex has a proven track
record of partnering with SAP to exceed customer
expectations. Located across USA, Germany and India,
our professionals are dedicated to providing high end
customer support and services.
To learn more about how Vistex solutions can help you
drive business performance in your SAP environment, visit
www.vistex.com

Copyright2007 by Vistex, Inc. All rights reserved.

Vistex, Inc. logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vistex Inc.
or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective
logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany
and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and
service names mentioned are the trademarks of their of their respective
owners.

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