ServiceNow is an award-winning provider of advanced Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. ServiceNow helps users develop powerful automated workflows, provides an extensive range of easy-to-integrate tools and solutions, and is the market-share leader in IT service management (ITSM). ServiceNow provides an extremely wide selection of AI-driven, cloud-based tools and applications, each built on the Now Platform and integrated to exchange data and enhance collaboration across systems and departments. These applications support everything from process automation and IT operations to sales and order management, customer service, HR management, and finance and supply chain, enabling organisations to optimise workflows, improve efficiency and drive digital transformation.
Taking the benefits of CRM and improving upon them, ServiceNow offers comprehensive customer service management (CSM). CSM transforms customer service by using AI-powered workflows to accelerate self-service, boost agent productivity and shorten resolution times. By connecting people and data across departments and automating processes, CSM makes it easy to serve customers from one platform. Sales and Order Management (SOM) is an AI-powered solution that integrates and automates the flow of work across sales, quoting, order fulfilment and post-sales service, helping organisations accelerate and boost revenue, reduce costs and improve customer experiences. ServiceNow's single architecture, pre-built workflows, and integrated AI help organisations achieve faster time to value, lower costs and consistently deliver improved results.
GenAI is a specialisation of artificial intelligence that creates original content—such as text, images and media—by learning from large data sets. ServiceNow's Now Assist and Salesforce's Einstein use GenAI to enhance workflow automation and customer relationship management, providing predictive insights and personalised assistance tailored to meet specific organisational needs.
- Now Assist delivers AI-powered experiences within the ServiceNow platform that increase productivity with intelligent suggestions and task automation within workflows. It integrates seamlessly across various business areas, such as IT, HR and customer service, providing AI-driven insights, summaries and automation for improved decision-making and efficiency. Now Assist uses purpose-built Now LLMs (large language models) and allows for custom AI workflows through the Generative AI Controller. With its extensive app-development toolset, Now Assist gives developers the power to generate custom code, workflows, new playbooks and complete apps using plain language. Organisations also have the flexibility to connect to third-party LLMs.
- Salesforce Einstein is an AI platform embedded within Salesforce products, offering AI-generated content across sales, service, marketing and commerce. Einstein GPT and Einstein Copilot enhance user productivity by automating tasks, generating insights and personalising interactions. It combines Salesforce's proprietary AI with generative AI models from partners, targeting customer engagement and automation.
Customer experience refers to the overall perception and satisfaction customers have with a brand—shaped by every interaction, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Effective CX tools help enhance the interactions that impact the customer experience.
- ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) is designed to optimise customer service operations by providing end-to-end issue resolution. It leverages automation, AI and omnichannel support to enhance customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs. With integrated self-service options, cross-departmental collaboration and real-time insights, CSM helps organisations refine their workflows, proactively address issues and provide personalised customer care that automates the flow of work across every team involved.
- Salesforce Service Cloud focuses on customer engagement (intake) through its CRM platform, offering tools for managing customer interactions across multiple channels. It provides a comprehensive view of customers through its Customer 360 platform, enabling businesses to deliver personalised service. Service Cloud is highly customisable but may require additional add-ons for features like process automation and service catalogue integration.
- ServiceNow Field Service Management (FSM) streamlines field operations by integrating scheduling, dispatching and workforce management. FSM enhances customer experience by reducing friction and leveraging predictive intelligence for operational insights.
- Salesforce Field Service focuses on managing and optimising onsite service operations by scheduling resources and dispatching technicians. It is designed for customer-centric operations, integrating with Salesforce's CRM to track service performance and enhance customer engagement.
- ServiceNow Sales and Order Management (SOM) is a comprehensive platform that integrates sales, quoting, order management and post-sales service to streamline the lead-to-renewal lifecycle. It enables faster product launches, automates sales and fulfilment workflows, and offers real-time visibility into the customer lifecycle, reducing order fallout and enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Salesforce SFA (Sales Force Automation), CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) and Order Management streamline sales processes from lead generation through to order fulfilment. These systems automate quoting, pricing and order handling, integrating customer data across Salesforce's Customer 360 platform to provide a complete view of the sales process.
IT service encompasses the management and support of an organisation's technology systems, which impacts nearly every business function. By ensuring reliable technological infrastructure, organisations can maintain smooth operations, minimise disruptions and manage risks more effectively.
- ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) intelligently delivers resilient IT services, reduces cost, boosts agent productivity and serves exceptional experiences to employees—all on one AI platform for business transformation. ServiceNow ITSM resolves incidents fast and increases change throughput while reducing outages, promoting self-service and continuously optimising processes.
