PAC INNOVATION RADAR ServiceNow Services in Europe 2021: A hyper-competitive market anticipating strong growth

Today PAC published its PAC INNOVATION RADAR “ServiceNow Services in Europe 2021”, which provides IT user companies with guidance in their choice of service provider. In seven segments focusing on different application areas, PAC evaluates and compares 19 leading ServiceNow service providers in the European market today. The reports focus on the largest and most mature service providers in the market including the large IT Services firms and the major consultancies – including some of the regional and specialist boutiques that compete directly with these firms. The assessment evaluates their overall delivery capabilities – as well as separate assessments for their workflow-specific capabilities in IT, HR, CSM, GRC, Security, and Creator workflows. The following providers were evaluated: Accenture, Acorio, Atos, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, Devoteam, DXC, EY, Fujitsu, IBM, Infosys, KPMG, Plat4mation, T-Systems/OS, TCS, TietoEVRY, Unisys, Wipro.

The ServiceNow services market is very mature, and one of the most competitive and dynamic markets in the IT Services industry. IT Services giants, large consultancies, and innovative boutiques are positioned to make up a dynamic and diverse ecosystem catering to what seems like insatiable enterprise demand for the platform. According to PAC’s latest SITSI® CxO Investment Survey, we can expect yet greater demand for the ServiceNow platform – as enterprises look to drive digital transformation projects further than ever before following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this market, developing points of clear differentiation is a challenging prospect and many of the firms profiled in this study are investing aggressively in talent, assets, and solutions to forge ahead and take a larger chunk out of the growing market. For some this investment is already paying off, as they enjoy triple percentage point growth. From PAC’s point of view, we can expect enterprises in Europe to invest considerably in ServiceNow over the next 12 to 24 months as they replatform their business following the pandemic. This research will help those enterprises find the right partner to support them on this important journey.

The talent war drives investment

At its core, the ServiceNow services space is a talent-driven market. The industry-wide challenge, then, is the sizeable talent war taking place in the market as enterprises and providers alike race to secure the best and brightest professionals to support their journey. This battle has seen leading providers ramp up their certified talent pool by as much as 300% as they push ahead with innovative and well-funded attraction, retention, and training programs.

Talent wars aside, one of the key areas of growth and development amongst the leading providers is the development of assets and solutions that add new value thresholds to the ServiceNow platform. These vary from internal accelerators to support quick implementations and efforts to reduce mean-time-to-value on client investments, to a much broader effort to build custom applications that support specific business and industry challenges.

Verticalization is the key strategic imperative

Innovation in the platform remains a considerable focus for ServiceNow as well as its partners – the platform continues to be pushed into new and exciting areas of the modern enterprise. To do this, the firm is developing stronger partnerships with providers who have specialist offerings or significant traction in specific verticals. Meanwhile, in line with ServiceNow’s laser focus on developing vertical solutions and use cases for the platform, PAC is starting to see high-value custom applications and new workflows for industry challenges from the leading IT giants and boutique specialists.

Perhaps one of the highest potential areas in the ServiceNow services space: The Creator workflows space.
The graph shows the positioning of the 19 providers, PAC evaluated for this PAC INNOAVTION RADAR segment.

A high potential market

All of these factors combined mean that, while the ServiceNow services market is mature, there are still significant opportunities to drive more value from the platform, particularly as ServiceNow itself continues to push ahead with an ambitious development roadmap. Many of the firms ranked

in this study are those which have continued to push the platform into new areas of the modern enterprise, unlock new value through the development of capabilities, and successfully pull in the talent necessary to succeed in this competitive market.

From PAC’s point of view, the ServiceNow services market continues to be an area of high potential, if not one where there are still significant challenges for providers to overcome. A challenge will be continuing to maintain the current momentum as more firms double down on investments, and the boutique ecosystem continues to evolve, bringing fresh competitors into the mix. In addition, regional differences across Europe will continue to play a critical role in partner selection – which means much more emphasis will need to be placed on targeting specific country challenges.

To highlight a couple of examples of enterprises that encapsulate this market dynamic, we continue to see considerable investment from Accenture as it builds out one of the largest talent pools in the market, enabling the firm to bring high-value solutions to clients across Europe, and frame solutions within their client’s unique industry and regional requirements. Another example is the team at T-Systems/OS, who have been working to solve very specific challenges in countries across Europe, particularly the DACH region, and as a result are able to bring solutions to the market that enable heavily regulated industries to implement and drive value from the ServiceNow platform. It’s also worth highlighting Devoteam, which has developed strong capabilities across Europe and has a particularly impressive investment strategy to continue this momentum. So much so, that Devoteam is credited as the ‘hidden champion’ for the overall ServiceNow services assessment.

For more information on the PAC INNOVATION RADAR “ServiceNow Services in Europe 2021” visit https://www.pac-radar.com.