ServiceNow launches latest Now Platform, telecom and financial services workflows
ServiceNow launched a new version of its Now Platform, code-named Paris, with editions for telecommunications and financial services as well as workflows for business continuity, hardware asset management and legal services delivery.
The company, which is gunning to be the "platform of platforms" to automate enterprise workflows, has seen strong growth due to digital transformation as well as management of COVID-19 back-to-work plans. Also: ServiceNow launches four-app suite to manage the move back to the office
"The 21st century enterprise is different. It has to be nimble, intelligent and drive employer and customer loyalty," said ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. "And it has to be self-funding with time to value in weeks to months."
McDermott's argument is that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weak links and silos in enterprise value chains. For instance, companies can't be agile when they have a bunch of systems that specialize in one task, say sales, HR or financial services. ServiceNow aims to be that bridge between enterprise platforms.
Ultimately, McDermott said that business processes will evolve to be autonomous. "Business processes tend to one thing well--HR, sales and finance--but when it came to be cross platform the story falls apart," said McDermott, who added that enterprises can have 100s of autonomous business processes.
- ServiceNow aims to court CEOs, expand use cases beyond IT
- ServiceNow under McDermott plans to go vertical starting with banks and telcos
The Paris release of the Now Platform includes six new products as well as a bevy of features such as workflow apps, customer loyalty workflows and IT and AI operations updates. Three of the new products fall under ServiceNow's plan to target specific industries.
New products include:
- Business Continuity Management, which helps enterprise analyze and develop business continuity plans as well as crisis management.
- Hardware Asset Management, which tracks financial, contractual and inventory details of hardware devices. These IT asset management tools are critical in a remote work environment.
- Legal Service Delivery, which digitizes legal operations and workflows.
- Financial Services Operations, which connects teams and systems in the banking industry.
- Telecommunications Service Management to provide proactive customer service.
- Telecommunications Network Performance Management, which provides a unified view of equipment and analyzes maintenance events and issues.
Telecommunications workflows.
ServiceNow CTO David Wright said the Paris release is part of the plan to be a system of action. Even though ServiceNow is starting to touch more functions such as HR, customer service and sales as well as IT, the company is more of a workflow connector and layer above existing systems.
"We don't want to move into ERP and CRM. We do want to be the workflow platform across platforms," said Wright. He explained that ServiceNow's approach enables it to be a closed loop system in an industry like telecom because it can connect the dots between an outage, customer service and network performance.
"It's enterprise service management and how to link all parts of the enterprise together," said Wright.
Paris release feature additions include:
- Machine learning tools with Now Intelligence for HR Service Delivery, HR Agent Workspace and Campaign Builder.
- Customer service updates with new Customer Central visualizations, field service management tools and Playbooks for Customer Service Management.
- IT management features such as Predictive Intelligence Workbench, Vendor Engagements and Service Graph Connectors.
- And no-code playbooks with Process Automation Designer so business users can connect processes and workflows.
Hardware asset management.
CJ Desai, chief product officer at ServiceNow, said the features and new products took anywhere from 9 to 12 months to go from concept to availability. "The platform is flexible when we want to create applications, but the question boils down to do we have clarity on requirements," said Desai. "For the banking and telco industry solutions we spent 12 months working with the largest telco and banking customers globally to deliver digital workflows out of the box. Once requirements are down, we can crank out fast."
Customers already live on the Paris release include Microsoft, Zoom, Adobe, Uber, Accenture and Deloitte to name a few. ServiceNow's David Wright on innovation, expansion, and AI
In addition, Now Platform Paris release also has a bevy of new integrations with the likes of Microsoft, Twilio and SailPoint. A few integrations include:
- ServiceNow Service Graph integrations with AppDynamics, Armis, HCL BigFix, Crowdstrike, Datadog, Dynatrace, ExtraHop, Forescout, Jamf, LogicMonitor, Cisco Meraki, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft SCCM, Qualys, SolarWinds, and Tanium. ServiceNow scoops up data management firm Sweagle
- Onboarding integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.
- Microsoft Azure support for ServiceNow Cloud Insights.
- ServiceNow Software Asset Management integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.
- Virtual Agent Lite chatbot plugin for Microsoft Teams.
- Twilio integration for ServiceNow Customer Service Management.
- SailPoint for Service Catalog integration with ServiceNow HR Service Delivery.
Also: Cisco, ServiceNow announce integration for workplace contact tracing