Sapient's Intrepid reduces the time and complexity associated with sales compensation plans

Business Wire, June 5, 1995

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 1995 Sapient Corporation today introduced a new client/server-based sales compensation solution called Intrepid that enables companies to update complex sales compensation plans quickly and deliver commissions to salespeople on time.

Intrepid is the first commercial solution offered by Sapient, a company that rapidly takes customers from concept to delivery for business critical information technology initiatives. With Intrepid, Sapient leverages existing software it has developed and customizes it to meet a company's specific business needs. Intrepid combines client/server-based software with Sapient's unique methodology, training and services.

Intrepid enables salespeople to spend more time selling and less time struggling with compensation plans that are hard to track or do not pay well-earned commissions on schedule. This is a significant capability for major corporations, said Preston B. Bradford, a vice president at Sapient who was instrumental in developing Intrepid. Salespeople generally average one to three days a month dealing with or reviewing commissions, rather than spending time with customers and prospects. This means up to 15% of their selling time is wasted. Intrepid explained

Intrepid is a data-driven, rules-based solution that can be easily configured and modified based on a company's needs. It significantly increases the productivity of a company's sales force by:

o providing sales and marketing management with a method for immediately aligning incentives with new sales and marketing initiatives

o providing flexibility for assigning and modifying the assignment of customers to territories and sales personnel

o allowing salespeople to suggest compensation adjustments on- line and automatically route requests through the appropriate approval chain

Intrepid uses a Microsoft Windows graphical user interface linked to a relational database running on a UNIX server, with links to legacy systems as well. Intrepid reduces the time required for programmers or analysts to design or modify a compensation plan from months to minutes by eliminating hard- code programming changes. This means fewer people are needed to support the process. Intrepid also provides instant system support for new sales plans and gives the sales force accurate information about their performance.

Case study: Sprint Corporation

Sprint Corporation, the third largest long distance telecommunications provider in the U.S., understands that nothing de-motivates a sales force quicker than late payments or complex sales compensation plans. The company realized its salespeople were sacrificing valuable selling time deciphering how compensation plans worked and confirming correct sales numbers with the compensation department.

Adding to the complexity was the company's inflexible mainframe-based system which forced programmers to completely rewrite the entire system every year, often finishing only the changes necessary to pay people on deadline. Sprint now uses Intrepid to calculate and track commissions for its 3,000 sales representatives and managers. With Intrepid, analysts can ensure the timeliness of compensation changes by making immediate changes to formulas and calculations directly on the screen.

Compensation is a several million dollar process at Sprint, and we need to make the very best use of those dollars. If we don't manage compensation properly, we risk steering the sales force in the wrong direction, resulting in low morale and possibly lower revenues, said Nikki Fisher, assistant vice president at Sprint. Intrepid is designed to help Sprint quickly respond to marketing, strategic and organizational changes and immediately reflect those changes in the compensation plans.

Availability and pricing

Intrepid is available for customization through Sapient's proven QUADD methodology, beginning with a week-long Rapid Implementation Planning (RIP) workshop. Pricing for Intrepid starts at $300,000, and varies depending on the number of users and services provided.

Privately held Cambridge, Mass.-based Sapient Corporation empowers major corporations to design, develop and deploy large-scale client/server information systems in record time at fixed prices. Sapient customers include Fortune 500 companies in investment banking, commercial banking, telecommunications, on-line services and communications, utilities, insurance, manufacturing, transportation and retail.

CONTACT: Laura Desmarais

Beaupre & Co. Public Relations

(603) 436-6690

or

Michelle Grenke

Sapient Corporation

(617) 374-3656