Uppercut Podcasts By Upperedge

Workday offers three different tiers of Customer Success packages Though Workday doesn’t actively promote their packages, every Workday customer should at least be aware of them. Workday offers three different tiers of Customer Success packages (Silver, Gold, and Platinum) each with a different set of deployment and post go-live services. Erwann Couesbot, UpperEdge's Senior IT Sourcing Negotiation Advisor discusses their differences, tiering, why they are important and his recommendations. You can also get more in-depth information about this topic from Erwann's blog at UpperEdge.com Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2TTLjEO

The bulk of Oracle’s support renewals come up in late July and early August. If you're an Oracle customer, it's around this time that you may realize that you didn’t get the support you needed from Oracle yet your support fees continue to increase. One way to manufacture leverage for your Oracle support renewal is to consider third-party support. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Oracle Practice Leader, discusses 6 key considerations to keep in mind as you evaluate your third-party support options. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3lp6r0Q

ServiceNow eclipsed the $4B annual run rate for the first time after beating consensus and guidance. The company is so confident in their portfolio of cloud solutions (ITSM, ITBM, CSM, Sec Ops, HR Service Delivery, etc.) and the proven sales tactics and pipeline they have in place, that they raised growth and profitability guidance for the year. Expect ServiceNow to continue to push their current enterprise customers to expand their footprint and for new enterprise customers to start out with a larger footprint with more than three products. In this podcast, ServiceNow Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what enterprises should expect moving forward as ServiceNow looks to achieve their $10B revenue target. He also uncovers key insights enterprises can take advantage of in their upcoming negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

Microsoft is clearly confident their portfolio of cloud solutions (Microsoft 365, Teams, Power BI, Power Apps, Dynamics365, LinkedIn, Azure Active Directory, etc.) and proven sales tactics will continue to push more enterprises to expand their Microsoft footprint. Microsoft beat expectations for the quarter and passed $50B in annual Commercial Cloud revenue for the first time. They also mentioned successes such as a growth in commercial bookings, growth in Office 365 seats, increased Azure margins, and increased annual revenue per user (ARPU). In this podcast, Microsoft Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses what enterprises should expect from Microsoft's sales executives who have clearly defined goals. He also shares how customers could potentially take advantage of key insights from the earnings call in their upcoming negotiations and renewals. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Google Cloud just kicked off their 9-week digital event series and made some important announcements in the keynote. Enterprises in particular should be aware of the key announcements (such as the launch of BigQuery Omni, Confidential VMs and industry-specific solutions) that will likely impact them as Google Cloud continues to focus on building and selling products that address the needs of enterprises. In this podcast, Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how Google Cloud is ultimately looking to gain market share under the leadership of Robert Enslin and Thomas Kurian. He shares what he expects will be the focus of the messaging they will aggressively approach enterprises with and how Google Cloud will take Microsoft and Slack head on. He also covers what potential and current Google Cloud customers should strive for when establishing a relationship with Google Cloud in order to reap the most long-term value.

Erwann Couesbot, UpperEdge’s Oracle Senior Advisor discusses common mistakes customers make when trying to assess their licenses for Oracle Technology Products, and more specifically the NUP (Named User Plus) metric Oracle uses. The top mistake is users tend to refer to their entitlements vs. how many people and devices are accessing Oracles software. Oracle doesn’t limit clients to their entitlements, therefore it is very easy to become out of compliance. Listen now for a more in-depth analysis and go to UpperEdge.com to read his related blog. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3C8PnSR Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3ymHUNx

Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Workday Practice Leader gives a rundown of the top 6 things to do for Workday customers looking to expand their Workday product portfolio. Start with assessing your current deal, look at the competitiveness of your pricing and commercial terms, this will put you on good footing for negotiation leverage, especially if you have any existing pain-points or issues you’ve needed to address. Listen further for additional tips and read Jeff’s blog, “Workday Solution Expansion – 6 Customer Mistakes” for more insights. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ik7zB3 Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3yl8Ld0

Salesforce beat expectations with $4.87B in revenue for the quarter, which represented 30% year-over-year growth. Despite lowering their full year revenue target to $20B, a $1B reduction, the earnings call was filled with optimism. Salesforce is confident that its broad portfolio of products will enable them to lead the Fortune 500 through their accelerated digital transformations. In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses the commission guarantee Salesforce gave its sales representatives, what Salesforce is doing to help its customers in the economic downturn, and what this all means for enterprise customers. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Salesforce announced the appointment of Gavin Patterson as President and Chief Revenue Officer of Salesforce. After joining Salesforce last year and quickly rising within the company, he is now the new leader of Salesforce’s global sales organization. With former co-CEO, Keith Block, stepping down earlier this year, could CEO, Marc Benioff, have a plan in place to eventually move Patterson into the co-CEO role? In this podcast, Salesforce Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, shares his perspective on what this leadership change means for Salesforce and discusses how enterprises should prepare for Patterson’s time with their senior executives. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Workday has broken up their Full-Service Equivalent (FSE) workers into different categories: Salaried Workers, Hourly Workers, Part-time Workers and Contingent Workers. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Workday practice leader explains why it’s important to pay attention to how you categorize and breakdown your workforce based on this new structure; you can find flexibility and cost savings within it. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Workday Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ik7zB3 Related Blog: https://bit.ly/2WOUx6k

