Bell Canada to integrate sales compensation program

Bell Canada announced it would use Callidus Software to bring together its various sales compensation programs across all of its product lines.

Specifically, the carrier will deploy Callidus’ TrueComp, TrueResolution and TrueInformation solutions in a three-step process that will automate the design, administration, reporting and analysis of its incentive compensation. The solutions will not only be used across product lines but with both the carrier’s direct retail channel as well as some of its third-party resellers. Initially, however, Bell Canada will implement the software in its own stores, which number around 200.

“Our retail stores sell our whole range of products and services, and while it looks simple to a customer, behind the scenes it’s very complex,” said John Dodds, director of channel compensation at Bell Canada, noting that retail outlets sell wireline, wireless and video products, all of which have different compensation schemes. “The fact that we have this kind of infrastructure makes it even more pressing that we move to a single environment. The Callidus project is to allow us to bring that all together.”

Currently, Bell Canada manages each commission system independently and most of the payments are done manually. The carrier also made the move to consolidate because the average sales processing time for some products was more than 30 minutes, Dodds said.

In the first phase of the project, the carrier will convert its wireline and broadband sales compensation platform to Callidus by the end of March. Though both make up just a fraction of total sales at the retail level, the carrier wanted to get some experience with the platform before moving it the wireless side where the vast majority of retail compensation occurs.

“[Wireless] is the most complex and wanted to get some successes before we went there,” Dodds said, adding that the company is aiming to convert its wireless compensation program by the end of August. “Where it gets really challenging is when you go through other retailers.”

The last phase of the project, which is late this year or early 2007, is to convert the carrier’s video sales and internal compensation platform.