Accountant Referral Programvendor comparison

Building a world class Accountant Referral Program

Karen KriegerCorporate Marketing

Overview

• “Best of breed” solution providers

• Consulting, strategy, planning, program implementation

• Experienced, industry knowledge

• Provides full range of capabilities

• High level of technical support

• On-going support, education, training

• Security compliant

Executive Summary

After careful review of the four vendors, three responded to the RFP:• Amplifinity• Influitive• Birch Worldwide

• Alignment to program and objectives and goals

• Solutions for Accountant facing and technical requirements

• Key tracking and reporting tools

• Accountant reward choices

Evaluation criteriaExperience and Alignment to Sage Amplifinity Influitive Birch World Wide

Meet our “basic” program requirements10

(Great experience in acct/ finance software industry)

9(“Plug &Play”) 6

Understanding of our industry 10 9 7

Knowledgeable, “Trusted Advisor” 10 8 5

Compatible with Sage Infrastructure (without completing scope) 9 8 7

Engagement with RFP process -responsiveness 10(Proactive ) 8

6(not proactive with the

process)

Compatible with Sage Culture 10 8 6

Integrated approach to referral program 9 8 6

“Nimble” organization 10 86

(Requires multiple organizations

Key Takeaways:• Industry/software experience is key driver• Responsiveness to Sage internal changes is critical (nimble)

Criteria for selection process –ranking 1-10 (ten being highest)

Evaluation criteriaAccountant facing Requirements Amplifinity Influitive Birch World Wide

Intuitive and easy to use interface and dashboard

1010 6

Single sign on feature10

(includes social) 10(includes social) 8

Options for Accountants to make referrals (choice, comfort level) 10 8 7

Simple navigation, easy access to key information 8 8 6

“Quick links” to access important sites, i.e. Sage City, Sage Advice, SAAN, Sage View, edu. Training, events, campaigns

10“Clean” interface, easy navigation)

8(tile format) 7

Easy access to referral status reports 10(control center for quick updates) 8 6

Clear and concise messaging to accountants on what the referral is, the benefits, and encouragement to participate

10(understands accountant dynamics) 9 6

Key Takeaways:• Platform must be user friendly and appeal to Accountants• Clear, concise communication, ease of submitting referrals

Criteria for selection process –ranking 1-10 (ten being highest)

Evaluation criteriaProgram management requirements Amplifinity Influitive Birch World Wide

Consult on marketing initiatives, demand gen10

(Experienced “Maarketeers”) 8 6

Enablement on solution: marketing, sales, Accountants and clients

9(on going) 9 8

Assigned Program Manager10

(Program manager for life of program) 8 7

Support Center 10(unlimited) 8 7

(Global options)

Ease of program modifications 10(Control center)

7(vendor provided) 7

Sales team portal-capture referrals, nurture, track (close loop) 10 8 6

Provide consultant for developing strategy, implementation of communication/PR plan 10 10 6

Training 10(unlimited)

9(12 Hrs.)

6

Key Takeaways:• Close loop to sales process • Marketing knowledge technical support, consulting provided to maximize program results

Criteria for selection process –ranking 1-10 (ten being highest)

Evaluation criteriaTechnical requirements Amplifinity Influitive Birch World Wide

Integration with Sage infrastructure10

(SSO and secure FTP services)10

(Third party platform-Amazon)

6

Reporting to Sage finance 9 9 8

Bank account management 9 8 7

Systems integration (Eloqua knowledge, CRM) 9 8 7

Language: US and Canada (additional languages) 10 7 7

Segmentation and persona profiling 10 8 6

Close loop to sales process -automated 10(Sales recruitment tool) 7 6

Disbursement process/payment processing/execution 10 9 7

Year-end reporting for person’s receiving over $600. in prizes and awards 10 9 6

Key Takeaways:• Limited need for IT engagement• Automated sales process for passing and tracking referrals, engaging sales

Criteria for selection process –ranking 1-10 (ten being highest)

