At Cloud Field Day, Ben Kepes got to see the latest from ServiceNow. I’m planning a full write up of what they are offering, but in the broadest terms, it’s kind of like IFTTT or Zapier for legacy business systems. As a technology it’s really interesting.
But is that enough? It’s a dilemma Ben’s piece debates. Essentially, he’s skeptical of IT being an enabler of business change. After all, the history of IT is replete with companies that had novel technologies, but couldn’t find a way to make a business case for them. I’m a little more bullish on good technology winning out on its own merits, but admit that’s mostly wishful thinking on my part.
Based on some of their demos at the event, their platform certainly seems flexible and capable. But it begs the question of how much an IT solution can move the needle on business processes.
Ben Kepes comments:
ServiceNow wants to be an enabler of business transformation. But that’s a hard challenge when you’re known as a tool for IT.
At the recent Cloud Field Days event, I spent a couple of hours visiting with ServiceNow at their lush new executive briefing center. While there we talked to a variety of different people and got a deep dive on ServiceNow’s vision of the future. The company has come a long way from its San Diego roots. it is now firmly ensconced in across the globe, claims 40% of the Global 2,000 companies as customers and is moving in on the 6,000 employee count. And if that wasn’t enough, ServiceNow was proud of the fact that in the greater than $1 Billion revenue category, ServiceNow is the fastest growing enterprise software company. (Somewhat hilariously, of the dozen or so companies presenting at Cloud Field Days, at least two of them claimed to be the fastest growing enterprise company in the $1 billion club – oh well.)
Read more at: ServiceNow and the challenge of going broad
