back to article Humble-bragging ServiceNow CEO tells anyone who listens: 'Our destiny is to become the defining enterprise software biz of 21st century'

Bill McDermott – the former SAP CEO right now plying his trade at the top of workflow whizkid ServiceNow – has competed hard against Oracle for so long that he seems to have borrowed more than a few lines from Larry Ellison’s playbook. “We will fulfill our purpose to make the world of work, work better for people,” he said …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pride come before a fall?

    Whilst it's good to see them doing well, and I really do think Bill is a welcome breath of fresh air in the company, I can't help but worry that they're setting themselves up for an almighty fall at some point in the not too distant future.

    There was a time when, as a company, they were hungry to gobble up clients and ploughed all their profits back into R&D, whereas these days, you look at their figures and it's all about chasing that $4Bn target.

    Hell, their gross margin for Q2 was 83% ... most other vendors are happy to make 20-30% margin!

    That says to me that they're milking their customers for all they can get, and they all know it. It's only because there isn't another compelling game in town that stops them haemorrhaging clients hand over fist. But as soon as a more compelling option comes along, at a signficantly lesser cost ... that'll be the curtain call.

    Will be interesting to see what the next two-three years brings.

    Still, they've managed to keep me in gainful employment for the last eight to ten years, so I'm not complaining too much...

  2. IGotOut Silver badge

    ServiceNow.

    Loved by managers, hated by end users.

    Pretty charts, appalling interface.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: ServiceNow.

      Pretty useless charts, and an appalling interface.

      FTFY

    2. RM Myers
      FAIL

      Re: ServiceNow.

      I don't know about the pretty charts, but the appalling interface is spot on! Personally, I call them ServiceNot. Seems to be better than the Workday HRIS though, so maybe only the second worst user interface in Enterprise software?

    3. Cederic Silver badge

      Re: ServiceNow.

      The most annoying thing is that they've got a lovely engine underpinning it. There's a ton of value to be had and they hide it behind those fucking awful UIs.

  3. doublelayer Silver badge

    Bill, you may need my help

    “[W]e're humble and we're taking nothing for granted. We’re on the move to our destiny to become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century.”

    Oh, Bill. Here are definitions for humble, take for granted, and destiny. Read each of these and get back to me. You have one or more of them wrong and we need to make sure you have a good understanding of them if you're ever planning to use them again.

  4. Dwarf

    ServiceSometime

    Dear Bill,

    I think it should be re-branded as above since the current name is misleading as to the actual responses you get.

    Regards

    Anyone that has to use the software

    Your RITM has now been closed with a status of "Rejected"

  5. jake Silver badge

    Spot the issue:

    "We’re on the move to our destiny to become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century.” he said, humbly.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
      Angel

      Re: Spot the issue:

      He forgot to say "manifest destiny"...?

  6. disgruntled yank

    BINGO!

    "exposing weak links in value chains, illuminating how companies struggle cross-functionally to deliver the workflows that create great experiences for customers, employees and partners"

    Honestly, El Reg should offer a Bingo Card as a Service (BCAAS) API so that its readers will have a way to focus while reading articles with large stretches of management-speak.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: BINGO!

      Yet he somehow neglected to mention how such enabling pardigm shifts are via smart blockchain-secured AI running machine learning in hybrid clouds.

      Surprisingly amatuer for a tech CEO.

      1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Must proof-read my own posts.

        Well that reads like shit and it's too late to edit the post.

        What I meant to say is: ...how such paradigm shifts are enabled via...

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Must proof-read my own posts.

          You can always withdraw the original and then make a "new", edited, post. I've done that a couple times when one of the cats helpfully posted an incomplete thought, making it appear that my intent was the complete opposite of what I meant.

  7. noisy_typist

    SNOT

    Some people have taken to abbreviating ServiceNow to SNOW. Whilst I can see a similarity (in the UK all it takes is a little snow for everything to grind to a halt), I prefer to abbreviate ServiceNOw Ticket to SNOT, so when you assign a ticket to another team you "flick a SNOT" at them. Seems more fitting.

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