Earnings season is winding down, but several big name companies that ETR covers have yet to report. This article highlights the most recent data inflections on UiPath, SentinelOne, Adobe, and Smartsheet. Please see the ETR Research Platform for full spending intentions data sets for these and more than 450 other companies' ETR tracks. ETR is your one-stop shop for forward-looking spending trends, market growth, and competitive positioning data for more than 700 technology companies. We also specialize in custom research and consulting for all facets of the enterprise technology landscape, including investors and company operators. Come check it out with a free trial today. And now on to the earnings calendar for next week, starting with UiPath.
UiPath. The trajectory of spending intentions for UiPath based upon ETR's spending intentions data is currently on a prolonged downward trend that has reached multi-year lows during the January 2024 survey iteration. This decline is primarily attributed to the highest recorded Decrease and Replacement rates observed over the past three years. These factors have notably influenced the landscape of spending dynamics related to UiPath products.
A positive aspect of the vendor's data set in this quarter is that Fortune 500 and Global 2000 organizations have shown positive year-over-year improvements in Net Scores, contrasting with Mid and Small organizations that have exhibited declines. Despite UiPath's strong placement in the 91st percentile for both Net Score and Pervasion among its Robotic Process Automation peers, the underlying story is the notable disparity that exists as it trails considerably behind Microsoft Power Automate in both of these crucial aspects. In ETR's exclusive shared accounts analysis for UiPath's customers, Microsoft Power Automate maintains its position as the top-performing vendor. UiPath is expected to report earnings on Wednesday, March 13th. If you would like to see the full spending intentions report, you can access it here.
SentinelOne. SentinelOne continues to recover from the decline we captured in 2H22, as customer acquisition rates remain elevated (17%) and expansion/decrease rates remain stable across all survey respondents. SentinelOne’s recovery is even more visible among Global 2000 customers (N=51) due to a rebound in customer acquisition rates and plans to ‘Increase’ spend. Pervasion (i.e., customer citation count) continues to expand for SentinelOne within large enterprise subsamples. The vendor’s Net Score shows broad-based acceleration, even outside Global 1000/2000 organizations, with Services/Consulting and International subsamples screening notable y/y improvements in Net Score, as well.
Close competitor CrowdStrike continues to lead SentinelOne in Net Score among large enterprises, but SentinelOne has narrowed the gap compared to previous surveys. The same is true for Pervasion in our sample, as CrowdStrike appears to have stabilized in recent surveys following a period of impressive growth since 2018, while SentinelOne shows Pervasion gains s/s and y/y in Global 2000 as well as SMB customer subsamples. In sum, after reviewing the initial full-year spending intentions data for 2024, the ETR research team recently wrote, "Consecutive surveys of momentum in Global 2000 accounts and improved positioning versus CrowdStrike lead us to a Positive outlook on SentinelOne’s data set." SentinelOne is expected to report earnings on Wednesday, March 13th. If you would like to see the full spending intentions report, you can access it here.
Adobe. In the most recent JAN24 TSIS survey, Adobe garnered nearly 900 IT decision maker spending indications for 2024. Among this large sample of customers, forward-looking spend for Adobe was largely stable and muted. On an aggregate basis across all sectors and respondents, Adobe’s Net Score (spending trajectory) is consistent with prior year levels as most customers continue to indicate ‘Flat’ spend plans. This survey showed 60% of respondents indicating flat spend (versus 63% in 2023). Negative spend plans (i.e., Decrease or Replace) remain minimal for Adobe as only 6% of respondents plan to lower spend and a minimal 3% plan to replace the vendor in 2024.
Across all sectors we track Adobe, the vendor’s Citation-Weighted Net Score is highest among the Retail/Consumer and Healthcare/Pharma verticals and Midsize organizations (251-1,200 employee headcount). On the other hand, Net Score is lowest among Small organizations, mainly due to low adoption rates and some higher plans to replace: 5.2% of Small organizations plan to replace Adobe compared to 2.3% of Large organizations. Isolating to Global 2000 customers in our sample (N=188), Net Score for the company shows a modest decline from 2022 and 2021 levels due to lower expansion rates; 24% of Global 2000 customers in our sample plan to Increase spend with Adobe in 2024, compared to 26% in 2023 and 32% in 2022. Adobe is expected to report earnings on Thursday, March 14th. If you would like to see the full spending intentions report, you can access it here.
Smartsheet. In the most recent JAN24 TSIS survey, Smartsheet captured 262 IT decision maker spending indications for 2024, which was strong enough for a nearly 20% Pervasion rate among its sector. Across all customers in our survey sample, Smartsheet’s Net Score and Pervasion are stable on a year-over-year basis, leveling out around 20% in-line with APR23. Adoption rates are down to very low levels, but Increasing spend indications are robust, and strong enough to counteract any negative impact to Net Score. Still, moderately high negative spending intent is persistent in the sample.
It should be noted that among Midsize and Small organizations (32% of Smartsheet’s JAN24 survey sample), customer expansion is extremely high, with 47% of respondents indicating plans to Increase spend on Smartsheet. Adoptions have contracted to 5% but remain stronger among Mid + Small customers than other subsamples. After consecutive survey periods with a negative view of the vendor's data sets, the ETR research team wrote, "Smartsheet’s data set shows robust customer expansion rates across organizations of all sizes, stabilizing Net Score back to APR23 levels. As such, we remove the Negative outlook on the vendor’s data set. Even so, persistent negative spend intent and a contraction in Adoptions remain key areas of concern for Smartsheet." Smartsheet is expected to report earnings on Thursday, March 14th. If you would like to see the full spending intentions report, you can access it here.
One last chance: come see all that ETR has to offer technology executives and investors for yourself with a free trial today.
Enterprise Technology Research (ETR) is a technology market research firm that leverages proprietary data from our targeted IT decision maker (ITDM) community to provide actionable insights about spending intentions and industry trends. Since 2010, we have worked diligently at achieving one goal: eliminating the need for opinions in enterprise research, which are often formed from incomplete, biased, and statistically insignificant data. Our community of ITDMs represents $1+ trillion in annual IT spend and is positioned to provide best-in-class customer/evaluator perspectives. ETR’s proprietary data and insights from this community empower institutional investors, technology companies, and ITDMs to navigate the complex enterprise technology landscape amid an expanding marketplace. Discover what ETR can do for you at www.etr.ai