2017: YEAR IN REVIEW
Every industry is being disrupted – transformed by automation, intuitive consumer experiences, machine learning and an explosion of connected devices. Enterprises are looking to consumerise the enterprises user experience and improve employee productivity and efficiency by digitising workflows and employee interactions, breaking down silos within the organisation and automating tasks through machine learning and AI.
What is interesting is the number of companies that have employed or are creating roles for a Chief Digital Officer or similar. These innovators are looking to consumerise and modernise the workplace, and drive efficiencies. These CDOs are looking for a platform for the business as opposed to another tool and this has driven a lot of our success across the region.
“The cloud is another trend that is disrupting the industry and driving business. ServiceNow is increasingly seeing adoption of cloud services as a strategic driver in the private sector and to a lesser degree in the public sector, as enterprises look to improve their agility, standardise processes and reduce cost and complexity,” explains Mark Ackerman, Sales Director, Middle East, ServiceNow.
In fact, in a recent survey ServiceNow conducted, 52% of respondents reported that they are taking a cloud-first approach, a number which is expected to grow to 77% by 2018.
Concerns with cloud, particularly around data sovereignty is still the biggest stumbling block for SaaS solution providers in the Middle East. As mentioned above, while ServiceNow have seen massive growth there is still a long way to go for cloud to be accepted as the new normal. ServiceNow believe it is just a matter of time before all organisations will have a very clear cloud adoption strategy.
2017 has been an exceptionally successful year for ServiceNow across the Middle East. At the start of the year, ServiceNow made substantial personnel investments, adding resources in marketing and PR, direct sales solution consultants, all in an effort to better support our growing client base.
ServiceNow’s channel and alliances team, led by Samih Moussly, has been able to forge stronger relationships with various resell and services partners. Samih has been a strong supporter of quality over quantity mantra when it comes to the channel and this has helped us deliver new clients and successful projects across the region.
In terms of products, in May 2017, at its annual customer summit, Knowledge17, ServiceNow announced the launch of several new solutions.
ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine
With ServiceNow Intelligent Automation Engine, companies can now prevent outages before they happen, automatically categorise and route incidents, predict future performance and benchmark performance against IT peers. Capability will also bring machine learning to ServiceNow cloud services
Trusted Security Circles
A new cloud-based application that gives enterprises the ability to share and receive hyper-relevant threat intelligence in near real-time
Customer Service Communities
A major new application in its Customer Service Management solution. ServiceNow Communities includes core capabilities such as managed forums, curated topics, support for multiple content types, moderation, and granular permissions
Software Asset Management
Software Asset Management combines catalog, procurement and orchestration all in one system of action. With a few simple clicks, enterprises can quickly and easily allocate and reclaim software licenses to address non-compliance and avoid the pains associated with vendor audits. IT can also eliminate budget-draining software waste, shelf-ware, resulting in significant cost-savings for the enterprise. Now, enterprises can confidently make the most of their licensed software to move their business faster.
It was also a busy year for ServiceNow in terms of acquisitions:
In January 2017, ServiceNow announced the acquisition of DXContinuum, This acquisition will allow ServiceNow to further increase productivity for its customers by applying machine learning capabilities and data models developed by DxContinuum.
Doubling down on its commitment to providing a consumer-like experience, in September 2017, ServiceNow announced the acquisition of Telepathy, a San Diego based design studio and in October 2017, ServiceNow announced the acquisition of SkyGiraffe, which will allow it to become a native mobile enterprise cloud platform.
In addition to its global Knowledge 17 customer event in May 2017, ServiceNow regionally hosted a successful one-day customer event in October. Bringing together a mix of existing and prospective customers, the event gave an opportunity to highlight its vision and core solution offering. ServiceNow also conducted several partner enablement trainings and customer Lunch N Learn sessions over the course of the year that were very well received by participants.
In the last 12 months, ServiceNow have had some major breakthroughs with enterprises in the telecommunications and critical infrastructure sectors. ServiceNow report that 2 out of 3 clients would highly recommend ServiceNow and ServiceNow consistently maintain a renewal rate with existing customers of over 97%. Another achievement has been the growth ServiceNow have seen across HR, Security Operations, Customer Service Management and Business Applications modules. ServiceNow now have a very healthy blend of over 50% revenue coming from non-ITSM solutions as ServiceNow continues to add value to the platform for customers.
Key takeaways
- What is interesting is the number of companies that have employed or are creating roles for a Chief Digital Officer or similar.
- The cloud is another trend that is disrupting the industry and driving business.
- ServiceNow is increasingly seeing adoption of cloud services as a strategic driver in the private sector and to a lesser degree in the public sector
- In a recent survey ServiceNow conducted, 52% of respondents reported that they are taking a cloud-first approach, a number which is expected to grow to 77% by 2018.
- Concerns with cloud, particularly around data sovereignty is still the biggest stumbling block for SaaS solution providers in the Middle East.
- While ServiceNow have seen massive growth there is still a long way to go for cloud to be accepted as the new normal.
- ServiceNow believe it is just a matter of time before all organisations will have a very clear cloud adoption strategy.