Uppercut Podcasts By Upperedge

Microsoft had another strong quarter with overall revenue growing 14%. Its Q1 FY20 earnings call made it clear that Microsoft is going to rely on their ability to infuse innovation (like AI) into its offerings to differentiate themselves, increase customer spend, and win more business. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his perspective on how Microsoft is performing and discusses what to expect from Microsoft as they continue to push more enterprises towards Microsoft 365 and Azure. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Less than a month after his departure from SAP, it was announced that Bill McDermott will join ServiceNow by year-end 2019 as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. He is replacing John Donahoe who is leaving to become Nike’s new CEO. McDermott will now have the chance to lead a cloud-only software company where he will bring not only his years of industry experience but also a large rolodex of connections he has made within enterprises – a space that ServiceNow is trying to penetrate and expand within. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield discusses what this means for ServiceNow and what to expect if you are current ServiceNow customer or considering ServiceNow. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

It’s always important to pay attention to how a vendor within your portfolio is performing and what is said in their earnings call but this is especially true when there is a CEO change as significant as the one that just happened at ServiceNow. Q3 FY19 is the first earnings call since the shocking announcement that CEO John Donahoe is being replaced by former SAP CEO, Bill McDermott. Their comments in the call sheds light on how the company and its focus will change with McDermott at the helm. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield shares his thoughts on how ServiceNow is performing and what current ServiceNow customers should expect going forward. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

Outsourcing your Infrastructure Managed Services comes with its own sets of risks. Poor planning and preparation creates undue risks that could have been mitigated upfront. In this podcast, IT Sourcing & Commercial Advisory Practice Director, Greg Hall, shares five common risks that can derail your efforts, break your business case, and start you off on the wrong foot with your chosen provider. He also walks through each one and discusses what you can do to mitigate these risks to position yourself for success. Host: Greg Hall: https://bit.ly/3CcaELp IT Services Sourcing and Negotiation Support: https://bit.ly/3A5Hcov

There has been much confusion and anxiety around Java use this past year and many organizations are still not sure whether they are required to purchase a commercial license. Concerned about the potential financial exposure that could be tied to Java use in the event of an Oracle audit, many readers and clients sent us questions and comments in response to Senior Advisor, Erwann Couesbot’s blog, The Top 3 Reasons Oracle Java Users are Unknowingly Out-of-Compliance. In this special interview-style podcast, UpperEdge’s Marketing Manager asks Erwann some of the most common questions we received including the top question: “How can I ensure my organization is in compliance with regards to our Java use?”. Host: Erwann Couesbot: https://bit.ly/2WIKJdX Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3C8PnSR

This podcast is part of our Head in the Clouds series which covers the latest cloud computing news from the perspective of someone who helps enterprises improve their cloud vendor contractual relationships. This week, Adam shares his thoughts on Facebook’s unification of Workplace and Portal to further expand its current customer base of 3 Million paying Workplace users and increase adoption among enterprises. He also discusses how Zendesk continues to roll out new products aimed at landing more enterprise customers by giving them products that they may actually need. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r

The US Department of Interior is moving over 84,000 users back to Office 365 after its previous decision to go with Google despite the many challenges that come with such a massive change. Needless to say, this is clearly a significant loss for Google Cloud as they strive to ramp adoption of G Suite within the government and large enterprises. The optics associated with the government’s decision to move such a large number of users back to Microsoft’s Office 365 will be problematic for Google Cloud unless they can successfully get out in front of it. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield discusses what this all means for Google Cloud and how enterprises considering a possible move from Office 365 to G Suite can avoid facing an undesirable situation like this one. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r

This podcast is part of our Head in the Clouds series which covers the latest cloud computing news from the perspective of someone who helps enterprises improve their cloud vendor contractual relationships. This week, Adam shares his thoughts on Zendesk’s recent moves to land more enterprise customers. He also discusses how Google Cloud restructured its sales organization to better position themselves to grab enterprise market share. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r

This podcast is part of our Head in the Clouds series which covers the latest cloud computing news from the perspective of someone who helps enterprises improve their cloud vendor contractual relationships. This week, Adam shares his thoughts on Slack’s recently released Q2 FY20 earnings – the company’s first earnings since going public. He also discusses Google Cloud’s efforts to land even more enterprise customers by expanding alliances in the partner ecosystem through its recent hiring of SAP veteran, Dave Hutchison, which has not yet been publicly announced. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r

This podcast is part of our Head in the Clouds series which covers the latest cloud computing news from the perspective of someone who helps enterprises improve their cloud vendor contractual relationships. This week, Adam shares his perspective and insights regarding Salesforce’s recently released Q2 FY20 earnings as well as Google Cloud’s announcement aimed at making G Suite and Hangouts more “sticky”. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r

