Parenting is one of the most challenging tasks that humans can experience. Sleepless nights with a crying child, not understanding its needs, dealing with tantrums and puberty, while making sure that the child doesn't kill itself in its quest of discovering and exploring the world, is amongst the most stressful but at the same time most pleasurable experiences that one can have. But then we are pretty much left alone with understanding our kids and helping them - and helping and us.

As it turns out, we are never really taught how to 'read' children and what appropriate ways are or raising and empowering them. How can we make them ready for a world that becomes more and more demanding and where change is happening faster than ever before?

Many parenting approaches are more the 'learn as you go' kind of type. Some are well meant, but are achieveing the total opposite. Praising your child for being smart could actually harm the child. Rewarding him with stickers for doing tasks can turn him hating those very tasks. Not having the right tools like using empathy, understanding child growth stages, or even as a parent being too stuck in what society allows may limit your child's future potential. It may make him or her too scared, not flexible enough, not able to function in society. And no parent wants that.

Even most of the available literature is doing a rather bad job. Anecdotal experiences, outdated parenting paradigms, sometimes based on religious, strictly moralistic, or at least questionable frameworks do quite some harm. As much as "Little house on the prairie" is a beloved TV series, it's not a training tool for learning about parenting. Or would you consult a doctor who got trained in surgery by watching "House?" As great as those TV shows are, they are nothing else than stories. They make us feel good, teach us lessons, but we are not becoming specialists in parenting or surgery.

In our newest analyst report on gamified sales platforms, we learned some interesting facts about the sales gamification industry. In this report we evaluated 12 sales gamification and 12 universal platforms, plus a couple of more platforms, to make your decision of which platform to choose easier.

Why you should consider a gamified sales platform? Certainly because times are changing. With Millennial sales reps - those born between 1980 und 2000 - sales managers have found themselves at a loss of how to engage them. Many traditional sales management techniques fall short with them. They want to know a higher purpose, may tell you that they are "not coin-operated," want constant feedback, and use social media and their network, which often perplexes sales managers.

Truth is that in order to get the best out of their young sales reps, sales managers have to take a step back and learn about them. Did you know that when young sales reps enter the workforce they have already 10,000 hours of video game playing experience? While your first reaction may be disbelief and "what a waste of time," we rather look at what video games do so well that they kept playing them 10,000 hours. They give them instant and constant feedback, show them learning paths, alllow them to socialize with other players, lead them to mastery, give them epic meaning, and not to forget let them fail a lot. But failing is learning a well.

If you can build on those components and use them in your sales process, then you will be able to engage them. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel all yourself. That's what the sales gamification platforms did for you. And you should check them and our report out, because the results will surprise and convince you.

In our second industry report on gamification platforms we evaluated and interviewed, analyzed, and compared twelve sales gamification platforms and twelve universal platforms and their vendors. These platforms address engagement challenges that many companies face in regards to younger sales reps - aka Millennials or Generation Y.

As gamification moves from a novelty to a mainstream technology, and shifts from a customer to an employee engagement program, organizations need to consider gamification strategies. Sales Gamification Platforms provide solutions for the sales process, while universal, enterprise grade gamification platforms can be deployed beyond sales throughout an organization and integrate gamification experiences, engage players, and collect data across processes.

Target Audience

This report is for organizations and sales managers that want to increase sales and sales reps engagement. If your sales force is composed of many Millennial sales reps, then this report is perfect for you. This report is also for gamification platform vendors and gamification practitioners.

Benefits

To help organizations make an informed decision, we queried all vendors and other contact about the product and service offerings on a variety of categories. Readers will learn about

• Status of the Gamification Industry
• Learn about gamification platforms and vendors
• Learn about predictions for the market, ecosystem, big data, and training
• Get access to evaluation checklists
• Understand the Elements of a Successful Gamification Strategy.

Evaluated Platforms

The sales gamification platforms that we evaluated for this industry report are:

• Ambition
• Cadalys - Corsica
• CloudApps – SuMo for Salesforce
• Compettia – Conquer
• CRMGamified
• Echo.it
• Evaluagent - MotivAgent
• FantasySalesTeam
• Hoopla
• iWorkPlay
• LevelEleven
• WaveAccess

The universal gamification platforms that we evaluated for this industry report are:

• Badgeville
• BizPart Engage
• Bunchball
• eMee
• Funifier
• GamEffective
• Gamification-Engine
• Infosys
• Mambo.io
• Playlyfe
• SAP
• TribeCloud

Purchase

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Playing is part of human nature. People spend endless hours playing games like Monopoly or FIFA because they are enormously motivated to improve their scores or to win the game. Within gamification, studies and businesses examine how this motivation can be transferred to work environments. Thereafter, game elements are implemented into work processes in order to increase motivation and performance. Today, gamification is mostly applied in marketing, employee training or hiring processes in big companies. However, few practical examples exist on gamification of management control systems (MCS), which should be of particular interest, since management control is at the core of every business. The problem is that management control is often perceived as pure mathematical exercise without connection to corporate goals. The work of management controllers is misunderstood due to a lack of understanding figures and indistinct communication. The question is, whether gamification could be applied to overcome these hurdles. This study examines opportunities and limitations of gamification of MCS on the basis of small and medium enterprises operating in Germany. Literature review and expert interviews help to understand the relationship of playing games and MCS, to assess issues of MCS that gamification could solve and to evaluate whether game elements are already applied in MCS. The results of this academic work suggest that potential for gamification of MCS exist, especially with regards to visualisations and graphical illustrations, while limitations are for instance difficulties in translating complex processes into game elements.