Insights for IT Negotiations

Oracle reported a great quarter, with their stock price up over 13%. A significant amount of their growth this quarter was cloud related, with their cloud revenue up over 23%. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) revenue was also up 53%. Going forward, Oracle forecasts a tremendous amount of increase, including OCI growth at over 50% and total revenue growth at a double-digit rate. In this podcast, our Oracle Practice Leader, Jeff Lazarto, highlights some key growth opportunities for Oracle, including AI and cloud opportunities. He also breaks down how Oracle customers can use the vendor’s clear goals as leverage in their upcoming negotiations. For a more in depth discussion on how to evaluate and negotiate OCI, register for next week’s webinar here > https://upperedge.com/knowledge-center/webinars/event/unraveling-oracles-oci-and-universal-credit-model/ Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p

Workday reported a strong quarter, with their revenue up 17% from the prior quarter and 18% year-over-year. However, this revenue is still down from the 20% growth they were experiencing in prior years. As a result, they have lowered their projection numbers for the remainder of the year. Workday is citing scrutiny on how money is being allocated for net new deals, something we are seeing happening across all software vendors. Customers are weary to take on larger transformation project and larger investments, especially when there is a lot of uncertainty in the market. Headcount growth was also cited as a reason for their lowered projection numbers. In this podcast, Workday Practice Leader Jeff Lazarto gives a high-level overview of the recent earnings results. He also maps out what to expect from Workday in the coming quarters as they try to accelerate revenue growth, especially for those clients in the public services, healthcare, and financial services industries. Lastly, he covers how customers can prepare for their upcoming Workday negotiations and renewals given this information. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3A6KOXt

Salesforce’s Q1 FY25 total revenue came in at $9.13B, representing an 11% growth year-over-year. This was on the lower end of their guided range and came up short of the analyst expected $9.17B. Salesforce now expects their FY25 subscription and support revenue growth to come in slightly below 10% (Salesforce’s better way of saying single digit). Elongated deal cycles, deal compression, and high levels of budget scrutiny have been cited as the driving factors to the slowed growth. It is clear from the earnings call that Salesforce, and the Salesforce account executives, need to turn things around; your Saleforce reps will be focused on getting customers to adopt Data Cloud and their GenAI offering, Einstein Copilot. They will also be leaning on price and packaging changes to drive revenue growth as well. In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what Salesforce’s earnings mean for customers and what customers should expect from Salesforce as they push through their upcoming negotiations, whether in term or at renewal. In addition, Adam provides his perspective on how best to prepare for Salesforce’s aggressive push to upsell and cross sell their current customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Microsoft announced their FY24 Q3 earnings yesterday. Total revenue was reported as $61.9B, better than the $60.9B analysts were expecting. The critically important Microsoft Cloud revenue, which includes Azure, O365 Commercial, LinkedIn, Dynamics 365 and other cloud products, came in at $35.1B, representing a 23% increase year-over-year. Microsoft’s Azure revenue grew 31% in the quarter, which is an acceleration from the prior quarter with 7 points coming from Microsoft’s AI services. Microsoft’s go-forward success and revenue growth will continue to be directly tied to Microsoft’s ability to get more customers to adopt cloud products, AI solutions (Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot for Sales, Copilot for Service, GitHub Copilot, and Azure OpenAI) and migrate to the costly all-in Microsoft 365 E5 suite. In this podcast, our Microsoft Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how customers can take advantage of Microsoft’s needs and focus areas to ensure the right deal is struck at the negotiation table. He also covers what enterprise customers should expect from Microsoft as they prepare for their in-term (“early renewal”) or renewal negotiations. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

ServiceNow’s Q1 FY24 subscription revenue came in at $2.523B, representing 25% growth year-over-year while also beating guidance and analyst expectations. ServiceNow also slightly raised their full year FY24 subscription revenue guidance, now expecting somewhere between $10.56B and $10.575B, which would represent 21.5 to 22% growth. In this podcast, ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what customers should expect from ServiceNow over the course of the upcoming year as ServiceNow does everything it can to accelerate their GenAI product adoption (specifically ramping upgrades and adoption of “Pro Plus”) while also continuing to upsell and cross sell their current customers and adding net new logos. He also shares how customers can leverage ServiceNow’s clear goals during their upcoming ServiceNow negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