Salesforce had another strong quarter and raised FY20 revenue guidance, indicating that they expect even better quarters ahead. Knowing that their customers are focused on digital transformations, Salesforce is aggressively pushing the Customer 360 Platform as the solution that will enable their success. In this podcast, Adam Mansfield discusses the recent acquisitions that are starting to pay off and the actions Salesforce is taking to continue to grow revenue. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

On the heels of the MapAnything acquisition back in April, Salesforce is buying ClickSoftware, a field service and workflow management software company for $1.35B. Salesforce continues to focus on building out its field service offerings realizing that this space is where its competitors, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have increased their own investments. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, recently reported Q2 FY19 earnings and shared a very interesting bit of information; Google Cloud’s annual run rate is now $8B. The last and only time Alphabet shared Google Cloud’s annual run rate was in February of 2018 when it was $4B. In this podcast, Practice Leader, Adam Mansfield, discusses how they achieved this impressive growth in such a short period of time and covers what enterprise customers should know (and expect) if they are considering Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or contemplating a move from Microsoft Office 365 to Google G Suite.

As many SAP customers begin their ECC to S/4HANA migration journey, we’re noticing many organizations focusing too heavily on some elements of their sourcing strategy and not enough on others. In this podcast, SAP Practice Leader, Len Riley, discusses the four key elements of the sourcing strategy that you must contemplate with your team in order to establish a holistic and integrated sourcing strategy that will enable your ECC to S/4HANA transition. He also describes the three major challenges we often see with software, system implementation, hosting and application maintenance and support vendor evaluations and negotiations that are often overlooked and critical to enabling your successful migration from ECC to S/4HANA. Host: Len Riley: https://bit.ly/3fqLI99 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

SAP ECC to S/4HANA migrations are complex projects that come with many challenges but they also represent opportunities for customers to improve their previous licensing agreements. However, this complex undertaking requires significant planning since SAP’s motivations for S/4HANA migrations directly conflict with the motivations of its customers. In this podcast, SAP Practice Leader, Len Riley discusses what SAP’s motivations are, how they differ than their customers’ motivations, and the two key questions customers must answer before they even begin the negotiation process. Host: Len Riley: https://bit.ly/3fqLI99 SAP Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3yjImwb

ServiceNow beat market expectations with another strong quarter. Their positive results support the underlying message of their recent rebranding and change in marketing and sales approach – ServiceNow is no longer just a tool for IT. In this podcast, Analyst Bearson Smith, discusses some key highlights from the earnings call, what ServiceNow’s shift in focus is really about, and how customers can ensure they are getting more than just the right price. Host: Bearson Smith: https://bit.ly/2TW2LZk ServiceNow Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3ls6VDt

If you are a Salesforce customer, you may not be aware that Salesforce recently removed their standard renewal price protection from their Master Subscription Agreement. Besides the fact that customers are now completely exposed and Salesforce has increased leverage at renewal, this also gives us a glimpse into the strategies and approaches being developed behind the scenes at Salesforce as they look for ways to increase spend and adoption from their customer base. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r SalesForce Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/37hFkMV

Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business organization, kicked off Microsoft Inspire 2019 with a promise that all solution areas will get better in FY20. Specific to Microsoft Teams, he said, customers are going to see more collaborative capabilities and AI capabilities. A focus on innovating Teams and adding capabilities makes perfect sense as Microsoft is aggressively trying to ramp usage in order to keep competitors like Slack out of their customers’ ecosystems. Host: Adam Mansfield: https://bit.ly/3rPGp8r Microsoft Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/2V78ADX

Oracle shared some interesting facts in its Q4 earnings call that uncover the latest tactics its using to expand product adoption, forecast Autonomous Database growth, and seed its customer base. In this podcast, Practice Leader, Jeff Lazarto discusses some concerns with the numbers being reported and what potential and current Oracle customers should expect and prepare for when considering Autonomous Database. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p

In its recent Q4 earnings call, Oracle focused on the security features of both Generation 2 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI2) and the Autonomous Database. In today’s world of data breaches routinely making headlines and the resulting fall from grace of company CEOs, Oracle’s sales pitch is ultimately about providing high-level security that ultimately saves the CEO. In this podcast, Oracle Practice Leader Jeff Lazarto, discusses what Oracle is claiming about OCI2 and Autonomous Database and what this means for current and potential customers. Host: Jeff Lazarto: https://bit.ly/37eCXdN Oracle Commercial Advisory Services: https://bit.ly/3jdtF7p