5 key takeaways from ServiceNow Knowledge 19

Here I am, on my long flight back home from Las Vegas to India, unable to sleep.

So what’s better than penning down what I learned last week.

With more than 21,000 attendees – all watching, listening, talking, and breathing ServiceNow for 3 days – this was the biggest Knowledge ever (like they say every year for iPhone)!

I’ve seen the platform grow tremendously over the last 5 years, and the direction ServiceNow is taking looks promising for years to come.

So here are my key takeaways from this conference:

1. Acceptance as a Digital Workflows platform

It is not just an IT tool! We have been trying to position that message for last many years, but now I’ve seen many customers talking about it, and giving examples of what they’ve done with the platform. Employee workflows and Customer workflows were at the centre stage this year. ServiceNow hosted 5 keynotes this year, IT Workflows was just one of them!

2. Digital Transformation is a journey, not just a project

I attended over 15 sessions in 3 days and had the opportunity to meet many customers and partners. One common theme – be prepared for the journey and make sure to take your passengers with you. Most successful customer stories take care of the following:

• Engage users early
• Be prepared to change processes and remove bottlenecks
• Be Agile
• Launch fast, get early feedback and improve
• Get trained on the platform, it’s easy and it’s fun!

3. Simple outside, complex inside

Following the way consumer apps work, where user experience is simple, ServiceNow is taking the approach to the world of work. As John Donahoe said in the opening keynote – we want users to get fast and easy experiences, with the platform taking care of the underlying complex rules and workflows.

This design principle will drive product development as well as a lot of the architecture, implementation and communication decisions for customers.

4. Intelligent Automation

Some of the coolest announcements this year are related to the AI driven automation capabilities of the platform. Natural Language Understanding and Real-time translation of intents are some of the key ones, that will make the new virtual agent in New York release the most sought after feature of the platform.

Machine learning capabilities are also embedded across platform, to provide intelligence and predictions to agents and customers. Do watch the Now Platform keynote highlights on the Knowledge video library.

5. Native Mobile Apps for everything

Probably the most highlighted and most anticipated message from Knowledge 19 has been mobile capabilities of the platform. The New York release has a great line up of out of box mobile apps, and an improved mobile design studio to power your own apps.

This will be taking low code and no-code app development to the next level for ServiceNow customers.

NOW, anyone can build a mobile app!

We look forward to helping grow the eco-system of ServiceNow, working closely with customers and partners to deliver modern digital workflows that transform employee and customer experiences.

The future of work will change more in the next three to five years than in the last 20​. – John Donahoe, ServiceNow CEO