ServiceNow on Wednesday reported strong fourth-quarter results with a record number of deals in excess of $ 1 million. The enterprise tech company, which helps organizations digitize their workflows,
Market dynamics, have clearly benefited from the accelerated trend of digital transformation corresponding to the pandemic.
“There are structural challenges facing every industry in every geographic region,” CEO Bill McDermott said in a conference call Wednesday. He mentioned some challenges in part caused by the pandemic: “the great resignation, disruption in the supply chain, inflation, to name a few.”
In the face of those challenges, he continued, “Digital technologies are a growth stimulus, a deflationary force … Technology strategy has become business strategy.”
However, “this data shows it’s clearly more of a change caused by a pandemic,” McDermott said. “We’re in a sustainable environment of demand.”
He cited IDC’s Global CEO survey, which showed that 85% of CEOs plan to support or increase their tech budgets this year. From ServiceNow’s own Q4 results, its 99% customer renewal rate “is one of the key indicators for continued performance going forward,” McDermott said.
Furthermore, McDermott said he saw no evidence of “unusual demand pull forward” in 2021.
“Customers are fully focused on technology as a business strategy, and digital innovation is fully flying,” he said. The company’s growth last year, he continued, “happened in a very linear and coherent way,” positioning ServiceNow to be “one of the true standard platforms for well-run companies on the 21st. century. “
The company plans to grow its footprint globally and in industries. To get bigger deals, McDermott explained to ZDNet how ServiceNow plans to target organizations that need to improve their workflows across domains. He gave the example of CVS, which is expanding beyond its traditional retail sales to health and wellness, creating more complex workflows.
“We’ve all lived in a world where enterprise companies usually do something good, but they do that in a loop. The people who run companies usually do a lot of things, with a lot of vendors in many loops – creating islands of automation everywhere, ”he said. “We take that sprawl and simplify it to one platform and make it work better for everyone.”