Insights for IT Negotiations

NRF, the world’s largest retail conference, is coming up January 13-15. We fully expect Salesforce to spend a significant amount of time at the conference discussing new products and solutions. While it is good to gain an understanding of what is new and what is coming, it is also important to use this time to ask the right questions of Salesforce. Doing so can help set up your renewal negotiations and ultimately lead to getting more value from your Salesforce relationship. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Salesforce had another stellar quarter, beating analysts’ expectations in its third-quarter earnings last night. Revenue is up 26% y-o-y and the Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO) is now at $21.2B, up 34%. The company raised FY 2019 guidance and expects 2020 revenue to reach $16B, expecting continued growth in cloud computing sales. Marc Benioff has even higher expectations for Q4, putting some pressure on co-CEO Keith Block. The strategic acquisition of Mulesoft, which was finalized in May, is already showing success with its ability to unlock data from legacy systems and accelerate digital transformation – a current focus for C-suite executives. Mulesoft helps power Customer 360, Salesforce’s multiconnected cloud product which combines Sales, Service, Einstein AI, and analytics into a single platform. This offering a competitive advantage for Salesforce which they will continue to push in order to increase product adoption. In this podcast, our Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield covers what these Q3 results mean for customers and how they should approach their Salesforce relationship moving forward.

In September, Thomas Kurian took a leave of absence from Oracle after 22 years at the company. Just two months later, he joined Google as the head of cloud computing, heightening underlying tensions between the two companies that have been in an ongoing legal battle for the past 8 years. At Oracle, Kurian led cloud transition efforts but he and Larry Ellison reportedly had differences with respect to Oracle's Cloud vision. Ellison believed in a closed system while Kurian wanted to open up their cloud solutions and allow them to run on AWS, Google, etc. UpperEdge’s Oracle Practice Leader, Jeff Lazarto, discusses his first impressions and what he’ll be paying attention as this plays out.

Many organizations are enticed to move to Microsoft Office 365 or even Microsoft 365 by the belief that their cost profile would decrease and that their pricing would come with special one-time discounting. Too often, organizations later discover after closer examination that the discounting not only wasn’t special but it didn’t come with the proper downstream price protections. This is one reason too many Microsoft customers are faced with significant and unexpected price increases come renewal time. Before moving to one of Microsoft’s cloud products, it is critical you assess the true competitiveness of your discounting and ensure you have the proper price protections in place.

The sourcing and selection of your IT Services partner often spans over several months and requires significant time and effort from your cross-functional teams. Closing your services contract on time while preserving the complete integrity of your negotiated commercial construct requires a plan. You must maintain momentum throughout the process and execute an approach that helps mitigate the risks of unforeseen hurdles in a low-leverage environment.

Despite the upbeat and high-fiving tone of SAP’s Q3 2018 earnings call, analysts were not enthusiastic about SAP’s latest results. Although SAP reported 41% growth...

Microsoft had another strong quarter with earnings and revenue beating expectations. Commercial Cloud revenue is up 47% driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 36%, Dynamics 365 grew 51% and Azure revenue is up 76%. Current and potential customers should expect Microsoft to continue to aggressively push adoption of their strategic cloud bundle, Microsoft 365, which includes Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility and Security. It is critical that all organizations ensure they have the proper downstream protections and the appropriate level of flexibility in place as Microsoft will look to increase revenue per user over time.

ServiceNow had another strong quarter. Subscription revenue was up an impressive 39% with 25 net new deals with over $1M in annual contract value. With the goal of landing more net new customers and upselling their current base, ServiceNow has changed their go-to-market approach. They now describe their product portfolio as the Now Platform and three (3) workflow clouds (IT, Employee Experience and Customer Service). ServiceNow will continue to rely heavily on their established CIO relationships and partner ecosystem to sell more ServiceNow products while also ramping up both their company and product brand awareness.

After attending Oracle OpenWorld sessions focused on Universal Credits and Bring Your Own License (BYOL), Oracle Practice Leader, Jeff Lazarto, shares what customers should know about these pricing options. Those considering these options should proceed with caution and take steps to ensure they are making the best choice for their organization before making a commitment.

Larry Ellison made some bold statements in his opening keynote at this year's OpenWorld conference. Oracle redid its entire cloud infrastructure and claims that this second generation cloud offering is very different and better than anything else out there. Ellison then spent a significant amount of time taking aim at Amazon's AWS. Listen to Oracle practice leader, Jeff Lazarto's quick recap for more opening keynote highlights.