Gamification in Sales Effectiveness Activity

Abstract

Although the measurement of organizational performance is the focus of top management of different organizations, it does not always fix control of established goals. It is necessary to create mechanisms for capturing the high income of employees, so that, by keeping them motivated, living with their active activity adds value to the organization. However, in the annual results statement, it is only a performance of the trading effectiveness that is mirrored, a pair of business generated by this organizational silo. For this reason, a literature review brings together the descriptions of studies carried out, there are no criteria for the use of the gamification concept for a return on capital invested in different business activities, according to a different author’s perspective.

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International Journal of Library Science 2018, 7(2): 28-31
DOI: 10.5923/j.library.20180702.02
Gamification in Sales Effectiveness Activity
Ricardo Pateiro Marcão
Altran Portugal, S. A., Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract Although the measurement of organizational performance is the focus of top management of different
organizations, it does not always fix control of established goals. It is necessary to create mechanisms for capturing the
high income of employees, so that, by keeping them motivated, living with their active activity adds value to the
organization. However, in the annual results statement, it is only a performance of the trading effectiveness that is mirrored,
a pair of business generated by this organizational silo. For this reason, a literature review brings together the descriptions
of studies carried out, there are no criteria for the use of the gamification concept for a return on capital invested in
different business activities, according to a different author’s perspective.
Keywords Gamification, Management, Monitoring, Performance, Sales Effectiveness, Sales Energy
1. Introduction
The concept of gamification has been defined by
different authors over the last two decades under different
perspectives. Although all relate motivation to
organizational performance, some describe it as the "Holy
Grail" for acquiring good results, as is the case with [1].
According to [2], the gamification concept is no more than
the use of game elements in a non-game context, allowing
the player's engagement and, consequently, better results in
a given activity, appealing to innovation.
Although we intend to study the relationship between the
use of the gamification concept and the high-performance
capture in the scope of commercial effectiveness, we have
managed to make a generic analogy to different
performance monitoring projects described by different
authors and researchers throughout this document.
This document is structured in two sequential sections,
which address the theme under study: i) gamifying
corporation silos, ii) measuring the sales effectiveness
activity and iii) conclusions.
2. Gamifying Corporation Silos
It is not new that the concepts addressed in corporate and
leadership areas were developed within the military.
Although economists have recently begun to understand the
* Corresponding author:
ricardo.pateiro.marcao@gmail.com (Ricardo Pateiro Marcão)
Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/library
Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Scientific & Academic Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
importance of the democratic role in professional
development, according to [3], the stronger an army, the
more benefits we get. For this reason, it is important to create
organizational silos capable of evolving with synergetic
objectives.
According to [4], the concept of gamification is a trend
nowadays for the profitability of organizational efficiency,
since it allows to introduce a mechanics of a game in the
professional activity of the employees, not neglecting the
motivation and individual pleasure in the long term. Through
the creation of teams among the different organizational
silos, it is possible to quantify the results returned by the
enterprise information systems at a certain scale, such as
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) or Software Configuration
Management (SCM). In an automation perspective of
gamification through the development of a sui generis
platform, the author considers that a gamification system
should be able to provide immediate feedback, compliance
objectives and rules to its users. In this way, it must be
assumed that everything that is important in this context and
that can be punctuated can be represented by events. In the
case where a user U successfully completes step X in process
P, an event E is considered as a tuple {U, X, P}. Through a
Business Rules Management System (BRMS), we can
establish conditions so that if P implies a consequence C,
then C is executed immediately, which can be translated into
the assignment of extraordinary scores or the payment of a
given reward. Analyzing Figure 1, we can incorporate such a
platform into an abstract architecture of an enterprise
information system, taking into account that all events are
published on a corporate service bus, responsible for the
routing of different services and security rules.