- Salesforce IT Service Center (ITSC) is a third-party product that is part of Salesforce's work.com offering. It integrates endpoint management with Salesforce's service desk, providing basic IT service management capabilities. The work.com documentation for ITSC states that it is managed by a third party with whom Salesforce no longer has a relationship, and there have been no documentation updates for ITSC since 2022. It does not include features like a native configuration management database (CMDB) and relies on external integrations for more complex IT environments.
Employee experience describes the overall journey and interactions employees have with a company. A positive EX is crucial as it directly impacts employee satisfaction, productivity, retention and more, ultimately influencing a company's ability to attract and keep top talent. EX tools help businesses encourage employee engagement by streamlining processes, fostering communication and providing their workforces with a supportive, efficient work environment.
- ServiceNow HR Service Delivery (HRSD) provides a unified platform for managing employee services and HR processes. It offers a single portal for employees to access support, step-by-step guided experiences for key HR events and personalised workspaces for HR agents. Automation and AI-driven insights help streamline HR workflows and optimise inefficient processes.
- Salesforce HR Service Center (HRSC) is designed to manage employee service requests within the Salesforce ecosystem. It leverages Salesforce's cloud infrastructure to provide employees with self-service capabilities and HR agents with case management tools. HRSC focuses on employee engagement through integration with Salesforce's Customer 360 platform and collaboration tools like Slack. HRSC is a newer product, but it supports basic HR service functions and offers integration opportunities with other Salesforce tools.
Automation in business makes it possible for employees to accomplish more in less time, allowing intelligent tools to handle basic, repetitive or mundane tasks so that human professionals can focus on strategically important activities. Low-code solutions take this further, providing users with intuitive tools for quickly assembling and modifying applications without needing extensive technical expertise or coding literacy.
- Automation Engine is a comprehensive platform that connects systems, automates workflows and streamlines processes. It integrates modern and legacy systems using RPA, AI and low-code API tools, offering native integration with the Now Platform. With more than a thousand pre-built components, Automation Engine provides quick time to value for automating cross-enterprise workflows.
- MuleSoft is Salesforce's unified platform for integration, APIs and automation. Integrated with Salesforce Flow, it enables users to automate processes and manage workflows. MuleSoft offers both RPA capabilities and low-code integration through MuleSoft Composer.
ServiceNow App Engine vs Salesforce Low-Code AI Builders
- ServiceNow App Engine is a low-code platform designed to help businesses build custom applications quickly. It empowers both citizen developers and professional coders to create and scale enterprise-grade applications with built-in governance and collaboration. By leveraging the Now Platform, it integrates workflows, AI, mobile and analytics into a unified development experience.
- Salesforce Lightning App Builder provides tools to build and extend AI capabilities within Salesforce. With features like Copilot Builder and Model Builder, users can create custom AI models, automate tasks and embed AI-driven actions into their CRM workflows, offering personalised customer and employee experiences.
Because business platforms interact with and manage so much sensitive information, cybersecurity must be a primary consideration when choosing a PaaS solution. Cybersecurity tools are integral for maintaining business continuity and securing both internal operations and customer data.
- ServiceNow Security Operations provides a unified platform for managing cybersecurity threats, automating responses and enhancing collaboration across IT and security teams. It integrates security, IT asset management and risk workflows, leveraging AI-driven insights and automation to quickly identify, prioritise and resolve vulnerabilities.
- Salesforce Cloud Data Security & Privacy focuses on safeguarding customer data with encryption, monitoring and compliance tools. It offers solutions like Salesforce Shield for tracking data access, Security Center for managing permissions and Backup & Restore for ensuring data resilience across cloud environments.
ServiceNow offers a fully comprehensive IT solution, bringing together the full functionality of the most essential business applications and tools. And while Salesforce offers powerful support for CRM and related services, only ServiceNow provides the kind of complete, end-to-end experience that spans customer experience, employee experience, sales and order management, IT, HR, automation and more—and all powered by advanced AI on a single, cloud-based platform.
More specifically, here are five reasons to partner with ServiceNow:
ServiceNow is ideal for businesses of all sizes and industries. As versatile as it is intuitive, the Now Platform unites sales, fulfilment, customer service, HR, IT and other critical functions into a centralised, integration solution. With its ease of use, low-code capabilities and advanced AI capabilities, ServiceNow empowers both technical and non-technical users to build, manage and optimise the processes that drive success. So, if you're looking to streamline operations, automate workflows and drive digital transformation across every corner of your business, all on one AI-powered platform, ServiceNow can make it happen.
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