Software industry: Celonis and Servicenow establish partnership-Economy

Starting with the idea of ​​three students building a billion-dollar company in just ten years, only a few did it, especially in Germany. The success of Celonis, a Munich-based software company, made it an exception. The company is now worth more than $10 billion. The Munich-based company has benefited from the pandemic and accelerated digital transformation: With the help of artificial intelligence-supported data analysis methods, they can show where there is friction loss in the company.

However, for many customers, this alone is not enough; they need a system that can help them solve the bottlenecks they find immediately. This makes Celonis’ next step now seem logical: US company Servicenow, led by former SAP boss Bill McDermott, is one of the leading vendors in the software market that controls company processes (the so-called workflow) .

Bastian Nominacher, one of the three founders and bosses of Celonis, is convinced that together we can not only determine where the problem is, but also provide a system to eliminate bottlenecks. “Thirty percent of all orders from consumer goods manufacturers cannot be delivered on time. For example, due to different order quantities, pallets must first be converted at a high cost,” Nominacher cited as an example. If you can notify customers when ordering and persuade them to order slightly different quantities, you can avoid this bottleneck from the beginning.

“The demand for digital transformation is huge”

Data expert Nominacher said: “Coordinating the supply chain is not easy.” Many customers want a solution. Celonis’ contribution: using a method called Process mining The data available in the company’s various IT systems are intertwined to form an overall picture. This can clearly indicate where there are bottlenecks and delays.

The focus of Servicenow is to follow these knowledge measures, for example when organizing customer service. Servicenow focuses on pure processes. For example, the data required for this can come from SAP or Oracle databases. “We are in charge of the workflow,” said Detlef Krause, Servicenow’s head of China Europe, “not the backend.”

Krause also believes that the most important goal of NEPAD is to provide a solution that can not only show problem areas, but also help solve them. “80% of digital projects are not progressing fast enough for the company, and many projects have also failed,” Klaus said. “This was discussed in the board of directors,” and they hope to see a return at some point-so that these projects are also financially worthwhile.

With what Bastian Nominacher calls “a company operating system”, the new partner hopes to meet this requirement: “The demand for digital transformation is huge,” Nominacher said. The consulting firm also sees the huge potential of the market for so-called hyper-automation. His conclusion: “We must provide solutions that ensure rapid success.”

Nominacher and Krause explained that this partnership is mainly for joint sales and service. Krauss said that both companies are market leaders in their fields, and they are easier to win customers together. Financial participation in Celonis is also planned. However, the two companies should remain independent, and each company should be able to acquire customers for itself.

Unparalleled climb

The rise of Celonis is unprecedented in the recent history of German companies. Almost every week there is news from Germany’s most valuable startup, which is still managed by three founders. For example, just recently, they announced the acquisition of the data streaming platform Lens.io, the company’s technology can evaluate data in real time to predict delivery bottlenecks and so on. They also won Wil van der Aalst, who is the famous inventor of their basic technology (the so-called process mining) as the chief technologist.

Servicenow also shows rapid development. The company currently has approximately 15,000 employees. The company’s goal is to have annual sales of US$6 billion and is headquartered in Munich. The software provides it via the cloud and, most importantly, helps to ensure that the workflow runs smoothly, such as when equipping a computer or hiring new employees.