As business customers apply more scrutiny to and lengthen approvals for tech purchases, I’m nevertheless expecting strong quarterly results this week from Salesforce, Workday, and Snowflake.
While I’m predicting the rate of growth for each of these Cloud Wars Top 10 companies to moderate, I believe the solid results from each company will underscore that cloud investments have shifted from a discretionary nice-to-have to an indispensable must-have. Each company will report this week for its fiscal Q3 ended October 31, and here’s how I think the growth numbers will look:
- Workday: A year ago for Q3 of its FY22, Workday posted subscription revenue of $1.17 billion, up 21%. Last quarter (ended July 31), subscription revenue was up 23% to $1.37 billion. And for this year’s Q3, I’m forecasting subscription revenue will be up 20% to $1.40 billion. (Workday’s results come out today, November 29.)
- Salelsforce: A year ago for Q3 of its FY22, Salesforce posted an excellent quarter with revenue up 27% to $6.86B. Three months ago for the quarter ended July 31, Salesforce reported revenue was up 22% to $7.72 billion. And for this year’s Q3, I’m predicting revenue will be up 19% to $8.16 billion. (Salesforce’s results will come out tomorrow, November 30.)
- Snowflake: A year ago, Snowflake reported fiscal Q3 product revenue soared more than 100% to $312.5 million. Last quarter, its product revenue jumped 83% to $466.3 million. And for this year’s Q3, I’m forecasting product revenue will be up 61% to $503.1 million as Snowflake will pass half a billion dollars in quarterly revenue for the first time. (Snowflake’s results come out tomorrow, November 30.)
So, while the rates of growth are expected to decline a bit, I think it’s still important to see that dynamic in its proper perspective as these huge global companies are able to grow at those remarkable levels in spite of savage competition from very capable and often much-larger competitors.
Driving this ongoing growth — at levels few if any other industries can even approximate — is powerful and deep-rooted demand from businesses large and small across the globe that recognize their need to become end-to-end digital enterprises centered on customers and powered by data.
It’s also revealing that these three companies will demonstrate ongoing customer demand across three different parts of the market: Salesforce in CRM; Workday in Financials and HCM, with close proximity to cloud ERP; and Snowflake in the booming realm of the data cloud.
We’ll be following up with details and insights later this week as the actual results are released.
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