In 2018, SAP’s acquisition of Calliduscloud.com marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of their flagship Incentive Compensation Management product. Renamed as SAP Commissions, the product is undergoing a comprehensive architecture rewrite, transitioning to core SAP technologies and rebranded as SuccessFactors Incentive Management. This transformative change is a response to the ever-evolving landscape of technology and a strategic move to align with SAP’s broader ecosystem.

The crux of this transformation lies in the departure from the existing architecture, which is based on Oracle. This change is not merely a technological shift but a strategic necessity. The current Oracle-based architecture is set to lose support beyond 2026, prompting a critical decision for existing customers. They now find themselves at a crossroads, faced with the choice of either upgrading to the SAP HANA platform hosted on Google Hyperscalers or exploring alternatives within the Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) and Sales Performance Management (SPM) landscape.

A paradox  – experience in a new platform is not the most important

One might think that when choosing the right implementation partner, the most important skill to look for is experience in implementing the target platform.

Whether you will decide to upgrade to (define) (SFIM) or move away from SAP and migrate e.g. to CaptivateIQ, Anaplan, Varicent or any other platform, it is indeed important to know the new platform.

However, what is even more is to understand the old platform – and here’s why.

Regardless of the implementation partner having years of experience in the target system or being a fresh partner in the platform’s ecosystem, in case of any problems there are many ways to get help: get additional trainings, ask on forums or even get external help.

This is true only for the most recent versions of the platform’s architecture.

It’s impossible to learn how the Landing Pad works or how to write StageHooks on Oracle version of SAP Commissions simply because you cannot even get a trial version of this old architecture, not to mention that the documentation is scarce and experienced people are hard to find. 

A partner that has years of experience in the old SAP Commissions architecture will be able not only to properly estimate migration effort, but also advise on how suitable the platform of your choice is to run processes built in your new system

A few practical hints from Sands Partners:

• Regardless of experience with the target platform, make sure that the implementation partner has years of experience handling SAP Commissions in the architecture version that you use
• Don’t expect miracles. The implementation partner will need time to analyze your system and this time may not be for free
• Do insist on detailed migration plan. An Excel plan that consists of few boxes marked as “Design” and “Migration” usually is a sign that people that have prepared it don’t understand your system enough to build a proper project plan
• If you use Landing Pad, make sure that the partner you talk to has experience in Informatica, Oracle and Unix. If you use StageHooks, Oracle experience is very important
• There’s nothing similar to Advanced Workflows, so if you use this technology, make sure that the implementation partner knows the specific scripting language