John Donahoe (CEO - ServiceNow)
ServiceNow is chasing a revenue target of $10 billion with channel partners expected to play a leading role in the software giant’s transformational efforts.
Central to such ambitions will be an overhauled partner strategy designed to drive growth through an expanding ecosystem.
“ServiceNow believes it can become a $10 billion company, creating significant opportunity for our global partner ecosystem to grow with us as we help enable digital transformation for customers worldwide,” said David Parsons, senior vice president of Global Alliances and Channel Ecosystem at ServiceNow.
Speaking during Knowledge 2019 in Las Vegas, Parsons said key channel changes include a new global partner segmentation approach, in a bid to recognise partner expertise across the vendor’s ecosystem.
According to Parsons, “this will enhance opportunities for partners to differentiate and position their services to joint customers”.
Within this new framework, partners are segmented according to two sets of criteria, the first being their "breadth and depth" of ServiceNow‑enabled solutions adoption associated with their practice development and managed service offerings; and the second covering go‑to‑market maturity.
According to Parsons, the former is determined by four key factors, spanning capacity; competency; customer success and capability. Based on such sets of criteria, partners are segmented as Global Elite; Elite; Premier; Specialist and Registered.
At the top end of the market, Global Elite status carries a commitment to achieve a $1 billion ServiceNow practice within three-to-five years, endorsed by CEO-level backing.
“The changes announced more intuitively segment our global partner portfolio, better differentiating levels of expertise for our partners and customers,” Parsons added. “We also are implementing a more consistent, proactive and predictable joint go‑to‑market engagement framework.
“Together, ServiceNow and its partners represent a true ‘force multiplier’ for our customers. We are committed to helping customers accelerate their digital transformation journey and realise unprecedented business value.”
Service providers
In a further channel change, Parsons said ServiceNow has created a "dedicated business development team" to support the “top global and regional” service providers, supported by a new program.
The program is tailored for service providers that build on ServiceNow’s workflow products or platform, with a new reference design validation process encouraging partners to create their own offerings through the Now Platform.
In addition, ServiceNow has established a new program to help partners respond to public sector customer opportunities.
Initially, Parsons said the program will focus on partners serving U.S. Federal customers and over time, will expand to include State, Local and Education departments before being extended to partners in Europe and Asia.
“This announcement represents a strategic pivot to engage with our global and regional partner community in a world‑class manner,” Parsons said. “Our goal is to enable our partners to be successful as they grow their ServiceNow practices and managed services offerings.
“At ServiceNow, we are committed to making partner success synonymous with customer success."
