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

And the last thing I’d say as it relates to your question about what signs do we look for when we’re starting to come out of it. To me, it’s sales cycle duration on the net new. And we track that, as you might guess, by industry, by size of company, by geography. And when we see that start to come down, I think we’ll be in a position to go up and over 20%. And what we’re seeing right now is solid pipeline build. So we’re pleased with the pipeline build, but we’re still dealing with some of those elongated cycles in the net new space.

Carl Eschenbach: Yeah. One other thing to add there, Doug, is we see customers during times of tailwind, typically want to buy best-of-breed solutions. When there’s headwinds, they buy best of suite. And today, we have the best platform for both FINS and core HCM. So we see more and more customers, to your point, of consolidating on our platform than we’ve ever seen before as they look to drive efficiencies in their own infrastructure.

Kash Rangan: Thank you, Carl and Doug. Congratulations.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mark Murphy with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Murphy: Thank you very much. So Carl, Workday’s revenue growth really is not flowing very much. If we just look around and compare it to the rest of the software industry, there’s so many companies suffering through this period where their growth has slowed by 10 or 15 or 20 points or more. Is Workday’s resilience more driven by the ability to help companies navigate through this complex type of a labor market, or do you think it’s more of a function of the diversification across verticals where I think you have a little less reliance on the tech industry, or is there some other factor that’s kind of coming to the forefront for you? And I have a quick follow-up.

Carl Eschenbach: Yeah, sure. Thanks for the question, Mark. I’ll start, and then I’ll hand it over to Aneel to make some additional comments. So first, I think the diversity of our business is what allows us to be so differentiated from the rest of the companies out there in our peer group. What I mean by that is we have a large installed base that we get to sell back into with high renewal rates. We’re landing net new customers. We’re selling across all industries and all verticals. So the diversity of our business is radically different than most people out there. And also, I think — the other thing is our business is quite predictable. When you have a renewal rate like we have on a quarterly basis, we can really dial in what we think we’re going to deliver to all of you in the Street and hit that with consistency.

So we are diverse in our business. We have durability in our business model with good operating margin and good solid growth and good cash flows. And I just think as compared to the rest of the industry, we can weather any potential headwinds we’re seeing going forward, which is reflected in our FY 2024 guidance. And Aneel, maybe you’d like to add some color around this question as well.

Aneel Bhusri: Yes. I think the other part is, our applications are just — they’re just proven out to be mission-critical. And some of the apps that did well during the last few years when you have a downturn, they’re just not — they’re not viewed as mission-critical. But a lot of companies are doubling down on becoming more efficient during a downturn, and I think we’re a beneficiary of that, and it supports our business. And it’s all based on those very sticky systems of record.