Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Aneel Bhusri: Well, let me just offer a high-level commentary. I spent a lot of time with other CEOs and this is not 2008, 2009. No one sees the world coming to an end like they did at that time. I think right now, we’re in a world of caution, where no one’s quite sure what’s going to happen, but things don’t feel really bad. And so — but caution and stopping can sometimes look the same. And so it’s kind of hard to predict right now. Every CEO I talked to is still relatively feeling positive about their business, but worried about the economic underpinnings of what the Fed is doing and the potential recession. And so, I think, the word that I keep coming back to is everybody is cautious. And I don’t know how that — Chano, how do you think that reflects in the pipeline in Q4 and other quarters, but it’s — this is not an end-of-the-world scenario, not at least yet, like 2008, 2009.

Chano Fernandez: Yes. Thank you, Alex, for your question. I would say, first, when it comes to HCM or FINS, we don’t see any significant difference between one or the other. So they’re proportionally impacted given the macro environment. When it comes to Q4, I would say we had the pipeline to execute on the quarter. Of course, that usually will not manifest as a prioritization because those projects have been already prioritized, but it may happen some lengthening of sales cycles as we said before, particularly on net new deals and opportunities that they’re more scrutinized on those, right? And Doug already commented on the growth pipeline for next year.

Alex Zukin: Perfect. And then, I guess, if I think about what you’re saying around net new and how well I think you’re doing on renewals and selling into the base specifically, is it fair to assume that in the near term, there could be a bit more bookings concentration coming from existing customers? And kind of how well — how important is that dynamic that informs some of your margin commentary for next year, given it should be a little bit easier, it should be a little bit more predictable to sell into the base?

Chano Fernandez: Yes, Alex, it is fair to assume that there will be more concentration on the customer base and areas like medium enterprise, as we said before. And then hence, we’ll put more focus on both marketing environments and sales go-to-market environment into those areas, of course, that will potentially provide higher yield on these times.

Alex Zukin: Perfect. Congrats, guys. Thanks, again.

Operator: Our next question is from DJ Hynes with Canaccord. Please proceed with your question.

DJ Hynes: Hi, thanks guys. Maybe building off Alex’s last question there. I mean there’s lots of interesting partner commentary in the script. I’m curious about the level of collaboration you have with partners on what they’re working on with Extend or an industry accelerators. And assuming you have visibility there, maybe you could talk a bit about like where you draw the line on what Workday might own or build directly versus what you let go to partners?

Aneel Bhusri: Pete, do you want to talk about the product side first? And then Chano can talk about the partner side.

Pete Schlampp: Sure. Thanks again for that question. As you heard us talk about the momentum with Extend that we’ve seen recently has been great. We talked about that a lot, both in Stockholm and in Orlando at our user conferences this year, now over 750 applications in production. When it comes to where that momentum is coming from, it is customers and it is partners as well. Partners are beginning to build on the Extend platform and Extend Workday applications as well as build net new applications that connect with HCM and financials. So far, the — our customers have been getting value through both of those. The question of where do we draw the line between what is ours and what is our partners, I’ll hand over to Chano.