Insights for IT Negotiations

Over the last several years, UpperEdge Practice Director, Justin Parker, has supported many clients with their SAP hosting RFPs and advised them on the appropriate sourcing strategy to ensure that their objectives are met today and well into the future. This podcast is an excerpt from the webcast: Demystifying the SAP Hyperscaler Hosting Market, where Justin highlights several considerations for managing an SAP Hosting RFP Process. Host: Justin Parker: https://bit.ly/3C895y4 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

There’s an important role that internal alignment plays on the success of your IT cost optimization program. Early in 2020, Justin Parker, UpperEdge Practice Director co-hosted a webcast: “Driving Effective Cost Reduction: It’s All-Hands-on-Deck!” where he covers this topic in-depth; this podcast is an excerpt from that webcast. Host: Justin Parker: https://bit.ly/3C895y4 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3ilLUIJ

Unlike some of its competitors, Oracle is seeing growth and better performance overall in 2020. However, it’s slow growth as Oracle moves to the cloud and off of its dominant on-premise solutions, which takes in revenue upfront vs. cloud subscription revenues. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Oracle Practice Leader, gives insights on Oracle’s move to the cloud, new streams of revenue, and profitability. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p

UpperEdge Practice Director, Justin Parker, discusses how many organizations are grappling with the key decision of where and how they will host their SAP workloads. More recently, organizations are starting to consider one of the many hyperscaler hosting platforms. There are several market dynamics driving this shift such as increasing customer expectations, overall pace of change in the IT market, and organizations’ digital transformation strategies. Host: Justin Parker: https://bit.ly/3C895y4 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

If you’re concluding a year-end deal with SAP in 2020, there are many things you need to think about. SAP, like everyone else, has had to readjust expectations with the market. They made some major leadership changes, but they are looking ahead with relief and optimism. With this in mind, Chip Hanna, UpperEdge’s SAP Practice Director, covers four strategies to approach SAP as the year comes to an end. Host: Chip Hanna: https://bit.ly/37gknCk SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3Clbaab

Salesforce officially announced they are acquiring business communication platform, Slack, for roughly $28B. Why did Salesforce make its largest acquisition in history and what does it mean for current Slack and/or Salesforce customers? What should enterprises expect from Salesforce as it pushes them to adopt Slack and replace Microsoft Teams? In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, answers these questions and shares his perspective on how enterprises can take advantage of the intensified battleground between Salesforce and Microsoft. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Salesforce had another strong quarter even during a pandemic, posting 20% revenue growth while even raising full year guidance.  Salesforce posted impressive revenue growth across all its clouds (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Platform & Other as well as Marketing and Commerce Cloud).  Salesforce’s ability to raise full year revenue guidance is directly attributable to a strong pipeline that CRO, Gavin Patterson, mentioned is tied to the increased level of access they have with decision makers.  In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what enterprises should expect from Salesforce moving forward as they look to meet and exceed raised full year revenue guidance and achieve their objective of becoming a $25B company next year. He also shares how enterprises can take advantage of key insights from the earnings call in their upcoming negotiations and renewals.  Salesforce also officially announced they are acquiring Slack for roughly $28B. Adam will be providing insights on what this means in an additional podcast. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

UpperEdge's Len Riley chats with Alex Winthrop about how Accenture was particularly impacted by the global pandemic and what actions they took this year that customers should be aware of. —Discussion based on blog: How Accenture’s Strategy Evolved in 2020 – Published October 21, 2020

Understanding the pros and cons of Private Cloud vs. Public Cloud is essential to selecting the right scenario for your business. Through a combination of market research and experience supporting our clients going through similar transformational choices, Brian Undlin, IT Sourcing & Negotiation Analyst at UpperEdge has identified factors to help you decide whether a private or public cloud would be the best fit for your company. More in-depth analysis on this topic can be read in Brian’s blog at upperedge.com.

As the shift to digital accelerates, more enterprises are turning to the cloud to drive efficiencies, lower IT costs, and support work which now requires more collaboration. Alphabet reported that Google Cloud revenue increased 45% in Q3. It is clear that Alphabet is going to continue to aggressively invest in Google Cloud with headcount increases in technical and sales roles, further built-out go-to-market capabilities, and most likely acquisitions. Google Cloud has shown they are ready to take market share and win even more GCP and Workspace (formerly G Suite) customers. The announcement that they are going to finally breakout Google Cloud as a separate reporting segment starting in Q4 is one indicator of their confidence. They are going to provide not only Q4 information but full year 2018, 2019, and 2020 revenue and operating income. In this podcast, Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what enterprises should expect from Google Cloud’s sales executives who have clearly defined goals. He also shares how customers could potentially take advantage of key insights from the earnings call in their Google Cloud negotiations.