Insights for IT Negotiations

Microsoft had another stellar quarter, beating expectations and posting double digit growth, both for top and bottom line. These impressive financial results were directly tied to the continued strength of their cloud business. Commercial Cloud revenue grew 41% with Office 365 commercial revenue up 30% as a result of continued install base expansion and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth. Azure revenue also grew 73%, driven by strong growth in Microsoft’s consumption-based business. As they work to continue down this path of success, expect Microsoft to aggressively push for more Office 365 adoptions and for more workloads to be placed on Microsoft’s cloud. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

After 27 years at SAP, Robert Enslin resigned from his position as President of the Cloud Business Group. In this podcast, UpperEdge’s SAP Practice Leader, Len Riley, discusses how SAP is restructuring its leadership responsibilities, the challenges SAP will face from these changes, and how customers will be impacted. Host: Len Riley: https://bit.ly/3fqLI99 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

Oracle has been struggling to meet Wallstreet’s expectations for cloud revenue. To motivate their on-premise customers to migrate to the cloud, they have offered two key cloud incentive programs: Universal Cloud Credits and Bring Your Own License (BYOL). In this podcast, Erwann Couesbot discusses what customers need to know about these programs, including the key benefits of both and potential downsides you need to keep in mind. For more on this subject, see our recent blog: Oracle’s Cloud Incentive Programs: Sweet Nothings? Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3C8PnSR

Some things we’re seeing from Oracle coming out of their Q3 earning are similar to what we saw with IBM a few years back. Their revenue is flat or slightly declining (like IBM’s was) but their earnings per share are growing, just like IBM’s had—the main reason for this? Stock repurchasing program, like IBM had done, Oracle is doing the same now, Oracle just spent in Q3 alone $10B to buy back 206M shares, and in the past 12 months they have bought back 728M shares, resulting in an overall reduction of 16% of all outstanding shares. The similarities of their financial moves go on, listen to this podcast and read the accompanying blog for further insights. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p

Best Practice Metrics for Tower-based I&O Services When going to market to secure proposals for Infrastructure and Outsourcing (I&O) services, the responses you receive can be overwhelmingly complex and can challenge your ability to do a true apples-to-apples comparison. This 5-part series takes you through the steps you should take to ensure your responses are not only normalized but aligned in a manner so you can operationalize your agreement(s), once finalized.

How CIO’s can ensure they maintain control of their sole source negotiations: Make no mistake, your SI’s plan to secure a sole source award for your Implementation is set in motion from the moment they land resources to begin the strategy phase of your transformation initiative. There are several key tactics SIs will employ to lay the foundation to obtain a sole source implementation award.

Workday's performance in Q4 2019 has been going very well. Workday's subscription revenue was up 33% YoY, they are forecasting more than 27% growth next year and their customer satisfaction rating is at 98%. How are they going about doing this? Their focus has been on HCM, which is the hallmark of their product base and continues to show value to their clients. Once this value is realized, Workday can then introduce clients to an ever growing product portfolio. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3fq96DV

In this podcast, Adam Mansfield provides a recap of Salesforce’s Q4 and full year Fiscal 2019 earnings call. Once again, Salesforce posted impressive revenue growth across all of their clouds. They also raised their FY 2020 guidance and announced they are now targeting FY 2023 revenue of $26B-$28B. If they were to achieve this, they would essentially organically double their revenue in the next 4 years. Salesforce’s confidence in reaching this ambitious goal comes from the trusted partnerships they established with CEOs and the vast array of offerings they have to drive value and digital transformation success for them and their businesses. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Erwann Couesbot discusses some of the main commercial hurdles when it comes to Workday negotiations. Similarities exist when negotiating with major ERP companies, but there are some important differences when negotiating with Workday. They are not a full ERP provider yet, but with M&A they are moving up fast to compete with the likes of SAP and Oracle. This podcasts discusses important commercial terms you need to consider for your next negotiation with Workday. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2TTLjEO

Mergers and acquisitions are opportunities for SAP to push S/4HANA onto clients. During an M&A there is an optimistic air to discuss synergies, efficiencies and future benefits. But SAP at this time is thinking about big acquisition budgets, revenue opportunity and the possibility to audit either or both companies. SAP will take this time to win in the short term as as well as the long term for future sustainable revenue. Chip Hanna discusses 3 M&A situations to prepare for as SAP will look to expand its S/4HANA adoption onto its clients during this time of exposure. Host: Chip Hanna: https://bit.ly/37gknCk SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb