In a striking example of how the low-code revolution is one of the most powerful forces shaping today’s business-technology landscape, low-code solutions were included in 20 of 20 of ServiceNow’s biggest Q2 deals, the CEO recently said which is Bill McDermott.
That anecdote underscores a tectonic shift in which businesses are becoming not only consumers of software produced by the tech industry, but also creators of their own unique technology to meet new and digital- first demanded by the acceleration economy.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investors conference last month, McDermott highlighted the integration of low-code technology into all of those top Q2 deals as an extension of ServiceNow’s founding principles.
“ServiceNow was really a low-code platform to begin with,” McDermott said in his Q&A session with Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan. “That’s it. IT just happened to see the magic here and that’s where we made our fastest progress.
“But it could easily be in the employee experience, the customer service experience, or you can just put it as a platform that people can build on. What’s interesting now is that all of those things are combined— together.
“And if you think about business and you think about digital transformation, 80% of the digital transformation efforts out there are not paying off—and you might ask, ‘Why is that?’
“And the answer is integration. One system doesn’t integrate well with another system, and ultimately, clunky integration challenges 20thCentury architectures hinder a good idea in digital transformation.”
From the complex past to the future, McDermott sees low-code technology as a key component for companies making the transition to digital businesses.
In May, we offered this insight from McDermott in a piece called Bill McDermott’s 10-Step Plan for High-Flying ServiceNow to Reach $15 Billion:
“In the digital-business era, differentiation cannot be bought—rather, it must be built. IDC predicts that 750 million net new applications will be created between 2023 and 2025. With such unprecedented demand for net new innovation coupled with a global shortage of professional developers, low-code application develop is a huge opportunity in the market…. And ultimately, this creative workflow is huge because the number of applications that will be developed in the next three years will replace the number built in the last half century. And there aren’t enough engineers in the world to do that, and they’re doing it in record numbers at ServiceNow.”
Final Thoughtss
So, that equates to about 650,000 new apps being built every single day for the next three years — and by any measure, that’s a huge challenge for companies to handle in terms of not only the low-code technology required but also getting the right kind of talent to deliver all those real-time apps and foster a culture of creation, not just consumption.