Announcing
today an agreement to acquire mobile platform company SkyGiraffe,
cloud-based workflow leader ServiceNow plans to deliver a
truly native mobile enterprise cloud platform. The acquisition will let
ServiceNow customers easily deliver consumer-like mobile experiences for
any application built on the Now Platform, unleashing greater productivity and convenience for employees who want to work mobile-first, anytime, anywhere.
"Our
work lives should be as mobile friendly as our consumer lives," said CJ
Desai, chief product officer at ServiceNow. "With our native mobile
platform approach, ServiceNow intends to make getting work done anytime,
anywhere through great mobile experiences as easy as hailing a taxi,
ordering coffee or booking a dinner reservation."
ServiceNow
expects SkyGiraffe technology to be embedded in the Now Platform in
2018, offering all packaged applications in a native mobile format,
including its flagship IT Service Management (ITSM)
product. SkyGiraffe extracts the complexity of enterprise applications
with its intelligent "meta-data" architecture by converting business
processes and manual workflows into an easy-to-use mobile experience.
Because the mobile experience will be native, ServiceNow will also
support offline applications.
ServiceNow
also expects that its customers and partners will be able to build
mobile apps in days, not months, utilizing no/low-code tools and design
templates. There will be no need to write cumbersome code or scripting.
Native mobile app experiences are expected to include maps, live GPS,
phone, contacts, email, rich media and notifications.
"Making
our technology native to the ServiceNow platform will deliver a truly
mobile-first approach," said Boaz Hecht, co-founder and chief executive
officer, SkyGiraffe. "We're thrilled to be joining ServiceNow and
scaling our technology with one of the industry's fastest growing
enterprise software companies to create better mobile work experiences
for millions of people worldwide."
The company expects to complete the acquisition in Q4 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This news follows ServiceNow's acquisition of design studio Telepathy to
enhance the company's commitment to delivering outstanding design and
consumer-like experiences in its products and on the Now Platform.
"Together
the investments of SkyGiraffe and Telepathy will help ServiceNow
customers better deliver consumer-styled apps to the devices that they
want when it matters most," Desai said.