Insights for IT Negotiations

Has your organization accepted the standard uptime SLA and SLA credit structure found within your cloud vendor's master subscription agreement? An uptime SLA is of little value if it does not come with a meaningful credit or penalty structure. Most cloud vendor's standard penalty structures are not sufficient, let alone meaningful.

Too many enterprises are making the decision to adopt a particular software because they got a “special” discounted price from the software vendor. Not only is the discounted price typically not the best the software vendor could do, often the final deal is missing many other critical terms and protections.

Salesforce can be tough as nails when it comes to their contract negotiations. As part of their goal to reach $20 billion in revenue by 2022, Salesforce is unrelenting and tends to dictate terms rather than concede to their customer’s needs. If this sounds bleak, one thing to remember is that Salesforce makes the rules, and thus has the ability to bend them. Knowing what they are willing to bend, and by how much, is critical to your negotiation.

Mainstream support for SAP’s ECC platform is set to expire in 2025, driving companies to make the conversion to SAP S/4 HANA. This webcast will provide valuable insights on the following: • SAP's 2020 Ambitions • Defining The S/4 HANA Journey • Next Generation SAP Agreement • Recommended Path Forward

Though you often hear about how customers benefit from switching to Cloud services, the incentives that drive companies like Oracle into becoming a Cloud service provider (CSP) aren't as well known. So, why has the Cloud become a priority for Oracle? What's in it for them? What are the implications for customers?

Salesforce released their Q4 and Full Year earnings on February 28th. They eclipsed the $10B annual run rate milestone. Their success is tied to the strategic relationships they are forming with customers focused on digital transformation. They now have more customers with larger and longer term contracts that include multiple cloud solutions. Salesforce has their sights set on becoming a $20B company and they will be relying on their customer base to get them there.

This podcast will provide valuable insights, including: • Outlining how to effectively prepare for your Microsoft renewal • Providing actionable strategies to increase your leverage with Microsoft • Techniques to counter Microsoft’s sales tactics come renewal time

With Oracle's fiscal year-end coming up on May 31st, it's the perfect time to go over this checklist so you are prepared when Oracle's sales team approaches your organization. Jeff Lazarto highlights a few items in this podcast which is covered in-depth in his blog on this topic.

Microsoft’s overall revenue grew 12% year over year reaching $28.9B. Microsoft’s growth was primarily driven by Microsoft’s success in the cloud. Most specifically, Office 365 commercial revenue grew an impressive 41% and Azure revenue grew an astronomical 98%. Microsoft knows that future success will be tied directly to their ability to expand the average revenue per user (ARPU) through migrating more enterprises to the most robust cloud offerings (i.e. Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5). All enterprises need to prepare appropriately.

ServiceNow is No Longer Just a Tool for IT – Why This Matters by UpperEdge