Workflow biz ServiceNow ServiceWows itself by beating Q4 guidance and posting hefty top line growth of 31% for FY2020

IT helpdesk vendor ServiceNow has beat its own forecasts for calendar Q4 revenue and posted 2020 growth of 31 per cent. Led by Bill McDermott, the ebullient former SAP boss, the workflow software biz reported revenue for Q4 of $1.25bn, representing a 31 per rise year-on-year. The vast majority of this was based on …

[Anonymous Coward]

Profits, costs, operating expenses?

> Gross profit for the quarter hit $971m – yes, that's a margin of 78 per cent. But operating expenses almost wiped that out, leaving a profit from operations of $17.9m, lower than the $28.5m made a year earlier.

Not quite sure what that is saying. Gross Profit = Revenue - Costs. So what are these operating expenses that weren't deducted as costs when calculating the $971m figure?

[Korev]

"The secular tailwinds of digital transformation, cloud computing and business model innovations have all intersected at the perfect moment in time, a paradigm here is happening worldwide."

He's speaking a lot, but not saying anything....

[Anonymous Coward]

Not surprised, they grab money at every turn.

- Simple approvals by a line manager for a catalog request now require a chargeable licence, not the case a few years ago

- As a certified SN admin, I now have to pay $200 every two versions to keep my cert valid. Used to be free

I love the product, but the money grab makes me worry. Some clients have started to realised ServiceNow is too big and too expensive for their needs and cut back down to something less powerful and customisable but, most importantly, less expensive.

Much of the ServiceNow sales pitch is based on a nirvana that is rarely achievable without huge investment in both licences and technical resource.

Anonymous for obvious reasons. ServiceNow consultancy has been paying my bills for over 4 years now...

[Potemkine!]

FTFY

It's all about screwing people

As the wage slaves as the customers. The only thing that matters is to satisfy the bean counters.

[FrenchFries!]

"It's all about people, empathy at mass scale is the business imperative of the 21st century,"

Empathy and capitalism are like 100% mutex. (In my Valley Girl voice)

[RLWatkins]

Remember when Larry Ellison sold Oracle...

... not to technical staff, but to executives, by repeating the meaningless mantra "Oracle puts all your enterprise's information at your fingertips"?

The tactic still works.

(Recall also that the original Oracle was a temple where one went to seek answers from the gods.)

[dipole]

This product is the worst piece of sh!t which has been inflicted upon me since Lotus Notes.