The pandemic is more than just a health crisis. It has upended the way we interact socially and professionally, triggering a wave of adoption of the technologies that kept us connected during the worst of it.
In some cases, those trends have persisted, particularly for businesses and employees who benefit from work-from-home arrangements, even though the economy has mostly reopened.
It wouldn't be possible without companies like Workiva (WK 1.39%), which provides a powerful data unification platform that makes even remote teams feel like they're together. Its stock has dipped 35% from its all-time high amid the broader tech sell-off, and with the company's largest customers driving rapid growth, it might be time to jump in for the long term.
Bringing work together
Visibility can be a major issue for managers of remote teams. Large organizations can use dozens of different tech applications in everyday operations, so tracking workflows across all of them can be a challenge if employees are working in different locations. Technologies like cloud computing have made this easier, but Workiva takes things a step further.
Its platform is a one-stop shop for all data, no matter what applications are being used. Workiva connects with leading storage platforms like Alphabet's Google Drive and DropBox, in addition to systems like Salesforce and Workday, to pull data from all of them and aggregate it in one place.
The company offers management an easy way to monitor projects and compile reports, particularly critical filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Workiva supports over 350 SEC form templates, and the platform is used by eight of the world's top 10 banks. Rather than having to chase down individual teams for information, users can access it all centrally through Workiva.
In fact, it is customers like those big banks that are driving Workiva's growth.
The breakdown
Workiva reports its total customer figures each quarter, but it also provides a breakdown of its three highest-spending cohorts: those with annual contract values of $100,000, $150,000, and $300,000.
As might be expected, Workiva's biggest spenders make up the smallest portion of the company's total customer base.
However, a graph of the year-over-year growth rates of each customer group between 2020 and 2021 looks very different.
Put simply, the groups of customers spending the most money each year with Workiva are growing the fastest. This implies that larger organizations are finding a lot of utility in Workiva's platform, which makes sense because they're typically the most complex and would therefore derive the most benefit from such tools.
According to data from Ladders, which has tracked remote work trends among America's largest companies, an obvious shift is occurring. Prior to the pandemic, fewer than 4% of high-paying jobs were remote opportunities, but that number has leaped to 15% today. And Ladders estimates that by the end of this year, 25% of all professional jobs in the U.S. will be remote.
Companies are even dangling remote work as an incentive to keep and attract quality employees. For example, in 2021, professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers announced that 40,000 of its employees in America could work from anywhere they like.
The bottom line: This trend may slow down as we eventually move on from the pandemic, but it's unlikely to reverse. That's a major opportunity for remote-work enablers like Workiva and also for investors who have a chance to pick up the stock at a 35% discount to its all-time high right now.
