ServiceNow has just launched a new version of Now Platform. It comes with a redesigned toolkit to improve its low-code/no-code development. The goal is to help “inexperienced programmers”-well-known “citizen developers”-create and put into production very personalized applications faster according to the company’s business needs.
Low code now
The core of this new version called Quebec is the creator workflow. This includes an App Engine Studio and an integration center. According to ServiceNow, two low-code tools must allow the conversion of existing manual processes into modern workflows that can be extended.
App Engine comes with App Engine templates, which are popular workflow templates. These “templates” are intended to be used as building blocks so that programmers do not have to develop all applications from scratch.
Low code is not the only novelty in Quebec, but ServiceNow emphasizes it in particular. Why? Because “in this pandemic period, all users are more concerned about agility and productivity. They know they need to respond quickly to market changes,” said Dave Wright, ServiceNow Innovation Director.
The rise of “citizen developers” is also a factor.
The Chief Innovation Officer concluded: “What we are trying to do is to bring the business side closer to the development side.”
ServiceNow’s bet may be rewarded. In a recent report, Gartner predicted that the global low-code market will reach $13.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 22.6% over 2020. Gartner also predicts that by 2024, this type of development will account for more than 65% of all application development.
In any case, for IDC, with the arrival of Quebec, ServiceNow is taking the right approach. “Workflow is a great way to digitize processes. Generally speaking, this requires skilled developers,” said Larry Carvalho, the research director in charge of PaaS practice. “With this low-code approach, Quebec can more easily build workflows to automate existing processes and connect them to existing applications.”
Still, low-code/no-code is not an affordable tool for everyone. For Chris Pope, Vice President of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, Quebec can be described as “30% no code” (pure drag and drop, controlled by professionals) and “70% low code”.
In the future, ServiceNow hopes to reverse this ratio and democratize development, but it is clear that IT and “code” skills are still essential. “If it’s just for the extensive integration and improvement of the application,” Chris Pope insisted in an exchange with MagIT. The two stages will represent an incompressible 10% of the development work.
Loom Systems and Attivio’s AI is injected into Quebec
The publisher also showcased new features based on artificial intelligence in January 2020 and October 2019 respectively, the results of the acquisitions of Loom Systems and Attivio. New features of Loom Systems technology are injected into ServiceNowv’s ITSM to increase productivity. Attivio cognitive research improves users’ ability to discover answers and insights to technical problems.
“Our idea is to have a more precise ability to predict when an event will occur, such as a power outage,” Dave Wright explained. “With the increase in a large amount of data in the business, users must conduct research [plus complexes] Finding the correct answers to their daily problems at work, these questions are also increasing. Therefore, we need a way to put all of this in context for them.”
Promote shared services
So low code and artificial intelligence. But for Forrester, perhaps the most important thing is to look elsewhere. In the process optimization and workforce optimization functions, it is likely to revive shared services.
“My prediction is that the market will increasingly see shared services as a good way to solve the problem of labor coordination.”
Charles BatesAnalyst, Forrester Research
Process optimization should help IT departments improve the underlying processes of management workflow and avoid bottlenecks that hinder problem resolution.
Charles Betz, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said: “My prediction is that the market will increasingly see shared services as a good way to solve workforce coordination problems.” [ServiceNow] It is exactly what enterprises need in the field of service management space. [Avec ces fonctionnalités de Québec], Customers can manage their shared service products as a coherent product portfolio and commit to continuous improvement of the product portfolio.”
He pointed out that the old promise of shared services was to concentrate all work processes and related services in one place. This visibility makes it possible to know which “quotes” do not satisfy internal users.
“Today, get service [partagés] General-type of human resources or legal services, etc. -Too much time is spent on people”, Charles Betz concluded. “I think this aspect of the version [Québec] Will be the most interesting”.
