Insights for IT Negotiations

Workday recently reported their FY23 Q1 earnings, and while it reported a good quarter, Workday did experience some challenges and deals being pushed to the second half of FY23. Organizations are responding to the looming economic uncertainty and resulting turnover at the executive level by tapping the breaks on engagements. While Workday still saw a subscription revenue growth of 23%, it was clear during the earnings call that there is some pressure because of organizations’ postponing deals out to the latter half of the year. In this podcast, Workday Practice Leader Jeffrey Lazarto discusses how Workday will continue towards its goal of reaching $10B in revenue and more than 20% subscription revenue growth despite these added pressures as well as how customers can position themselves so they are negotiating in a buyers’ market. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3A6KOXt

Salesforce reported Q1 FY23 earnings, and once again posted a strong total revenue growth of 24% while beating top- and bottom-line expectations. During the earnings call, Salesforce Co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor pointed towards the increased relevancy of Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform as a driving force behind their revenue growth. They also pointed to the amplified Customer 360 value proposition that comes from recent acquisitions like Tableau, Mulesoft and Slack as a contributing factor to that growth. Despite this growth, Salesforce lowered full year revenue guidance by $300M, citing an increase in foreign exchange volatility. In this podcast, our Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what to expect from Salesforce as they work to ensure their “really strong” pipeline turns into booked revenue in FY23. He also shares his thoughts on what customers should do to appropriately prepare for Salesforce’s adjusted selling strategy aimed at achieving their goals during a tougher economic environment. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

ServiceNow held its annual Financial Analyst Day ahead of Knowledge ’22 this week, and there many key takeaways that current and new customers need to be aware of. ServiceNow is focused on expanding customer portfolios to include as many products within their 4 workflows (Technology, Customer, Employee and Creator) as they can. Their goal is to further entrench their solutions while also increasing customers’ annual spend. In this podcast, our ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what customers should expect from ServiceNow as they push forward to become a $11B+ company by 2024. He also shares how customers can leverage ServiceNow’s clear goals during their upcoming negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

It's Day 1 of SAPPHIRE and Chip Hanna, UpperEdge's SAP Practice Director, has a few important insights to share regarding SAP's announcement of a new strategic partnership with McKinsey. Anyone who is considering SAP RISE will find important information in this relevant and timely podcast and will get some reading-between-the-lines from the SAP/McKinsey announcement. Host: Chip Hanna: https://bit.ly/37gknCk SAP RISE Resource Center: https://bit.ly/3yv81VM SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

ServiceNow’s FY22 is off to a strong start, with a Q1 subscription revenue of $1.63B representing 26% growth year-over-year. ServiceNow closed 52 transactions in the quarter with over $1M in new annual contract value, an increase of 41%. ServiceNow has over 1,400 customers paying them over $1M per year, with the average annual spend among that group coming in at $3.9M. ServiceNow continues to leverage the “stickiness” of their customer base to expand their portfolios to include more products across their various workflows - Creator, Customer, Employee and Technology (formerly IT). In this podcast, ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what customers should expect from ServiceNow over the course of the upcoming year as ServiceNow works towards their goal of becoming a $15B plus company by 2026. He also shares how customers can leverage ServiceNow’s clear goals during their upcoming ServiceNow negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

Microsoft beat expectations on the top and bottom lines, posting FY22 Q3 total revenue of $49.4B. It is clear that the continued success is directly tied to Microsoft Cloud, which includes Azure, Office365, LinkedIn, Dynamics 365, Power Apps, and other cloud solutions. Microsoft Cloud eclipsed $23B in the quarter, representing a 32% increase year-over-year. In this podcast, Microsoft Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how Microsoft needs to move more customers to their most robust “E5” offering and, in particular, the all-in-cloud bundle Microsoft 365 E5. This is especially important given the fact that Microsoft has not yet moved as many customers as they would have expected onto the bundle. In light of this, he also covers what enterprise customers should expect as they approach their upcoming renewals as well as how to prepare for Microsoft’s plan of attack. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Salesforce reported FY22 Q4 earnings, and once again posted strong revenue growth of 26%. They also posted 25% revenue growth for the full year while raising FY23 revenue guidance by $300M. It was very clear that Slack will be a focus for Salesforce moving forward as they expect turn it into a $1.5B business by the end of FY23. In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what to expect from Salesforce as they lean on their customer base to reach their FY23 revenue target of $32B. He also shares his thoughts on what customers should do to appropriately prepare for Salesforce’s tactics to achieve their goals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

ServiceNow had another strong quarter and year, with subscription revenue of $1.52B in Q4 and $5.57B for the full year, representing 29% and 30% growth respectively. ServiceNow also now has 1,359 customers that pay over $1M per year, with the average annual spend being $3.8M. ServiceNow is able to do this through organic growth and executing to a strategy that has resulted in successfully getting more of their Workflow (IT, Customer, Employee, and Creator) products adopted as part of net-new deals and renewals. In this podcast, ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses where ServiceNow will focus to accomplish their goal of growing from a $5.57B company to a $15B company and what customers should expect from ServiceNow over the course of the upcoming year. He also shares how customers can leverage ServiceNow’s clear goals during their upcoming ServiceNow negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

Microsoft once again beat analyst expectations, posting FY22 Q2 total revenue of $51.7B. Their success is being driven by the Microsoft Cloud (which includes Azure, O365, LinkedIn, Dynamics 365, Power Apps, and other cloud solutions). When selling their cloud solutions to enterprise customers, Microsoft will continue to pitch a “One Microsoft’ approach with the ultimate goal of getting them to use as many pieces of the Microsoft Cloud as possible. It is also clear that Microsoft will remain focused on leveraging their premium security, compliance, voice, and analytics solutions to get enterprise customers to move to the more robust (and costly) M365 E5. In this podcast, Microsoft Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how Microsoft’s focus on selling as many pieces of the Microsoft Cloud as possible will provide an opportunity for customers to optimize their go-forward commercial relationship and overcome Microsoft price increases coming in March 2022. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

There is a direct correlation between SAP system implementation failures and how companies approach the SI selection process. The traditional procurement approach is flawed and fails to account for the complexities of an enterprise SAP SI selection today. The demand for SI services in strategic industries is accelerating as companies come out of the pandemic and shift from a “preserve and protect” mindset to an “expand and grow” mindset. In this podcast, Director of IT Services, Greg Hall, discusses what new challenges companies face when selecting an SI for their SAP project and shares four critical success factors for making SI evaluations in today’s competitive and evolving environment. Host: Greg Hall: https://bit.ly/3CcaELp IT Services: https://bit.ly/3A5Hcov Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3rHgGkc