Insights for IT Negotiations

Microsoft made a few announcements earlier this week that were all centered around their all-in cloud bundle, Microsoft 365. They announced two Microsoft 365 plans for consumers (Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family) as well as a consumer edition of Teams which will be coming later in the year. Lastly, Microsoft rebranded the Office 365 solutions for small to medium-sized business as “Microsoft 365” solutions. During this podcast, Microsoft Practice Leader shares his thoughts on what this means for consumers but also how these announcements will ultimately impact enterprise customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3C5y597

How is the Coronavirus impacting the SaaS market? This can be an opportunity for SaaS providers to step up, be leaders and demonstrate the true partnerships they have with their clients and employees. Workday has taken the initial step of paying a cash bonus to their employees, equalling two weeks of pay or roughly $80M. This was a pretty bold move as they are relatively small in comparison to their competitors, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft. Following suit, Marc Benioff announced that Saleforce would not being conducting any significant layoffs for at least the next 90 days and encouraging other CEOs to make the same 90 day pledge. Equally important—will these companies do right thing with their customers? Jeff Lazarto UpperEdge’s Oracle Practice Leader discusses some measures that are underway.

Microsoft announced that they have renamed their firstline worker (deskless) worker products, Microsoft 365 F1 and Office 365 F1. As of April 1, 2020, they will be known as Microsoft 365 F3 and Office 365 F3. Microsoft also announced that there is going to be new “lighter” Microsoft 365 F1 available to the market and Teams (which is included in these firstline products), will have additional functionality included. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield, our Microsoft Practice leader, provides more details regarding the changes and provides his thoughts on what this all means for Microsoft enterprise customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Workday added 11 new Fortune 500 companies, about 45% of the Fortune 500 are now HCM customers, which comprises about 60% of the Fortune 50. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s practice leader breaks down Workday’s Q4 fiscal year 20 results, and talks about whether Workday’s HCM cloud solution could replace Oracle’s and SAP’s solutions. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jhUk30

Claims that Oracle has misrepresented the nature of some of their cloud sales over the number of years has prompted lawsuits from shareholders. Some of these cloud deals weren’t all brought on by customer demand but instead by duress. In using their audit levers for on-premise licenses, Oracle would offer sweetheart deals to settle their audit claims so long as clients were willing to purchase cloud services even if those cloud services were not needed. UpperEdge’s Oracle Advisory Leader, Jeff Lazarto, highlights events around this case and Oracle’s cloud performance. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3A3vtGZ

In addition to Salesforce reporting its Q4 and full year FY20 earnings, they also announced that they are acquiring Vlocity for $1.3B and that their co-CEO, Keith Block is stepping down. This surprising leadership change could have major implications and raises many questions. Where will Keith Block go next? Will Salesforce alter the way they do business with Marc Benioff going back to the sole CEO?  In this podcast, practice leader, Adam Mansfield shares his perspective on this big news and discusses what it means for Salesforce customers moving forward. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

In its first earnings announcement since Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, Alphabet broke out both Google Cloud revenue (which includes GCP as well as G Suite revenue) and revenue from YouTube advertising for the first time. Though this is more transparency than we've seen in the past from them, they still refrained from disclosing the revenue tied specifically to GCP and G Suite. They also did not provide more granular details such as their total number of commercial users of G Suite. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his thoughts on Alphabet's Q4 and full-year FY19 earnings and discusses what you can expect from Google in 2020 as they strive to show accelerated Google Cloud growth and close more large enterprise deals as they compete aggressively with Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft.

Ted Rogers, Practice Leader at UpperEdge, refers to a recent conversation he had with a Project Manager overseeing an application development project for his client. The conversation was a timely one coming on the heels of Ted's recent blog, 5 SOW Essentials to Make You Look Smart. From vendors to clients, it's extremely important to have a solid statement of work in order for all parties to agree upon the project deliverables and when those deliverables are due. Host: Ted Rogers: https://bit.ly/2V7h1z3 Project Execution Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3xlw9px Related Blog: https://bit.ly/2TO7cFl

Accenture recently announced that it is the first partner to achieve SAP-certified integration with SAP Model Company delivered through MyConcerto. Given their plan to deliver together in an integrated and single engagement, customers considering this model should take time to understand the partnership dynamics and how their integration will influence the relationship. In this podcast, Chip Hanna shares three points that customers should keep in mind before engaging SAP and/or Accenture and discusses how customers can take a proactive role in managing risk both commercially and from a scope perspective. Host: Chip Hanna: https://bit.ly/37gknCk SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3C6ovCR

Microsoft had yet another strong quarter, with commercial cloud (which includes Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and commercial aspects of Linkedin) clearly being a key component of Microsoft's successful quarter and the driving force for their future success. Can Microsoft achieve its overarching goal to be known as the only truly comprehensive solution on the market that can enable the sweeping digitization that organizations are striving towards? In this podcast, Adam Mansfield, shares his perspective on this positive earnings call and reads between the lines to reveal the compelling sales pitch that enterprises need to brace themselves for now as their Microsoft relationships continue to evolve. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX