ServiceNow Boosts Investment In Ecosystem Partners, Its ‘True Force Multipliers’

At ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2022 conference this past May, CEO Bill McDermott predicted that the company’s future was brighter than originally thought. ServiceNow is now expected to hit $11 billion in revenue by fiscal year 2024, up from a previously anticipated $10 billion. And for fiscal year 2026, revenue is expected reach $16 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $15 billion.

ServiceNow’s partner ecosystem will play a critical role in achieving those goals, David Parsons, Senior Vice President, Global Alliances and Partner Ecosystem, told CMR. “We can’t get to $16 billion-plus by 2026 without our global partner ecosystem.” 

ServiceNow “partners are the true force multipliers on our path to $16 billion-plus and are fundamental to accelerating our growth by driving digital transformation with our joint customers,” he said. “As we grow, partners will continue to impact 90%+ of our NNACV (net new annual contract value) revenue. We must continue to deliver tangible business value on targeted projects with great speed and agility to achieve our growth goals.”  

The company is “focused on an evolution that places partners front and center from the very beginning, with both parties committed to our shared mandate of making the world work better,” said Parsons. “Our goal is to be the platform on which partners develop and monetize their thought leadership, whether it be in the form of partner specific offerings built alongside the NOW Platform or solutions developed on top of the NOW platform.”   

Key investments for partners that develop offerings and solutions alongside or on top of the ServiceNow platform include:  

• Increased access to resources: Developing a business plan, access to technical acceleration resources and marketing resources for joint messaging and customer-facing materials.  

• Improvements in internal and external visibility: Increased visibility through ServiceNow sites, ability to earn badges and certifications that signal the solution or offering was built with ServiceNow and driving enablement through the marketing and field sales teams.   

• Scale through an optimized engagement process: Simple and streamlined ‘intake’ process for co-innovation, driving sales and improving profitability as well as increased access to ServiceNow resources throughout the process.  

The company will be announcing and sharing more insights on its partner program transformation during its Global Partner Ecosystem Summit in September.

Parsons is “very optimistic” that partners are eager to co-create markets with ServiceNow. “A shared vision, aligned priorities and challenges bring forth joint innovation opportunities that enable us to collaborate to accelerate and enhance business value for our joint clients. We are actively engaged with our partners to align on our new Global Solutions Framework (GSF) with targeted business imperatives representing distinct c-suite buyer personas with associated value propositions to enable our joint GTM enablement & co-sell/co-delivery focus.”

Partners are leaning in, he said. “We have heard directly from our partners that they are looking for more than just a co-sell/co-deliver model. This means that partners will fuel the expansion of the NOW Platform into every function, industry, and process. Additionally, the NOW Platform will enable monetization of partner thought leadership in the form of proven methodologies, frameworks, data, and insights – across the enterprise via new joint offerings and solutions in an industry GTM context.”