Budget

ScopeAmplifinity Influitive Birch World Wide

Full integration $173,000 (2 year contract) $133,500 (2 year contract)$339,300 (1 year auto renew contract unless

client terminates)

Phased approach Refer to slides 18-20 N/A N/A

Key Takeaways:

• Amplifinity offered phased approach, not available from other vendors• Discount included in 2 year contract (Amplifinity)

Recommendation SummaryAmplifinity

• Exceptional responsiveness, customer experience

• Meets/exceeds program requirements

• High level of experience/knowledge in finance/accounting software

• Flexible pricing structure

• Excellent return on investment

• Technically sound and secure platform

• Global capabilities

Next steps• Present referral program strategy, tool and required investment to

Gabie –get sign off

• Map out communication/PR/launch plan and include it in the total investment (include stakeholders)

• Commit to a budget for entire program

• Commit to an agreed upon launch date

• Get on the IS/web priority list

• Select a vendor of record

• Identify additional key stakeholders and resources

• Kick-off the program with stakeholders

05/03/2023©2014 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. 11

Appendix

Vendors under consideration• Three vendors have been under review to evaluate their capabilities to

provide Sage with a “world class” Accountant Referral Program.

• The three vendors that have been under consideration are:

• All three vendors were briefed on numerous occasions regarding the goals of the Accountant Referral Program, “the basic” scope, requirements and anticipated time frame of implementing the program.

• The vendors were asked to submit an RFP so the they could have an understanding of some of the requirements that we have for the Sage Accountant Referral Program. We met with each vendor on several occasions to provide additional feedback that would help them complete the RFP. Each vendor also had the opportunity to demo their platform tool.

Short list of vendors• Our three vendor finalist, Influitive, Amplifinity and Birch Worldwide

submitted detailed proposals speaking to their strengths, capabilities and cost.

• Each vendor has their unique platform they would build our program on.• Birch: Birch software is developed on a Microsoft platform using

Microsoft Windows, Microsoft SQL Server & Microsoft ASP.Net • Influitive - Saas-can be executed as a web portal, integrated into

our web site-"plug & Play" • Amplifinity - Saas based Enterprise Referral Amplification platform

• All Vendors gave demos of their systems and examples of how they have applied branding to its clients’ program websites.

• Dittman Incentive Marketing dropped out

AmplifinityAmplifinity was born from the belief that the best business is business that comes from a current customer telling a salesperson about people they know who need your product or service. Combined with their new, socially connected world, the founders believe there is incredible potential to take the concept of referrals and scale it digitally to create a consistent channel for customer acquisition and demand generation.

Amplifinity’s referral amplification platform turns customer, partner, and partner advocacy into revenue by enabling and automating closed-loop referral programs. Their platform powers the world’s largest, most successful, and most sophisticated referral programs for industry leading companies like ADP, Salesforce, DIRECTV, Ring Central and Charter Communications, to name a few.

In addition to offering the industry leading referral marketing platform for large enterprises, the Amplifinity team are experts in referral marketing. Through their work with industry leading organizations like ADP, Salesforce and DIRECTV, they’ve identified the keys to launching and running an industry leading referral program. From launching a program the right way to optimizing a program overtime, they enable clients through technology as well as guide them with the right strategy, ongoing support, and industry-leading expertise to ensure their program(s) are always running at peak performance.

Birch World WideBirch has developed a solution based upon their experience of managing partner programs over 20 years and their observations of how programs perform and the success factors they have observed.

Their first principle is developed from observing partner engagement in practice. Simply put, all program communities exhibit a performance profile that reflects a double ended Pareto profile. The key area that drives program success is the “undecided” category which in turn can be broken into 3 levels of engagement potential. In most markets these participants are likely to be courted by our competitors and hence Birch calls it our “killing ground” where engaging the participant may also exclude competition.

