Why We're Different / Myth Busters

Our customers are attracted to our open and candid approach to doing business.  Software as a service is the future of software and has been widely accepted by large enterprises as a means to operate more efficiently.  There are myths in the market place about software as a service and Service-now.com that are flat out inaccurate.  Our goal is to provide factual information to help you make the right business decisions.   If you have any questions about how we dispel these myths, feel free to reach out to us: info@service-now.com.


Myth: Software as a Service is only suited for small & medium-sized businesses
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  Our architecture has proven scalability
  supporting Global 2,000 IT organizations with
  over 8,000 concurrent users, spanning
  multiple ITIL disciplines.  One of our many  
  Global 2,000 customers runs 8,000 concurrent
  users, manages more than 400,000 CIs
  (includes 25k servers) in the CMDB and
  resolves 150,000 incidents per month.  How? 
  Unique to other SaaS offerings, we provide our
  customers with their own database and
  application set designed to support large,
  enterprise-wide deployments.  Our open
  architecture promotes integration with prominent
  thrid party toolsets and data sources.  Let us
  prove it to you - we can provide you with
  references to any one of our Global 2,000
  customers.
  More details...
  Can they provide five Global 2,000 reference
  customers, on the most recent version, that you
  can speak with today?
 

Myth: Software as a Service functionality is shallow
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor...
  Our customers tell us our application
  functionality depth and breadth is unrivalled.
  We’ve added more than 180 customers to our
  community in three years and 85 in the last
  12 months.  Our customers have open
  access to our development team and are highly
  involved in defining and testing enhancements
  and new technologies.  Our renewal rate is
  greater than 100 percent and our customers are
  expanding their usage into new areas of their
  business.  Instead of us telling you our product
  functionality is broad and deep, we invite you to
  speak with our customers. 
  More details...
  Remove Service-now.com SaaS delivery model
  from the equation.  Can they match the
  functionality provided by Service-now.com on a
  single platform?  We invite you to test drive a
  live demonstration of our product at
  www.service-now.com/demo

 

Myth: Software as a Service is only offered in a hosted model
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  We offer multiple deployment options allowing
  customers to choose either a hosted or on
  premise experience.  Either way, it’s SaaS.
  Regardless of the deployment model, we still
  monitor, maintain and upgrade the applications
  for our customers and consider supporting third
  party integrations as a priority.
  More details...
  With more control of your environment offered
  by SaaS, why should you need to own and
  maintain these applications?

 

Myth: Software as a Service applications are not customizable
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  Unlike other Software as a Service applications,
  Service-now.com is built to be customized. 
  Our modern Web 2.0 interface, flexible
  architecture, single data base and
  application set use an abstraction layer that
  allows you to easily customize forms and tables
  as well as change the look and feel of the
  application.  Many customizations such as form
  design, field behavior, database extension,
  workflow design are all accomplished with
  simple right click functions and GUI based
  tools.  100 percent of our customer base tells us
  they are able to build, customize and tailor
  Service-now.com faster than any other
  technology in the market.  Don’t believe us, ask
  them…
  More details…
  What goes into customizing their applications? 
  Now ask them to upgrade (or migrate in the
  case of HP ServiceCenter and OpenView
  Service Desk, BMC Remedy and FrontRange
  Heat) their application and preserve your
  changes!

 

Myth: It is impossible to preserve all customizations through an upgrade
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…

  Upgrades have zero impact on customizations
  implemented by our customers and 100
  percent of our customers are on the latest
  release.  In three years, we have successfully
  upgraded 3,100 instances using our innovative
  upgrade process.  Our 2008 Spring Release
  accomplished 998 upgrades in just two hours,
  all of them non-disruptive.
  More details…

 

 

 

  Ask HP and BMC why they label the move from
  older service desk versions to their “new” 7.x
  version a migration and not an upgrade.  

 

Myth: Software as a Service platforms have few implementations
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  Unique to Service-now.com is our approach of
  collaborating with our customers including
  Statement of Work definition, implementation
  activities and knowledge transfer.  All project
  tasks and assignments are centrally managed
  within your Service-now.com Release
  Management module.  This helps us better
  work together and assures that core system
  setup and configuration begins on day one, not
  after weeks of struggling with the
  implementation.  We understand business
  requirements can change; we are agile enough
  to shift strategies on the fly.  We have more than
  150 successful engagements including 80
  implementations in the last 12 months.
  More details…

  Is there a conspiracy?  From implementation to
  customization to upgrades (migrations),
  services revenue makes up a bulk of legacy
  software vendor revenue. How many key cards,
  cubicles, telephones, email accounts and
  ergonomic chairs does their professional
  services team need to ensure your application
  never quite works the way you want it to?  Need 
  additional cubicles?  Click here.

 

Myth: Service-now.com has difficulty integrating with 3rd party systems
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…

  Using HTTPS protocols and VPN tunnels, we
  have packaged over 30 released and supported
  integrations to prominent thrid-party
  applications and data sources.  To name a few:
  HP OpenView, CA Unicenter, Tivoli TEC and
  Symantec  Altiris... A variety of techniques are
  used, most notably Web Services, JDBC, JMS
  and email.  These are industry standard
  technologies that also use SOAP and WSDL. 
  All of our tables are exposed as a web-services
  document.
  More details…

  Why do they require additional fees for
  “out-of-box connectors” or integration packs?

  

Myth: Software as a Service is not secure
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  Customers receive their own set of applications
  and databases. Customer databases are
  private and not intermixed with any other
  organization’s data.  At no additional cost to
  you, we offer world class redundant security
  systems deployed in a SAS-70 type II
  datacenter to ensure you are protected.
  More details…
  Can they ensure your data is protected while
  reducing the cost of maintaining a secure
  environment?

 

Myth: Over a three year period, Service-now.com is more costly than legacy vendor client/server applications
  Our approach   Ask any legacy software vendor…
  Our predictable annual subscription fee
  includes all costs to maintain and support your
  instance including patches, upgrades,
  hardware, software, redundant security systems
  and Support Services.  Additionally, we partner
  with our customers to define a flat fee Statement
  of Work for implementation.
  More details...
  Predict your Total Cost of Ownership over three
  years?  Does it include deployment costs
  (typically 2 – 3 times license cost), annual
  license maintenance fees (typically 18 - 35
  percent of MSRP), staffing resources for patch
  deployments and upgrades?