William Blair analyst Justin Furby says his recent channel work leads him to believe that Workday (WDAY) recently closed a core human resources deal with Accenture (ACN). If correct, "this would be an important transaction for a number of reasons," Furby tells investors in a research note titled "A Deal That Will Turn Heads; We Believe Workday Signed Accenture." First, Accenture is a massive company with close to 500,000 employees globally, the analyst writes. Second, Accenture is a "massive influencer in enterprise technology buying cycles," Furby adds. And third, the analyst says it is his understanding that Accenture signed a cloud HR deal with SAP (SAP) Employee Central in mid-2016, which he heard was "plagued with challenges." Furby concludes that if in fact Workday landed this deal, he has additional conviction in the company reported upside in Q4. Further, a deal of this type is bigger than any one quarter, and likely has ramifications for quarters to come, Furby notes. The analyst keeps an Outperform rating on Workday. He also views the news as "another sign of SAP's weakening position in HR." Following William Blair's research note, Workday is up 6%, or $10.15, to $182.77 in premarket trading.
