Incentives Take to the Cloud
Moving incentive programs onto the cloud offers clients new opportunities, but concerns remain
By Ron Benegbi
When considering the next step for online incentive programs, planners and clients have their heads in the Cloud. More specifically, in cloud computing, the technology that allows users to access data or use programs from any web browser via a third-party site, without having to install any software.
This type of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology has exploded in recent years as programs from Google, Dell and IBM and dozens of other companies have allowed users to conduct virtually all of their personal and professional tasks without having to save a thing to their own computer. Incentive planners expect to see employee performance and motivation programs following in the same path.
“The cloud is quite honestly where it’s all going,” says Jack Martin, partner at the J. Fitzgerald Group, owner of Lockhart, NY–based motivation company Payback Incentives. “Especially with a company doing incentive programs across different regions or in multiple countries, having the data on hand and in real time is crucial.”
Martin gives the example of a major auto client of Payback’s, which shifted the sales incentive program for its construction equipment division over to a cloud-based system. Since it allows for individual dealers to access the up-to-the-minute sales data from any computer, the cloud system allows the participants to track the effectiveness of the company’s regional and national sales performance with far more agility than if the information was physically stored at the corporate headquarters.
Tyler Mitchell, director of business development for workplace performance and loyalty company Snowfly, had a similar experience with their cloud-based programs.
“We were surprised with the amount of people that were accessing the program at home, or some place not in the workplace,” says Mitchell.
He gives the example of a restaurant that used the company’s program to track its employee performance. Since hopping online could only be done in the restaurant manager’s office, Mitchell was concerned participation might be low, but in fact many participants chose to log on and check their status from home.
As smartphones have become a preferred way for individuals to do their online browsing, cloud-based incentive programs can be taken anywhere.
“You start talking cloud, you’re talking about multiple ways of interfacing with data—you start wondering, ‘how can we access this from the phone, or from a tablet,’” says Paul Hebert, managing director of i2i, an incentive design consultancy based in Greenville, SC. “It makes you think, ‘I’m doing something new and cool—what else can I do?’”
Hebert believes the openness of cloud-based incentives could entice a client to incorporate Facebook, foursquare or other social media services into their program as well, expanding the program to include participants’ friends and family. With the growing buzz around mobile payments, in which products and services can be bought by scanning a smartphone at point of purchase, incentive gift cards themselves may soon take to the could, no longer tethered to a plastic card.
But some clients might not warm to the idea of posting sensitive performance statistics or program details on an external site.