Connect is a new data­ management web service hosted by Xactly. Connect allows customers and third­party integration IT professionals to control the full lifecycle for data integration with Xactly Incent. External IT developers can now create custom data ­integration processes to transform and load raw customer data into Incent programmatically, control calculation­ processing schedules, and extract data from the Incent database.

• No, Xactly will continue to offer DELTA Professional Services, but now customers can choose to implement data processes themselves, use a systems integrator, implementation partner, or engage Xactly Professional Services.
• Xactly Connect has no tie to any previously implemented DELTA ETL processes. Legacy DELTA jobs can be re­implemented within Xactly Connect.

• Self Service: The client wants to manage the processes themselves from implementation to ongoing managementIn this case, we provide their internal resources access to and
  • In this case, we provide their internal resources access to and support for Connect
• Blended Implementation: the client wants to be able to manage processes, but is using Professional Services to implement
  • In this case, our PS team will use the Connect toolkit to develop
• Full Service Implementation: the client wants our team to implement and manage their integrations
  • PS can use Connect to implement and manage the clients
• Partner Implementations: the client is working with a third party to develop and/or support their integrations
  • In this case, the client can grant that third party access to Connect and the client will be able to see and manage those processes integrations and we will ensure they have the support and documentation available

Yes, DELTA is still available and we will continue to support all DELTA integrations.

•  Any customer or third ­party integrator comfortable with the following IT skills:
  • Using SQL to query and update a database
  • Using REST API’s
  • Understanding relational database structure
  • Command line interfaces
  • Installation and use of ODBC
• Connect’s target audience is IT staff and technical business analysts who work with databases, ETL, and BI applications.
• Connect is not a tool for the majority of Incent or comp admins.
• Sales reps and other Incent payees will not have access to Connect.

• Developers will use an Incent login and role to access Connect. Incent admins can grant or revoke user account access to Connect. Connect v1 has two types of access:
  1). Read­ Only, which allows limited access to review Connect objects and
  2). Full access, which allows a user to create, update, execute and deploy Connect objects.

No, customers and third parties are able to use Connect on their own.

• They want and expect full control over their data and systems, including hosted SaaS applications. Connect gives full operational and data control back to enterprise IT. Connect gives them full visibility and control and allows them to:
  • Integrate data from their systems of record (CRM, HRMS, POS, ERP) with Incent programmatically.
  • Build ETL mappings and pipelines in Connect if they don’t have their own ETL tool. Conversely, a customer might plug the Xactly ODBC driver into their own ETL tool.
  • Extract data from their Incent database tables programmatically.
    Such as:

• Create CSV extracts for payroll system;
• Extract data from Incent to on ­premises data warehouses;
• Import Incent data into a BI application, etc.

• Use the REST API to populate their own corporate web dashboards with data from Incent.

There is a Developers Help site available by request

Third­-party developers can be given access to the Connect documentation available in our new portal. This contains comprehensive materials including Developers Guides, examples, and a full command reference.

Xactly Support can handle most Connect inquiries, and will manage and direct anything they need help with through to the Connect development team for additional training and documentation as needed.

The Connect Developers portal will also host a forum where Connect developers will be able to discuss among themselves and share ideas.

• Connect is a web service hosted by Xactly on Xactly servers.
• ODBC driver: Many customers will choose to install Xactly’s small ODBC driver to access Connect, but no new major server software is required from the customer’s perspective.

• The XODBC driver is simply a middleware application that supports :
  1). putting source data into a database (in our case, Connect), and
  2). reading data from a database (Connect).
• For some users, such as the more technical business analysts, interacting with the XODBC driver will be familiar and easy to adopt. We expect many users to use XODBC for proof of concept (POC) and new­process development, as it is a quick way to get data into Connect tables.

XSQL is Xactly’s implementation of Structured Query Language, the standard programming language used to issue queries against relational databases (Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, etc.).

• Connect provides a proprietary command syntax to perform operations specific to the incentive compensation market that are not defined in ANSI SQL. For example, validating/uploading sales orders into Incent, purging order batches, and initiating commission calculations are all operations specific to Incent and Xactly Connect.
• These ETL commands allow Connect to create and run ETL pipelines, send email notifications, manage ETL schedules, manage variables, and more.

• Imports
• Exports
• ETL

• IT Professionals will create ETL pipelines to automatically load their source system data into Incent (sales transactions, HRMS, currency exchange rates).
• IT Professionals will create ETL pipelines to extract data from Incent (payroll files, results) and pull data into their own data warehouses for reporting and dashboards.
• IT Professionals will use our REST APIs to show Incent data in their own web reporting dashboards for Sales Management.

• Connect gives automation control and management to our customer’s internal IT professionals and or trusted partners. Customers can use in­house resources and/or third parties to create integrations and custom processes that work with Incent. Thus eliminating the need to wait and/or work with Xactly to implement and update their integration processes.
• API’s will also enable customers to connect reporting and dashboards that pull real­time data from Incent on-demand.

• REST has become the standard open API used by web­-based
  businesses as its design lends itself to the kinds of interactions business systems do over the cloud.
• Delivering on open standards means avoiding the traditional pitfalls of building tightly coupled and proprietary integrations that are brittle and hard to change.
• REST allows computer programs to “browse” web applications. Instead of web pages, REST returns actual data to the program.
• REST API’s require less bandwidth and management than SOAP

• Salesforce.com ­ Force.com and Salesforce.com
• Workday
• Microsoft Dynamics
• NetSuite

• Xactly Partners can use Connect. We provide them with training and
  documentation to learn the tools and provide them with access to support as
  needed.
• What does that process look like?
  • To work with a Partner, the customer provides access to their instance by giving them a licenses and the appropriate role privilege.
• The client can request they be given access to the Developer Portal via a support ticket if the client does not already have the necessary URL.

Training is provided via the documentation and is available on demand.

Connect is designed to integrate with Incent and SimplyComp using simple Developer tools.

• SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE oRead­only SQL access to Incent tables
• Full CRUD access on custom tables oINNER and OUTER JOINs
• SELECT data from SFDC objects using XSQL
• Many commonly used scalar and aggregation functions
• Read and write CSV files directly to Yelp’s SFTP account (server hosted by Xactly)

• Validate and upload sales orders into Incent
• Create server side ETL mappings using step and pipeline objects oInvoke step and
• pipeline objects interactively or via server side schedules
• Send email status notifications
• Create and set variables for use in other commands

• All communication over HTTPS
• Authentication and authorization based on Incent application users, roles, and privileges