The New Salesforce
During Bill McDermott’s leadership as CEO, German software firm SAP's market value increased from $39 billion to $156 billion.
No doubt that this experience at SAP paved the way to become one of the fastest-growing major cloud vendors in 2020.
McDermott is now CEO of ServiceNow (NOW), a company that offers specific IT solutions. It allows you to manage projects and workflow, take on essential HR functions, and streamline your customer interaction and customer service. It does all of this, thanks to a comprehensive set of ServiceNow web services, as well as various plug-ins and apps.
Their market value has doubled to $100 billion and this is just the beginning.
ServiceNow almost doesn’t exist after numerous attempts to be acquired, like the time it was almost sold to VMware for $1.5 billion.
Company founder Fred Luddy, who is now chairman, and the board of directors were intrigued by the VMware offer, but venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital argued that $1.5 billion wasn’t a premium at that time let alone market rate for this burgeoning cloud player.
Then-CEO Frank Slootman was eventually replaced by former eBay Inc. (EBAY) CEO John Donahoe in February 2017, who took the company to $3.46 billion in annual 2019 sales.
Donahoe then bolted for Nike Inc. (NKE), and McDermott joined from SAP, locking in the firm for a new era of meteoric growth.
ServiceNow is now on its way to become the defining enterprise-software company of the 21st century and if you look at their position in the market today, they’re the only born-in-the-cloud software company to have surpassed $100 billion market cap without large-scale M&A.
This underdog cloud company whose automation software is deployed to improve productivity is leading to what is known as a “workflow revolution.”
Their set of software tools fused with the sudden emphasis on digital tracking of employees and business systems — has played into ServiceNow’s strengths.
The seismic shift is accelerating: By 2025, most of the millennial generation will work from home permanently, based on internal company reports.
It expects revenue of $4.49 billion in fiscal 2020 and still has a mountain to climb with revenue of just 20% of Salesforce, one-sixth of SAP, and one-ninth of Oracle Corp. (ORCL).
But ServiceNow is catching up as corporations and government agencies pour billions of dollars into their digital infrastructures.
So far, more than $3 trillion has been invested in digital transformation initiatives. Yet only 26% of the investments have delivered meaningful returns on investment.
This is launching the workflow revolution, where ServiceNow is the missing cog that can integrate systems, silos, departments, and processes, all in simple, easy-to-use cross-enterprise workflows.
A demand surge for “workflow automation” technology went parabolic in 2020 and is part of the puzzle helping ServiceNow sustain 25%-plus revenue growth.
ServiceNow most recently raised its full-year guidance after disclosing it has 1,012 customers with more than $1 million in annual contract value, up 25% year-over-year.
That included 41 such transactions in the third quarter, with new customers such as the U.S. Senate and New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
ServiceNow raised guidance for the full year on subscription-revenue range to between $4.257 billion and $4.262 billion, up 31% year-over-year in constant currency.
The company has detailed a goal of $10 billion in annual sales as something feasible in the mid-term and its bevy of strategic relationships will help, like in July, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) expanded its relationship with ServiceNow; shortly thereafter, Accenture (CAN) and IBM created new business units in partnership with ServiceNow to develop new opportunities.
In March, ServiceNow added a new computing platform, Orlando, that added artificial intelligence and machine learning that lets the MGM Macau casino resort, for example, use a virtual agent to automate and handle repetitive requests.
The integration of virtual agents will supplement casino employees with 24/7 support experiences when human staff is unavailable.
After hitting the $100 billion market cap, McDermott has identified M&A as the catalyst to take NOW higher with the CEO squarely looking at artificial intelligence targets.
ServiceNow has enabled firms to unite front, middle and back office functions, increasing productivity during this time period when speed and simplicity matter the most to digital customers.
I would describe NOW as a baby brother to Salesforce and its entrance into the first and most likely continuous acquisition cycle will most probably result in higher share prices.
ServiceNow turns out to be placed in the perfect position benefitting from Americans moving their careers online with the added effect of the broad-based secular digital migration to remote work.
As long as this firm is generating revenue in the mid-20% annually, it will be a constant buy-the-dip candidate for the foreseeable future regardless of whether there is a pandemic or not.