ServiceNow's recent earnings call showed a strong quarter and a confident Bill McDermott who emphasized the company's continued opportunity for growth in a post-COVID-19 world where companies will "embrace permanent transformation". In this podcast, Adam Mansfield, breaks down ServiceNow's "Fast-Start playbook" which features pre-packaged bundles they will be aggressively pushing onto companies. He also warns of the potential downsides of bundling and shares how enterprises can protect themselves from these pitfalls to better ensure long-term value. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt Related Blog: https://bit.ly/2WICJcV

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced their Q1 FY20 earnings which included an announcement that Google Cloud (GCP and G Suite) now has quarterly revenue of $2.78B, giving them a $11B run rate. Both GCP and G Suite continue to maintain strong growth that should not slow down any time soon based on the continued interest from enterprises. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield, shares his thoughts on what to expect from Google Cloud and how enterprises with interest in adopting should approach Google with their interest.

Microsoft outperformed expectations set even before the coronavirus pandemic and beat estimates on the top and bottom lines. Microsoft’s strong quarter was driven by the Commercial Cloud Business, which is largely driven by Azure and Office 365. Though both showed strong growth in Q3, it is important to note that growth for both is slowing down. In the earnings call, Executive VP and CFO, Amy Hood, stated that “Microsoft does well when our customers do well” but what do Microsoft customers need in order to do well? In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his thoughts on what that means and discusses how enterprises should approach Microsoft during these uncertain times. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Most organizations have shied away from reducing costs of their SAP platform during lean times, but that’s no longer the case considering the breadth and depth of the economic impact of Covid-19. Chip Hanna, UpperEdge’s SAP Practice Director discusses some opportunities around AMS and hosting that companies have to drive down costs. There are a few levers companies can use—commercial levers on existing agreements, operational levers on relationships with AMS and hosting providers, and competitive levers to drive cost negotiations. Host: Chip Hanna: https://bit.ly/37gknCk SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb Related Blog: https://bit.ly/37euUh0

ServiceNow beat guidance and consensus in Q1 FY20 with subscription revenue growing 34%, reaching $995M. ServiceNow’s success is largely tied to the significant growth in the number customers that have expanded their portfolios and are now paying over $1M per year. There has been increased adoption of key products including but not limited to ITSM Pro, HR Service Delivery, and CSM. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares what this impressive quarter means for enterprises and what enterprises interested in becoming a new ServiceNow customer (or adding new products) need to do to prepare for ServiceNow’s revamped sales playbook. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

The coronavirus pandemic has forced companies to seek financial relief in any way they can. Given the sizable spend tied to IT, many organizations start their cost reduction initiatives with a focus on cloud vendor spend. This is an opportunity for cloud vendors to lean into the relationship and provide win-win support. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares the most frequent requests he hears enterprise customers asking of their IT and cloud vendors.

With all the changes in the market, Oracle is poised to dominate, so long as they are willing to adapt, evolve and potentially trailblaze. Jeff Lazarto, UpperEdge’s Oracle’s Practice Leader, discusses a few of these steps Oracle can take, starting with consolidation of their cloud appications as one business. Bringing in a single, true applications leader, could inturn bring in the additional talent they need to develop applications similar to how Microsoft has done under the helm of Satya Nadella. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p Related Blog: https://bit.ly/3ijfPkH

As the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy, companies are understandably scrambling to reduce costs where they can. But prematurely engaging IT vendors without a well-thought-out plan can cause irreparable harm to your relationships - with both your internal stakeholders and your vendor partners. In this podcast, Practice Leader, Len Riley, shares the lessons he learned when he led cost optimization initiatives at CVS Health during the 2008 financial crisis and discusses the critical internal work that has to be done before engaging the vendor community. Understanding the priorities of internal stakeholders in times of a crisis is an essential step to take before engaging vendor partners. Len covers each of the internal stakeholders you should consider, his prospective on their priorities, and how to navigate these relationships to prepare successful cost-reduction strategies. Host: Len Riley: https://bit.ly/3fqLI99 IT Cost Optimization Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3fnRloI

Javier Soltero, the General Manager and VP of G Suite at Google, recently reported that Google now has 6 million paying business customers. In February of 2019, Google had 5 million paying users and 4 million the year before. Announcements like this further demonstrate the success Google is having in penetrating businesses and gaining adoption. Microsoft is also well aware of Google’s success and has been approaching their base of customers and doing whatever they can to keep Google out. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield, shares his perspective on what this all means for enterprises and what you should expect from Google and Microsoft moving forward.

On March 30th, Oracle announced that they are offering free online training and certification courses for Oracle cloud infrastructure and Oracle Autonomous database. Oracle doesn't often offer free resources of this nature but this comes in the midst of shelter-in-place orders and lockdowns around the globe. Oracle customers can take advantage of Oracle's free training now through May 15th. To learn more and start your free training, visit Oracle.com. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p