Oracle’s Q3 2024 earnings call was released earlier this week, and it should come as no surprise that they continue to be laser-focused on the cloud. If you’re an existing or prospective Oracle customer, you can benefit from Oracle’s priorities in your upcoming negotiations. In this podcast, Oracle Practice Manager Shane Griffin gives a high-level overview of the recent earnings results and covers how customers can prepare for their upcoming Oracle negotiations and renewals given this information. Host: Shane Griffin: https://bit.ly/43ADl2V Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p

Workday's FY24 revenue saw an impressive increase, with total revenue reaching $1.90 billion and marking a 17% year-over-year growth. This growth was slightly ahead of Workday’s target and supported by an increase in net-new customers, ongoing focus on the healthcare sector and early renewals. In this podcast, Workday Practice Manager Erwann Couesbot gives a high-level overview of the recent earnings results. He also maps out what to expect from Workday in the coming year as they continue to accelerate growth internally and in the healthcare, higher education, and government sectors. Lastly, he covers how customers can prepare for their upcoming Workday negotiations and renewals given this information. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2TTLjEO

Salesforce’s FY24 total revenue came in at $34.9B, representing an 11% growth year-over-year. However, this did come in much lower than the 18% growth posted in FY23. Salesforce’s FY25 guidance also represents a continued decline in growth, as the midpoint of Salesforce’s forecasted revenue would represent roughly 8.6% growth. It is clear from the earnings call that Salesforce, and the Salesforce account executives, will be focused on getting customers to adopt both Data Cloud and the newly released Einstein Copilot. Salesforce will be pushing Einstein Copilot either as an add-on to the current Sales Cloud and/or Service Cloud subscriptions or an upgrade to the most robust and expensive “Einstein 1” edition (formerly “Unlimited Plus”). An “Einstein 1” adoption or upgrade also inevitably comes with Data Cloud adoption. In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what Salesforce’s earnings mean for customers and what customers should expect from Salesforce as they push through their upcoming negotiations, whether in term or at renewal. In addition, Adam provides his perspective on how best to prepare for Salesforce’s aggressive push to upsell and cross sell their current customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Microsoft announced their FY24 Q2 earnings yesterday. Total revenue was reported as $62B, better than the $61.1B analysts were expecting. The critically important Microsoft Cloud revenue, which includes Azure, O365 Commercial, LinkedIn, Dynamics 365 and other cloud product, came in at $33.7B, representing a 24% increase year-over-year. Microsoft’s go-forward success and revenue growth will continue to be directly tied to Microsoft’s ability get more customers to adopt cloud products, adopt AI solutions (Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot for Sales, Copilot for Service, GitHub Copilot, and Azure OpenAI) and migrate to the costly all-in Microsoft 365 E5 suite. In this podcast, our Microsoft Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how enterprise customers can take advantage of Microsoft’s needs and focus areas to ensure the right deal is struck at the negotiation table. He also covers what enterprise customers should expect from Microsoft as they prepare for their renewal negotiations. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

ServiceNow’s Q4 subscription revenue came in at $2.37B, representing 27% growth year-over-year while also beating guidance and analyst expectations. ServiceNow also raised their full year FY24 subscription revenue guidance by $165M, now expecting somewhere between $10.56B and $10.58B, which would represent 21.5 to 22% growth. In this podcast, ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what customers should expect from ServiceNow over the course of the upcoming year as ServiceNow does everything it can to accelerate their Gen AI product adoption (specifically their “Pro Plus” SKU), while also continuing to upsell and cross sell their current customers and adding net new logos. He also shares how customers can leverage ServiceNow’s clear goals during their upcoming ServiceNow negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt