ServiceNow APJ president eyes growth in multiple workflow applications
ServiceNow reported earlier in the year for its fourth quarter financial results that total revenue grew 30% year-on-year. But according to ServiceNow Asia Pacific and Japan president Mitch Young, the rate of growth in the Asia Pacific and Japan region was much faster than that.
"We are the fastest growing geography in ServiceNow globally," he told ZDNet.
Despite being the fastest growing, the geography still only represents about 10% of ServiceNow's global business. Young is optimistic, however, that this number will change quickly, detailing the company's growth plans for the year will be targeted at "helping to do larger, more enterprise, transformational type engagements".
He continued to explain that the region's growth so far has been underpinned by companies, particularly those in banking, public sector, telco, media, and manufacturing sectors, turning to ServiceNow at the "engagement layer, so very much on CRM, big data and analytics, sales, [and] omni-channel".
The goal now is to get additional customers "integrating more capabilities across the platform with zero technical debt", Young said.
"Customers often start with ServiceNow in one dimension, whether that'd be around IT service, IT operations, but what they very quickly see is I can solve my HR onboarding challenges, I can solve how I do case management, I can solve how we do customer service or field service management, all on the one platform," he said.
"So, part of our growth strategy is how do we help enterprises consume ServiceNow broadly."
One customer that has taken this approach is Officeworks, according to Young. He said the office supplies retailer is leveraging the company's flagship Now platform as a "one-stop shop" to help employees "consume services, whether it's IT, HR, legal facilities, to the extent that if you go into an Officeworks store, they're using our capability in natural language to better ask any question they might need as an employee of Officeworks".
Aside from focusing on growth opportunities, the digital workflow platform provider has also been an advocate for growing Australia's tech talent pool through initiatives such as a traineeship program it runs with TAFE NSW, which is set to be expanded this year to include the ACT. Currently, approximately 15% of ServiceNow's global support is being provided from Sydney.
"We see ANZ and Asia Pacific, particularly markets like India as well, as a great source of talent for us to apply for the geography and globally," Young said.