Amid ServiceNow's rapid growth as an IT service management (ITSM), HR and security operations software platform, the company needs partners to rapidly hire and train more certified ServiceNow professionals.
"I hope 2019 is a year where we go from defense to offense on that, to help fill the void to have a large-enough pool of certified professionals," ServiceNow CEO John Donahoe told investors during an earnings call last week.
No doubt, ServiceNow's customer footprint continues to grow rapidly. The company's total revenues were $673.1 million during the third quarter of 2018, up 37 percent from the corresponding quarter in 2017.
Building the ServiceNow Certification Program
With an eye toward partner training, the company last year hired Catherine Lang as head of the company's global training and certification efforts. Among the key goals: Ensuring that a growing pool of ServiceNow-certified professionals joins Accenture, DXC, KPMG, IBM and other global consulting firms in the months ahead.
ServiceNow CFO Michael P. Scarpelli echoed those thoughts, assuring analysts that the company would rather partner rather than expand its own professional services organization.
"We do think our professional service organization is strategic, but we are there to support our partners doing implementation as well as our customers where they want us there," said Scarpelli. "Our preference is for partners to be doing the implementations. We want our partners to be investing in their ServiceNow business because if they do that they're going to help sell ServiceNow. And we think that is the right thing to do and will continue that way."
It's safe to expect more partner moves during the ServiceNow Knowledge 2019 conference, which is set for May in Las Vegas.
Key ServiceNow Partner Moves
Some ServiceNow partners, meanwhile, are buying each other up in a quest to grab more talent and economies of scale. For instance, Champion Solutions Group recently acquired ServiceNow & Splunk consulting partner systemiC.
MSPs have also been navigating the ServiceNow market -- both to assist customer installs, but also for potential MSP consumption engagements of their own. MSPWorx, for instance, launched a midmarket MSP partner program in September 2018.