International Journal of Library Science 2018, 7(2): 28-31 29
Figure 1. Architecture for a gamification platform, according to [3]
Although the creation of organizational silos is a starting
point for performance monitoring and for the application of a
gamification model to create synergies between different
teams, it is necessary to adapt the business architecture in use.
To that end, [5] concludes that two types of risks must be
considered in relation to the maturity level of the enterprise
architecture: i) technical risk and ii) social risk. Focusing on
social risk, we can come up with issues relevant to the
organizational environment, related to eventual reductions of
commitment on the part of employees, which can be filled
with the added value that technology can offer us, through
i) the capacity to managing external relations, (ii) capacity to
reduce operating costs, and (iii) speed of entry of
competition into the market. The adaptation of an enterprise
architecture to models that allow analysis of employee
performance management can not only pave the way for a
more effective use of technology in the management of
external relations but also improve inter-organizational
collaboration and communication.
According to [2], motivational theories confirm that
different collaborators have various needs and desires. The
concept of gamification allows us to use such factors, based
on those needs and desires, to obtain the completion of a
given task. Its application aims not only to increase
productivity, but also to improve its enthusiasm. The specific
case of the application of related models in departmental
silos composed of human resource specialists is one of the
successful ones in the market. At the same time, by applying
the concept of gamification to recruitment and training for
evaluating employee performance and welfare activities, it is
possible to improve their engagement. With the increase of
competition and labor supply in economic activities of the
tertiary sector, [2] reinforces that it is urgent the gradual
improvement of the satisfaction of the different
collaborators.
Although most of the activities measured by these models
are not virtual, the use of technology to make such
measurements is very useful. According to [6], there are two
types of methods for this: i) autonomous and ii) social. The
autonomous ones offer tasks, that are verified or monitored
according to the algorithms configured in the system like
tests and questionnaires; while social ones allow direct or
indirect interaction with real personnel, including
communication and verification tasks.
According to [7], these models become useful because
they offer certain motivational support to employees, be it
intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivational support is rooted
directly in the task, while the extrinsic motivational support
is related to the fulfillment of external objectives, and is
often related to an extraordinary remuneration.
Although the concept of gamification first emerged in
2008, by Brett Terrill, with the goal of enhancing
engagement of a collaborator to a particular task, it only
began to be widespread in the industrial and professional
services sectors in 2010. Since there are different definitions
for this, [8] redefines the concept as a process of
improvement of a certain service, using game experiences,
with the objective of supporting the creation of value to the
activities of the employee (player in this case), neglecting
possible methodologies and models used. Since there is no
analysis of the typology of game elements in the literature
used, it is dubious whether rewarding models involved in
loyalty programs, decision support systems and other
services that consider the assignment of points, levels and
progress metrics could be included. However, if we consider
the concept of affordance as part of the concept of
gamification, it is necessary to define models that allow the
calculation of the evolution of the collaborator throughout
the game.
3. Measuring the Sales Effectiveness
Activity
Business effectiveness is one of the essential activities
in organizations focused on service delivery, being present
in the tertiary economic sector. According to [7], to use
motivation as a contribution to models of gamification, it is

