Microsoft announced today their acquisition of Incent Games LLC, developers and owners of the gamification platform FantasySalesTeam. This acquisition gives Microsoft an emerging unconventional service that empowers organizations to accomplish more with software through game like interfaces and user experiences.
The idea of gamification is to transform software and database business processes into more of a game or even video game like experience, in the hopes that employees will be more engaged and enthused about using the software. The results can significantly increase both a workforce’s adoption of software as well as productivity and consequently sales.
FantasySalesTeam works in both Salesforce.com and Dynamics CRM, allowing sales teams and non-sales employees to approach their own sales performance like managing a fantasy football or baseball team.
In today’s announcement, Bob Stutz, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, says:
“[FantasySalesTeam has] disrupted the old sales incentive model with an original twist that combines gamification with fantasy sports and expertly applies it to a sales setting… Through team-based competition and involvement of non-sales employees (such as managers, service, operations, marketing and finance) employees “draft” teams and become truly invested in each other’s success. Individual and team results become highly visible, driving both competition as well as collaboration and creating positive, impactful cultural change.”
And from the cases cited in today’s announcement, it looks like FantasySalesTeam is on to something. Two examples were:
- Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) recently ran a pilot with 130 sales reps and compared their performance to almost 700 others. Those using FantasySalesTeam on average closed 88% more deals at 213% the average contract value.
- Wireless Zone saw a 176% increase in total sales, 35% increase in specific product sales and a 9 % increase in profit in the first month they ran FantasySalesTeam.
The announcement goes on to say that this acquisition is in line with Microsoft’s focus on productivity and represents the “very embodiment of reinventing productivity.” FantasySalesTeam will also continue to be supported on other Customer Relationship Management platforms but will be further integrated into Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM.
What do you think of gamification? Would you want to see it in your workplace?
Further reading: Dynamics CRM, Microsoft, Salesforce.com
