Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kash Rangan: Thank you so much. Congratulations, Aneel, Carl and Barbara. Carl, the question is targeted for you since I get only one or maybe 1.5. One is, as you speak with customers, what are the key themes that are emerging from your conversations with respect to how they’re prioritizing investments in software, in particular, Workday, given inflation worries, rate worries, et cetera? And also everybody is conscious of the risk of a recession. I think our models are all increasingly building that. But since you’ve been through multiple cycles before in your very long career, as Aneel mentioned, what are the signs you’re looking for in terms of a recovery, although it might be a little foolhardy to entertain the hopes of a recovery? But what are the things that could that you could be looking at that could increase your conviction that we go from high teens to 20-plus percent when environment gets better? Thank you so much.

Carl Eschenbach: Yes. Thanks. I’ll start off, and then I’ll turn it over to our Co-President, Doug, who’s joining us on the call here today. So first, Kash, I’d say, companies continue to prioritize both HCM and in their financials in driving a digital transformation. Everyone is looking to get more value out of both their people and their financial systems, and I think we’re at the core of that. So while it is true, customers are reprioritizing where they’re going to make their investments. I think we move to the top of that list because we do drive true digital transformation, which is a term we’ve all talked about for probably the last five or 10 years, but it’s in the midst of happening right now. And we’re seeing early signs of us being a beneficiary of that transformation, including the seven Fortune 500 wins we had last quarter, we had 11 global wins in the Global 2000.

And by the way, a number of those weren’t just replacing legacy on-premise solutions, three of the Fortune 500 wins came with us, replacing our legacy competitors’ cloud solutions. So that’s another really good sign. And then two other things is while it’s true, people are moving to the cloud and they’re doing it faster than ever, we have the opportunity to be at the forefront of that. When people move to the cloud, whether it’s HCM or FINS, Kash, we are going to get a look. And when we get a look, when we look at our win rates just last quarter, they’re improving, and we’re not seeing any additional discount to actually win those opportunities. So we think we’re well positioned for the digital transformation that’s happening. And it’s interesting because with scarcity, all of a sudden, customers get clarity.

And it’s clear that we’re in the middle of the opportunity here, unlike we’ve seen before to help them drive their digital transformation to focus on both their people and their financial systems.

Doug Robinson: Yeah. Hi Kash, Doug here. Thanks for the question. There’s a couple of things I’d highlight for you. The first and — the question went to what are you hearing from customers and executives. The first is tight labor markets continue. And so you see CEOs increasingly turn back to how do I reskill, retain and get the company positioned for the jobs of tomorrow. And so it shows up, and it’s showing up, I think, in those seven Fortune 500 wins, some familiar themes there, those 11 Global 2000. And then really on the — really driving the FINS side of it, there’s talk at the CEO level about reinventing the entire business model. And, of course, Workday doesn’t reinvent business models, but we give you an agile, enabling technology for you to be able to make those changes to your business over time.