Customer stories from the world’s leading revenue teams
Avaya Replaces Its Inflexible SPM Platform with One Built to Adapt with Everstage
Headquarters
Morristown, New Jersey, USA
Company Size
5k-10k
Industry
Telecommunications
400+
payees served
70%
reduction in IT team involvement (estimated)
Avaya is a New Jersey-based communications software company that builds contact center and unified communications platforms for large organizations, serving customers in roughly 190 countries. Trenli Crest, Senior Director of Sales Operations for sales compensation leads the team that owns sales compensation end to end, from plan design at the start of the fiscal year to the payment handoff to payroll.
The Challenge
Trenli's team manages sales compensation “from A to Z” for everyone at Avaya on a commission-based plan, from designing plans at the start of the fiscal year to managing them and handing payments over to payroll.
With so much resting on the process, the team needed a system that could adapt as compensation plans evolved. Instead, the previous vendor’s inflexibility pushed Avaya to look for a replacement. Enhancements took years rather than weeks or months, if they arrived at all, while changes to compensation structures, pay plans, and payout curves brought additional fees each fiscal year.
The limitations also affected sales reps, who struggled to understand how their payments were calculated, which periods they covered, and which multipliers applied. Trenli’s team heard their frustrations but lacked the flexibility to make the changes needed to improve the experience for end users.
The Solution
Avaya began looking for a new ICM system after years of struggling to get changes made. With Everstage, Trenli says, the experience is fundamentally different: her team can ask for what they need and see those changes happen.
Flexibility as the crux
This flexibility shows up in the small requests as much as the large ones, which is where Avaya's previous experience had been most painful.
A partner that listens and adapts
When Trenli's team needs something adjusted, they take it to their CSM. It might be one piece that needs tweaking or a screen that should look a little different. At first, asking was uncomfortable. After years with a vendor that wouldn't change anything, the team had learned to expect a refusal, and they were wary of asking again.
From request to reality in weeks
The experience with Everstage turned out to be the opposite. The CSM wants to understand why Avaya is asking for a change, and then the change gets made. For a team used to measuring enhancements in years, the speed was the surprise.
Smooth implementation
When the implementation team took over, that knowledge didn’t get lost in the handoff. They already understood Avaya’s setup, allowing the team to move forward without repeating the same conversations.
The Results
After its first fiscal year on Everstage, Avaya's reps can read their pay, the comp team's requests are made in a week or two, and the annual cost is a number finance can plan around.
Payout transparency for reps
The complaint that came back every year was that reps couldn't tell what they had been paid or why. That is the one the reps now answer for themselves. In the words Trenli relays from her salespeople, Everstage is easy to understand, and nobody has to dig through several reports to work out how a commission was calculated.
A simpler, more predictable cost structure
The finance side changed as well. With one all-inclusive fee, Trenli's team knows what each fiscal year will cost and no longer has to weigh every request against a possible extra charge. Under the previous vendor, a request above the support level could mean an extra charge. With Everstage, the team doesn't have to wonder.
