Uppercut Podcasts By Upperedge

Another strong quarter for Salesforce that included beating revenue expectations, 25% year-over-year total revenue growth, significant revenue growth across all clouds and raised full year guidance. Salesforce’s focus is clearly on providing its customers the best solution to drive digital transformation. Expect an aggressive sales organization selling Salesforce’s ability to provide the best solution for your organization to obtain the critical and coveted 360 degree customer view.

Due to the complexity at hand, Microsoft licensing changes typically fly under the radar. Microsoft’s aggressive sales tactics and increased focus on Azure are cause for more scrutiny. Listen to see how Microsoft’s May 2018 change is affecting the way that you pay for Azure services.

When planning for your upcoming Salesforce renewal, you need to understand the conditions that negate and remove the renewal term price protection found in Salesforce’s standard Master Subscription Agreement.

As you approach your negotiation with ServiceNow, whether you are a net-new customer or coming up to your renewal, it is important to understand the things that matter most to them. Knowing this and how to most effectively use it, will help increase your leverage and ensure you not only pay the right price but have the proper level of flexibility and downstream price protections in place.

Microsoft continues to aggressively push customers into the cloud. Microsoft is approaching their base of customers that have already adopted Office 365 with renewal proposals that include enticing offers to get them to jump into their cloud bundle Microsoft 365, which includes Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security . They do this even when a business case for Enterprise Mobility + Security (1/3 of the bundle) has yet to be made. Don’t let the offered “special” upfront discount alone get you or your organization to jump, too often there are serious consequences in doing so.

SAP recently announced completion of “an over year-long journey of collaboration with user groups, customers, industry analysts and other stakeholders, to develop a first of its kind outcome-based pricing model for Indirect Access. Len Riley breaks down what this means for SAP customers.

Microsoft’s impressive revenue growth has been fueled by increased cloud adoption. Microsoft understands that future revenue growth will continue to be driven by their ability to convince their customers to migrate to the cloud while adding more cloud solutions to their portfolio. Microsoft will continue to push their cloud solutions as necessities for organizations hoping to achieve their digital transformation objectives.

ServiceNow’s Q1 subscription revenue grew and impressive 40% year-over-year reaching $543M. ServiceNow is focused on becoming a trusted strategic technology partner for their customers. They are no longer interested in selling just their core product, IT Service Management (ITSM) to get in the door. ServiceNow wants multiple product adoption including other IT products like ITOM and perhaps more importantly emerging products like Customer Service Management (CSM).

This webinar will explore: • Fundamental differences in contracting agile vs more traditional waterfall programs • 18 structural risks of agile at scale projects • How to use the contract to transfer and mitigate Agile at scale risks • Useful measures of vendor performance and accountability for Agile at scale programs • Basics of incentive structures of Agile at scale contracts • Useful measures of vendor performance and accountability for Agile at scale programs • Basics of incentive structures of Agile at scale contracts

Other revenues for Google, which includes Google Cloud, were $4.4B -- up 36% year-over year. Impressive revenue growth was driven by Google's ability to sign significantly larger and more strategic deals for Cloud within the quarter. G-Suite revenue growth acceleration is attributed to Google's perceived ability to now serve all the needs of a large enterprise. Expect Google to aggressively attempt to displace Microsoft customers, especially those that are just now considering adopting Office 365.

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