ServiceNow acquisition: Three technologies to improve workflow efficiency

Fusionitis is not actually the business of ServiceNow. CEO Bill McDermott emphasized that his company’s amazing growth is organic, not the result of major acquisitions or mergers. But ServiceNow cannot manage it without an acquisition. The strategy mainly includes acquiring innovative technologies to upgrade the Now platform in terms of functionality. Three of the last four acquisitions were aimed at improving workflow efficiency.

Integrating legacy systems into automated processes through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is Intellibot’s specialty. Intellibot is a Seattle startup founded in 2015. Its RPA software helps companies automate repetitive tasks in an intelligent way because it can more easily integrate modern business software and legacy systems.

The background to the acquisition is that the automation of business processes and workflows is often slowed by constant changes between outdated systems and modern tools. Because legacy systems cannot be seamlessly integrated into modern platforms, many tasks must be performed manually. For example, if you want to find a customer’s invoice document, it is usually done by searching in an old application, which may be programmed specifically for this purpose. The order number must be found in the company’s specific ERP system, and the original service contract must be called in a 20-year-old client-server application.

Intellibot’s software uses RPA to overcome these manual processes. Together with the Now Platform, it can increase productivity and create greater value through the existing capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Therefore, Intellibot complements the existing automation functions of Now Platform, including KI/ML, IntegrationHub, Creator? Studio, Flow? Designer, Virtual? Agent for low-code application development, natural language understanding and document? Intelligence.

Swarm64 was originally a Norwegian start-up company based in Berlin, an expert in the field of performance enhancement and database expansion. In order to provide smart workflows, most user companies need a hybrid database model that supports transactions and analysis. In order to gain valuable enterprise-level insights, companies must be able to process large amounts of data while performing complex analysis using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Swarm64’s open source database technology is particularly suitable for processing large data sets. This makes it easier to manage large-scale data transactions, while performing complex real-time analysis to provide company-wide insights. This means that the orchestration is more extensive, and smart workflows can be achieved without compromising its performance and scalability.

ServiceNow sees the ability to query more data in a shorter period of time as a game changer. With the help of Swarm64 technology, data can be managed more effectively in various use cases, and complex data analysis can be performed on a large scale and at a high speed. Therefore, user companies can retrieve information from a large number of data sources faster, and can significantly improve the scalability of the Now platform.

Mapwize is an indoor map and navigation provider based in Lille, France. The term indoor mapping describes the mapping of the interior of a building so that people can move around better. The latter is becoming more and more important, mixed working models are becoming more popular, and office spaces are becoming more and more varied. Increasingly, employees only go to the employer’s office when attending meetings or when they want to work creatively with colleagues, while independent productive work is carried out in the home office.

The function of Mapwize is designed to improve the efficiency of the entire workforce and all workplaces, making (collaborative) work easier. With the help of Mapwize, employees can reserve seats, conference rooms and workspaces via mobile devices or desktop computers, and access resources in the workplace. The team in charge of the workplace can optimize the use of space by managing the room plan based on usage behavior and the resulting requirements.

ServiceNow plans to integrate Mapwize’s map function into the Now platform to promote the use of flexible and agile workplaces. They should be part of workplace spatial mapping applications (PDF) or workplace service delivery solutions. In this way, employees and workplace teams always have everything they need to create a modern workplace and find solutions.

By the way, ServiceNow has taken over several startups focused on artificial intelligence in the past year and a half. Read here how to use their technology to bridge the gap between humans and machines.