Their solutions are built to encourage partners to move through the stages of product or brand adoption. This allows Sage to invest time and resources into those participants most likely to develop an effective return for us.Birch’s second principle is to understand the factors that drive the participant’s actions and to then be able to provide effective stimuli to promote behaviours. This heart share and mind share principle can be used to develop effective strategies for nurturing participants and influencing participant’s performance

Their third principle is the use of what they consider to be channel equations to develop themes and techniques to drive programs in delivering outcomes. While they consider there to be 4 key areas that programs influence each program, it usually focusses on one of the elements. These 4 key areas (capability, motivation, loyalty and opportunity) will shape the program and the nature of participant engagement.

InfluitiveInfluitive has a deep understanding of accountant advocates that is derived from their first-hand experience in working with organizations such as Intuit, Epicor, ADP, PayChex, Armanino, Tagetik and Avalara.

They state that the success of our referral program will be highly predicated on effective integrations with Eloqua to quantify, measure & scale the project, (their CEO, was the co-founder of Eloqua).

Their innovative segmentation functionality will allow us to easily grow the referral program across different business units, countries & campaigns without any additional implementations or services required. They have success rolling out programs internationally, including to Tagetik (based in Europe) that targets finance & accounting professionals that have been predicated on this functionality. They believe that segmentation powers advocate personalization which drives high levels of engagements.

Influitive views referrals as the final destination of a successful advocate marketing program in order to be truly successful. They believe that first, they must educate advocates on products, then engage them in a two-way dialogue and finally – encourage them to refer. Programs that create a one-way conversation to drive referrals are not sustainable. Influitive states that they possess the experience and expertise to meet our aggressive objectives of a program launch in May, while making the roll-out as minimally involved for the Sage team as possible.

Phase 1 Program Concept for Sage Software

March 25, 2015

Amplifinity Platform

Program Concept for Initial Single Program: Accountants Referring SMBs

Close?

Attribute Reward

Y

Login

AdvocateEmpowerment

Advocates

Invite Advocates via customer touchpoints

Advocate Registration

Prospect Landing

Page

SFTP

Nurturing / MyAccount

TangoCard

18

Opt-out File

Unsub List

Review in Control Room

or Prospect File Referral ID

SFTP

Control Room

Manually updateLead status inControl Room

1

2

3

45

6

6

6

6

7

8

LegendSFTP – Secure File Transfer Protocol – See notes on next slide1

19

Phase 1 Scope Notes1. Advocates will register via a form presented by AMP (Amplifinity).

Phase 1 will not provide validation of Advocate customer numbers.Note that SSO (single sign-on) or Advocate validation may be implemented in a future phase.

2. Phase 1 Empowerment Tools include email, social posts, lead form, and personal URL.Note that printed cards may be added in a future phase.

3. The Prospect Landing Page will support standard fields (e.g. name, address, email, phone #).Note that additional custom fields may be added in a future phase.

4. If time allows, Amplifinity will periodically make a file of new Prospects available via secure file transfer (SFTP). Sage will review that file manually or manually import into Eloqua. In a future phase, this will be automated.

1. If time does not allow, Sage personnel will be able to review the lead list directly in the AMP Control Room

5. Sage will use the AMP Control Room to update status of leads, to facilitate closure of the referral loop. In a future phase, this process will be automated.

6. All Advocate-facing and Prospect-facing pages and emails will be white-labelled to the Sage brand, using creative assets prepared by Sage or its chosen creative agency. AMP will provide an FPO (for placement only) site and will train Sage in the uploading and modification of content via the AMP Control Room.

7. Before sending referral emails to Prospects, AMP will verify that each Prospect email address is not on Sage’s unsubscribe list. Sage will provide weekly unsubscribe file to AMP.

8. The Advocate rewards for Phase 1 will be issued using Tango Card. Subsequent phases may use other reward types.

20

Estimated budget for Phased approach Feature MRR –

monthly recurring revenue

Setup

Base program (Account to SMB)Includes Eloqua and CRM file-based integrations

$10,000/mo $35,000

Advocate recruiting, Reward choice $3,000/mo $9,000

Total $13,000/mo $44,000

Phase 1

Phase 2