30 Ricardo Pateiro Marcão: Gamification in Sales Effectiveness Activity
necessary to understand how we can monitor employee
performance, with which it agrees [2], indicating also that
incentives and rewards, whether intrinsic or extrinsic, are
elements critical for gamers in any context.
One of the examples of application of this type of models
to commercial efficacy is the development study by [9],
which made an on-site observation through the analysis of
data made available by a Business Activity Monitoring
(BAM) system, with the objective of the monitoring of
the performance of the automotive industry in real time.
Since the company is dispersed geographically, real-time
monitoring is more than essential for continuous
improvement of its processes. Being difficult to monitor and
analyze business events, in an integrated and comprehensive
way, due to the location and source of the information
systems for performance measures, the BAM system was
proposed with the most promising solution to complete all
the needs.
According to [10], business performance management
allows organizations to monitor and respond to changes in
the business environment, in order to optimize their
performance, relating it to the employee's goals. Business
performance is measured through indicators to reflect the
return of activities under the technology layer.
For the best performance in the business, the essential is
the set of effective measurement and performance analysis of
the management activities of the business, which is only
possible through the definition of indicators, metrics used to
plan, execute and monitor business. Among these,
performance indicators are highlighted, which determine the
monitoring of the objectives to be fulfilled and allow the
monitoring of the relative levels of control with a certain
tolerance, used in the organizational context.
In the health sector, commercial efficiency is not
measured by sales performance but rather by the quality of
health care. In order to perform such management, [3]
reviewed the methods most commonly used in this type of
control, especially in cardiac surgeries. Although its area is
cardiology and not management or computer science, the
researcher wanted to study the usefulness of certain types of
graphics used in dashboards to monitor health care
performance, such as control charts, Cumulative Sum Charts
(CUSUM) and funnel plots. As a conclusion to the study and
application of the developed dashboard, the CUSUMs
analysis was clearly the most acceptable for the evaluation
and monitoring of the medical processes in question. It
should be noted that further work on this point does not
compare with a study on the effectiveness and/ or efficiency
of a conventional dashboard and should not therefore be
assessed in the same way.
In the pharmaceutical sector, commercial efficiency
follows the organizational model of professional services,
related to the so-called sales energy. According to [12], after
a study of 57 disparate pharmacists, formal control
mechanisms coexist with strong informal professional
standards that also influence values, activities, and outcomes.
In this configuration, input, behavior, and output control, in
the context of product development, can enable scientists to
effectively conduct their work and align it with professional
norms and goals. The basis of competitive advantage in the
pharmaceutical industry lies in successful innovation. For
this reason, the pharmaceutical industry spends a large
percentage of the value of its sales in research and
development, unlike other industries, such as those related to
the aerospace industry or the development of advanced
technology. In this context, the author reinforces that control
can be defined as any process whereby top management
focuses attention, motivates, and encourages employees to
act in a planned way to achieve the company's annual fiscal
goals. Associated with this, there is another type of control,
structural control, also known as bureaucratic or behavioral
control, since it allows regulating the organization's business
activities and is often implemented in the form of rules and
procedures.
Despite the potential benefits of implementing
information systems and technologies in the health sector,
their effectiveness and success are limited by cultural and
regulatory concerns. According to [13], these obstacles can
interfere in the alignment between IT and the organization's
business, which has an impact on the evaluation of its
commercial effectiveness. Although the correct leverage of
IT can provide strategic skills to health professionals with
commercial responsibilities, regulatory agencies and
competition in the sector may be an obstacle, as it requires
organizations to adapt to their characteristics and, sometimes,
their own economic activity.
4. Conclusions
Today, companies, especially those active in information
technology, face increasing difficulty in retaining their
talents. For professionals in this area, working in large
technology companies such as Microsoft or Amazon is
certainly attractive, however, even these show a great
turnover of their employees. Despite the observable evidence
that humans are liberally endowed with intrinsic
motivational tendencies, according to [14], this propensity is
something expressed only under specific conditions.
Although, in the field of commercial efficacy, the most
salient motivation is of the extrinsic type, by the underlying
economic activity, according [15], feedback continues to be
a very useful personal and hierarchical control mechanism
for the development of the employee and his/ her company.
This allows you to not only monitor and compare your
behavior, but also evaluate its performance.
According to [16], the role of Management Control
Systems (MCS) has become an important concern for
professionals and researchers in the fields of economics and
management, regarding different organizational changes.
With its use of the area under focus in this document, it is
possible to carry out a statistical analysis with different
parameters, defined by the indicators presented in the
gamification model used, with which it agrees [6].

International Journal of Library Science 2018, 7(2): 28-31 31
According to [17], based on this type of models, it is possible
to monetize the invested capital, which, in turn, shows the
benefit of the teams in play.
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