Insights for IT Negotiations

Looking at the current state of the market (cloud and on-premise) as well as the changes and announcements that Microsoft has made in the past helps us understand what the future could hold for the tech giant. Having a sense for what Microsoft is going to be focused on and the changes and behavior that comes with this, allows enterprises to better manage their strategic relationship with moving forward. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his predictions for what we can expect from Microsoft in 2020 and ultimately what enterprise customers should start to prepare for now. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

When talking with enterprises about their strategic vendor relationships, we always consider what we have seen from the vendor in the past and what we are currently seeing in the market. But around this time of year, many conversations inevitably lead to what can be expected in the year ahead. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his predictions for what we can expect from Salesforce in 2020 and ultimately what enterprise customers should start to prepare for. If his predictions prove correct, one of them will result in significant changes for more than just Salesforce customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Erwann Couesbot, UpperEdge's Oracle Practice Advisor and Java Expert, discusses the 2 main license agreements covering different versions of Java. This podcast highlights some of the key differences organizations have to consider to ensure that their Java usage is not out of compliance. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3C8PnSR

Erwann Couesbot, UpperEdge's Workday expert discusses using Workday as a System Implementation partner over other Large SIs like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM etc. There are 3 common pricing models most SIs offer which you should be sure to ask Workday about if you choose them as your SI partner. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2TTLjEO

Application Management Support (AMS) providers aren’t winning or preserving AMS awards based on rate arbitrage alone. In this podcast IT Sourcing & Commercial Advisory Practice Director, Greg Hall, explains how CIO’s, CTO’s, and infrastructure leaders want more from their AMS delivery providers.

When it comes to the cloud, the thing Microsoft wants even more than revenue growth is accelerated usage of their cloud offerings (Office 365, Microsoft 365, Teams, etc.) by their enterprise customers. Microsoft is now looking to the open-source community as well as the consumer market to help drive enterprises to increase their cloud usage. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his perspective on Microsoft’s recent announcements and how each is ultimately intended to achieve Microsoft’s goal of ramping enterprise cloud usage. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Greg Hall, UpperEdge's IT Sourcing Advisor discusses how to maintain and control a fixed price outsourcing agreement and how to manage change with the introduction of Deadband, ARC and RRC metrics.

Erwann Couesbot UpperEdge's AWS Practice Advisor discusses AWS's Enterprise Discount Program and his take on the top 3 commercial terms any potential AWS enterprise customer should negotiate when considering this program.

Workday’s numbers are outstanding with 26% YoY growth, 28% subscription growth. Their execution and strategy are working well, they are seeing growth in HCM, Finance, Planning and Analytics products by adding six F500 customers and eleven Global 2000 customers. Customer satisfaction rate is over 97%, their customer base is over 3,000 and they’ve added over 400 employees. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Workday Practice leader delves into more of Workday’s promising financials in this podcast. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3fq96DV

Salesforce beat Wall Street revenue and earnings estimates, posted 33% overall revenue growth for the quarter and had a net loss of $109M while maintaining previously raised full year guidance. During the earnings call, Chairman and Co-CEO, Marc Benioff also restated the lofty $35B revenue target for FY24. It is clear that in order to effectively double their revenue in five years, they will need to get more customers to buy into and adopt the Customer 360 (now Customer 360 Trust) which will include an expansion of the customer’s Salesforce portfolio. They are counting on this as well as getting ramped adoption and revenue from recently acquired MuleSoft and Tableau. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his perspective on how Salesforce is going to achieve these goals and discusses what Salesforce’s loyal customer base needs to start preparing for.