Case Study Analysis: Jive Software
Brief Analysis
During the years 2001 to 2004 of gradual development of Jive Systems, the company solidified its status as the fastest growing SBS Company in the industry, doubling the size of its workforce since 2008 and increasing full year revenue 85% from 2008 to 2009. Throughout this period of rapid growth and expansion, Jive relied on a variety of technologies to handle their sales forecasting process. Till they realized that their structure of business changing almost daily, Jive’s eccentric system struggled to keep up.
The structure was done in a haphazard manor. They were doing quota management in Excel, bookings and sales in Sales force and pipeline analysis in Cloud9 Analytics, which resulted in lack of all the information into one central system. Jive’s multi-tool approach was the source of several serious issues: The executive team had poor visibility into the sales opportunity pipeline; all data updates involved a tedious and cumbersome transfer process from salesforce.com to Excel pivot tables; and, when changes of any kind needed to be made, instead of conducting research and having an all team/ department meeting for synchronisation they just made ridiculous plans and moved to creating new products.
1. Put yourself in Wilson's shoes when he is first hired. You have to formalize Jive's sales functions. What are the core building blocks of the sales function you need to put in place?
The core building blocks of the sales function that one needs to put in place are as follows - The ability to understand and analyse business issues and develop solutions around the core building blocks of sales process which are tools, skills, competencies and attitudes. Based on the company’s revenue hire sales reps that are capable of using the latest techniques to engage individuals in their development and understanding coaches and mentors (VP’s) who help individuals to become aware and responsible for their opportunities. With ref to the Sales Learning curve
During the years 2001 to 2004 of gradual development of Jive Systems, the company solidified its status as the fastest growing SBS Company in the industry, doubling the size of its workforce since 2008 and increasing full year revenue 85% from 2008 to 2009. Throughout this period of rapid growth and expansion, Jive relied on a variety of technologies to handle their sales forecasting process. Till they realized that their structure of business changing almost daily, Jive’s eccentric system struggled to keep up.
The structure was done in a haphazard manor. They were doing quota management in Excel, bookings and sales in Sales force and pipeline analysis in Cloud9 Analytics, which resulted in lack of all the information into one central system. Jive’s multi-tool approach was the source of several serious issues: The executive team had poor visibility into the sales opportunity pipeline; all data updates involved a tedious and cumbersome transfer process from salesforce.com to Excel pivot tables; and, when changes of any kind needed to be made, instead of conducting research and having an all team/ department meeting for synchronisation they just made ridiculous plans and moved to creating new products.
1. Put yourself in Wilson's shoes when he is first hired. You have to formalize Jive's sales functions. What are the core building blocks of the sales function you need to put in place?
The core building blocks of the sales function that one needs to put in place are as follows - The ability to understand and analyse business issues and develop solutions around the core building blocks of sales process which are tools, skills, competencies and attitudes. Based on the company’s revenue hire sales reps that are capable of using the latest techniques to engage individuals in their development and understanding coaches and mentors (VP’s) who help individuals to become aware and responsible for their opportunities. With ref to the Sales Learning curve