Sales incentive compensation management (ICM) software continued to gain attention from corporations, which helped stabilize demand in 2009 despite the economic recession, leaving the market roughly flat at about $315 million in revenue worldwide. Interest was sustained by pragmatic concerns with controlling sales costs and the availability of more use cases demonstrating tangible business benefits realized from improved management of compensation for sales channels. A diverse selection of vendors still employ a variety of delivery models, including software-as-a-service (SaaS), hosted and on-premises options. Best-of-breed vendors continue to lead in introducing innovations in the market, offering compelling visions and gaining mind share; however, firms are increasingly giving consideration to leveraging existing relationships with incumbent application suite vendors. 

Organizations with 100 salespeople or more, complex selling models, or partner channels should investigate sales ICM software offerings to improve the planning, execution and oversight of programs and processes that are meant to encourage revenue production. Initiatives for more than 1,000 payees should evaluate on-premises and hosted solutions that can demonstrate appropriate scalability, performance and flexibility in accommodating sophisticated rules. Midsize to large businesses with 100 to 1,000 payees and mostly conventional compensation practices should consider SaaS offerings, along with hosted and on-premises options, to identify options for lowering implementation costs and deployment times. Similarly, small or midsize (SMB) businesses with more than 50 payees and intentions to re-engineer sales practices should explore SaaS options.