Published on the 15/02/2017 | Written by Newsdesk
For those to whom automation gives the willies, more frightening stuff…
IBM and ServiceNow said they are teaming to introduce intelligent automation solutions thanks to a multi-year, strategic partnership. The deal, said the vendors in a statement, will combine ServiceNow’s service automation platform and IBM products and services including Watson cognitive computing ‘to replace the unstructured work patterns of the past with intelligent workflows of the future’.
It isn’t a new partnership, but rather the intensification of an existing one. Since 2011, IBM has been a managed services partner, with responsibility for some of the largest ServiceNow deployments around the world.
However, David Schneider, chief revenue officer at ServiceNow said the partnership will deliver ‘game-changing economics’.
That’s because, right now, the reality is that people are still incredibly inefficient. The bigger the group of people working together, the more inefficiency there tends to be. Or, as ServiceNow said in its statement, ‘enterprises need to move faster, but legacy tools and manual processes hold them back’.
It cited research which shows that the average employee is distracted once every 11 minutes and needs an average of 25 minutes to refocus on tasks, with people compensating by working faster (but not necessarily more effectively), and experiencing more stress, higher levels of frustration and greater time pressures.
Sound familiar?
That’s what the vendors reckon they will focus on; automating manual processes to deliver greater efficiencies in the workplace.
In terms of the expanded partnership, IBM brings its cognitive computing capability and global services integration and delivery resources; ServiceNow provides its software which is used to automate and manage tasks across a wide range of industries (but which is essentially routed in IT service management).
ServiceNow will also now integrate with IBM’s Global Technology Services including cognitive solutions, Bluemix infrastructure and IBM Cloud Orchestrator.
“Customers seeking to build on their current investments in the ServiceNow platform or planning a future migration will now be able to draw on IBM expertise in IT strategy, enterprise-solution integration, service governance, mobility, big-data analytics and other disciplines to enrich the services they provide,” said Rich Esposito, GM IBM Global Mobility Services. “Additionally, the partnership also opens the door for IBM to offer a cloud-based solution to enhance users’ service experience and reduce operating costs.”
“Now customers can deliver intelligent workflows across IT, HR, customer service and security on the ServiceNow cloud platform,” said Schneider. “This partnership ensures that IBM’s experience and scale with investments in analytics and Watson combined with ServiceNow’s intelligent automation will deliver game-changing economics to our mutual customers.”
