Raj Ponnusamy, Clari software engineer, likes to take advantage of a benefit sometimes all-too-rare in the SaaS world: time to innovate. Specifically, Ponnusamy, who’s official title is Software Engineering Manager, casts himself in the role of a sales leader: How can sales leaders gain more visibility and rigor in their revenue process—and what can we do to help them?
The result of that Clari engineering thought experiment is one of five Clari patents awarded in late 2020, and recently released publicly.
“I am driven by building products that customers use,” Ponnusamy says. “How do I apply technology to real world problems and solve challenges every revenue team has?”
And with data.
“Can I look at the data in a different perspective and make more sense of it, and if it makes more sense to me, will it make sense for a revenue leader?”
All five patents started with Clari software engineers weighing how the company’s Revenue Operations platform could better support the sales process, and then creating technological solutions to do so—a sort of grassroots effort that several engineers say isn’t common among startups.
But Clari leadership encourages taking the time to truly understand the product, what it can do, what it can’t, and how to change that. Clari offers bonuses and the full support of patent attorneys to file the paperwork. While many software engineers don’t set patents as a professional goal, achieving such recognition exemplifies Clari’s support of what they do, say the tech professionals.
Bala Raju engaged in a process similar to that of Ponnusamy.
“I was thinking through the sales process, envisioning the sales reps or account executives going through that process, and then seeing where the friction points are,” says Raju, Senior Manager, Machine Learning. “We have so much data, how can we employ AI to draw useful insights that will be beneficial for sales leaders and revenue organizations?”
“One of the reasons why I am excited about working at Clari even after six years at the company is the thoughtful, long term thinking,” Ponnusamy says. “How do we build a company that will stand the test of time. This is a reflection of that.”
This sentiment is echoed across the entire engineering and product team, many of whom have been here since the early days of Clari.
“I believe in the product, and it's good to see the growth over time and the value it delivers to a range of personas across the revenue team,” says Mahesh Subedi, Principal Software Engineer.
The new patents include:
- Revenue data synchronization. Powering Clari's Time Series Data Hub, this patent provides a system for automatically and periodically synchronizing data from activity sources, such as email and calendar applications, while reducing manual data entry. As part of this process, unstructured data is converted into structured database entries that are time stamped and associated with the right revenue object, such as opportunity or account for trend analysis and revenue predictions.
- Revenue data classification. This patent provides a method to automatically classify roles and types of activities using machine learning techniques. Such classification enables revenue teams to accurately measure the level of seller and buyer activity typically required in each stage of the revenue process for more informed deal inspection and coaching.
- Voice-enabled CRM updates. A system for capturing and updating CRM systems via voice commands integrations that improves data quality and revenue team productivity, while reducing the manual data entry required to keep CRM records up to date.
- Revenue activity velocity. Algorithms for predicting task completion rates based on historical completion rates and trends from discrete time periods. The particular invention uses machine learning on time series data of activity as captured in the context of revenue generation activities.
- Task completion estimation. This invention uses algorithms and data models for estimating the remaining amount of work for reaching specific milestones in the revenue process. With such estimations, revenue teams can better understand and plan future activities for meeting revenue generation goals.
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