The Xactly Upside 2024 conference is over, but some of the updates shared during the event will likely impact your workday moving forward. Whether or not you attended, the event's insights will continue to change how you use your incentive compensation management software. It is vital that you note some of the most critical updates and announcements shared at this year's Xactly Upside. 

Members of our expert Xactly implementation team at Canidium were at Upside 2024. They gathered all the most important information shared during the conference and noted all the critical updates users should take advantage of this year.

To give you an overview of the most vital takeaways from this year's Upside conference, here are the five updates our team found most helpful for Xactly users:

1. The New AI Copilot
2. Xactly Extend
3. Upgraded Reporting Features
4. Xactly's Native CRM
5. New Plan Design Tools

1. The New AI Copilot

At Xactly's Upside conference this year, they introduced an AI-powered pilot tool akin to ChatGPT, designed to enhance the user experience for sales managers. This new tool allows you to interact with Xactly's platform using natural language queries, making accessing and analyzing data easier. For instance, as a sales manager, you can ask the system to "show me the people earning sales commissions" or "show me the top three deals for May." The tool will promptly provide the relevant information.

This AI Copilot tool spans various modules within Xactly, enabling you to pull information from different places seamlessly. It simplifies the reporting process by allowing you to ask questions and receive real-time, data-driven responses. Whether you need to generate reports, analyze sales performance, or track commission earnings, this tool provides immediate, actionable insights.

The AI pilot tool is a brand-new feature introduced this year, marking a significant advancement in how data can be managed and utilized within Xactly's ecosystem. 

2. Xactly Extend

A major highlight at this year's Upside was the introduction of Extend, a versatile product offering two packages tailored to different business needs. One package focuses on go-to-market strategies; the other addresses dispute workflows, providing robust capabilities for creating custom applications.

With Extend, you can design unique workflows requiring approvals or automate processes such as creating an order based on a dispute. This flexibility allows you to tailor the platform to meet specific operational requirements, making it possible to create virtually any custom solution needed.

The platform is built on a composable architecture, enabling you to extend and enhance existing functionalities seamlessly. This capability means all solutions, regardless of complexity, are integrated within a single, cohesive platform.

Extend's flexibility and integration capabilities make it an invaluable tool for businesses to streamline workflows and enhance operational efficiency. By leveraging Extend, you can ensure your unique business processes are supported and optimized, driving greater productivity and effectiveness across your organization.

3. Upgraded Reporting Features

One of the biggest revelations at Xactly's Upside conference this year was a significant enhancement in reporting capabilities. The new reporting functionality builds upon Xactly Analytics, which pulls data from Xactly Incent. However, the updated reporting feature goes a step further by enabling data extraction from all elements on the Xactly platform.

This comprehensive approach means you can generate reports encompassing a broader range of data sources, making your reports more accurate and holistic. The new reporting tool allows you to create detailed and customized reports by pulling data from the entire suite of composable solutions available on the Xactly platform. This function ensures that all relevant data points are considered, providing a more complete picture of your business operations.

The enhanced reporting capabilities are designed to offer more significant insights and accuracy, supporting better decision-making processes. By accessing and analyzing a more comprehensive array of data, you can gain deeper insights into your sales performance, commission tracking, and other critical business metrics.

4. Xactly's Native CRM

Another noteworthy feature discussed at Upside 2024 was Xactly's new native CRM integration, specifically designed for use with Salesforce. This integration allows seamless data flow between Salesforce and Xactly Incent, enabling users to perform all necessary operations within the familiar Salesforce environment without switching platforms.

The primary benefit of this integration is its convenience. Users can manage their sales and incentive processes more efficiently by pulling data from Salesforce into Xactly Incent and then back into Salesforce. This workflow reduces the friction of using multiple systems and improves the overall user experience.

For customers already using Salesforce, this native CRM integration minimizes the challenges associated with migrating to a new system. Instead of transitioning from their existing CRM, they can enhance their current setup by integrating Xactly Incent. This approach not only preserves their established workflows but also leverages the robust capabilities of Xactly's incentive management.

This integration highlights the benefits of streamlined data management and operational efficiency. Users can maintain a cohesive workflow by keeping everything within the Salesforce ecosystem, ensuring their incentive processes are seamlessly integrated with their broader sales and customer relationship management activities.

5. New Plan Design Tools

Our fifth and final key takeaway from Xactly Upside 2024 is the introduction of enhanced capabilities for plan design modeling and financial ROI in go-to-market (GTM) strategies. These new features allow businesses to evaluate and optimize their sales incentive plans more effectively.

With plan design modeling, you can assess whether a sales plan will effectively motivate sellers based on historical performance data. This capability enables you to perform scenario modeling, adjust various plan components, and predict the potential outcomes. For instance, you can model changes to commission structures, bonus tiers, or other incentives to see how these adjustments might impact seller performance and overall business goals.

The component design aspect allows you to strategically plan the elements of your incentive programs, such as determining the optimal components and tiers. This feature ensures that your incentive plans motivate and align with your strategic objectives.

These plan design and modeling capabilities are distinct from the go-to-market territory, and quota management tools are available under Xactly Extend. While Extend focuses on operational aspects like territory and quota management, the plan design tools are geared towards strategic services, helping you to fine-tune your incentive plans to maximize their effectiveness and achieve desired outcomes.

Xactly Upside 2024: What to Takeaway From This Year's Event

The Xactly Upside 2024 conference introduced several transformative updates that will impact how you use incentive compensation management software. One major highlight is the AI-powered Copilot tool, akin to ChatGPT, enabling natural language queries for seamless data retrieval and analysis. Xactly Extend offers versatile packages for go-to-market strategies and dispute workflows, allowing custom application creation to meet specific needs.

Upgraded reporting features enable data extraction from all platform elements, providing more accurate and comprehensive reports for better decision-making. The new native CRM integration with Salesforce streamlines operations by allowing users to manage sales and incentives within Salesforce, enhancing workflow efficiency. Additionally, enhanced plan design tools facilitate scenario modeling and strategic component design, optimizing sales incentive plans to align with broader objectives.

These updates from Xactly Upside 2024 will enhance operational efficiency and decision-making, driving better performance and effectiveness across your organization. Although, Xactly has more to offer than these five upgrades. If you want to maximize the value you get from your compensation management software, your next step is to learn the six skills that comp admins need to master.