If you are running a business you must know how important Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and IT Service Management (ITSM) are for businesses. CRM is a tool that helps companies track their customer relationships. It makes sure that businesses stay connected with their customers and potential customers, which helps to keep them happy and engaged. This, in turn, reduces the number of customers leaving and helps to make more sales.
On the other hand, IT Service Management (ITSM) is all about organizing and managing the way a company’s IT services work. It ensures that everything in the IT department runs smoothly and efficiently. This includes things like making sure the right procedures are in place, having the right people to handle IT tasks, and using the best technology available. When IT services are managed well, it helps the whole organization to achieve its goals more effectively.
Businesses always have to look for better ways to manage their work and connect with customers. There are many popular CRM and ITSM platforms and solutions that are helpful for businesses. However, we want to help you by comparing two top platforms, Salesforce and ServiceNow, so you can pick the one that suits you best.
Further, we will delve deeper into both of them, compare their features, discuss their latest updates in 2024, and ultimately guide you in choosing the one that best fits your business needs in 2024.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce helps businesses when it comes to managing relationships with customers. It’s well-known in the CRM world for making it easier for companies to grow and reach their targets. With Salesforce, businesses can do lots of things like handling sales, customer service, marketing, analyzing data, and even creating custom applications.
History and Evolution of Salesforce
In March 1999, Salesforce started in a small apartment in San Francisco. The people who started it – Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Frank Dominguez, and Dave Moellenhoff – had a big idea.
They wanted to make business software in a new and better way. Instead of businesses paying a lot of money upfront for software, they would pay as they use it, kind of like renting it (i.e. SAAS pricing model). This made things easier for businesses because they didn’t have to deal with big costs upfront or long waits for the software to be ready. Plus, they didn’t have to worry about constantly updating it.
Over time, Salesforce became a huge name in helping businesses connect with their customers in better ways all around the world.
Core Offerings and Key Features of Salesforce
Salesforce started as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform, but now it has extended its services in various fields, from Artificial Intelligence to the Internet of Things. Some of the popular features of Salesforce include:
- Account and Contact Management: It gives you all the details about each customer, like what they’ve done in the past, who they’ve talked to, and who the important people are to contact.
- Opportunity Management: It assists in handling all the sales deals and staying in touch with the people and information needed to finish each deal.
- Salesforce Engage: It lets you give marketing materials to the sales team so they can sell better for the company.
- Sales Collaboration: This feature in Salesforce helps the sales team work together using strong social tools.
- Sales Performance Management: This tool helps teams set goals based on numbers and measurements. It also gives the sales team feedback regularly and rewards them for their hard work.
- Lead Management: This tool helps businesses understand how their marketing efforts affect their sales pipelines. It shows them how their advertising, promotions, and other marketing activities influence the number of potential sales opportunities they have.
- Salesforce Mobile App: This feature turns your mobile device into a mini sales office that you can take anywhere. With just one app, you can handle meetings, events, and updates for your accounts, all while on the go.
- Workflow and Approvals: With this tool, you can create and automate any business process easily. You just drag and drop elements to design the process visually.
Industries and Sectors Where Salesforce is Commonly Used
Salesforce helps businesses in many different fields to make their work smoother, sell more, and build better relationships with customers. Reports from various industries show that companies in Professional Services, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Retail, Technology, Healthcare, Non-Profit, and Education all use Salesforce because it’s flexible and can handle their different requirements.
What is ServiceNow?
ServiceNow is a tool that’s popular for managing IT services. It’s like the go-to tool for making sure everything in the IT department runs smoothly. But it’s not just for IT – ServiceNow can also help manage services in other areas like HR, facilities, and even field service operations.
History and Evolution of ServiceNow
ServiceNow started in 2003 under the name Glidesoft, Inc., created by Fred Luddy. It officially became a company in California in 2004. Before this, Luddy worked as the chief technology officer for Peregrine Systems, another software company.
Initially, ServiceNow focused on providing IT service management (ITSM) through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. But as time went on, it expanded its services. Now, it’s a major player in workflow and automation, helping businesses make their operations smoother and provide excellent services to customers and employees.
Core Offerings and Key Features of ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a cloud-powered system for organizing work and automating tasks. It can handle lots of different IT and other important tasks and capabilities. Some key features of ServiceNow are:
- Easy Customization: This tool lets businesses customize the platform to fit their needs.
- Low Maintenance Cost: Lowers the expenses of keeping up with IT equipment and systems.
- Real-Time Reporting and Analysis: This feature gives businesses instant information that helps them make smart choices.
- Data Integrity and Confidentiality: This feature makes sure that business information is safe and private, so nobody unauthorized can access it.
- Enhanced Tracking of ITSM: This feature helps make managing IT services easier and better.
- Minimum Response Time: This feature helps in fixing IT problems faster.
- Implementation Based on Required Instances: This tool lets businesses adjust the platform to fit how much they need it.
- Simple Configuration: This tool makes it simple for businesses to get started with and operate the platform.
- Adaptation to All Types of Environments: This ensures that the platform is compatible and can operate effectively in a wide range of IT setups and environments.
Industries and Sectors Where ServiceNow is Commonly Used
ServiceNow helps many different types of businesses to make their work smoother, sell more, and build better relationships with customers.
Reports from various industries show that companies in Education, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Logistics, Manufacturing, Nonprofit, Retail, Service Providers, and Telecommunications, Media, and Technology sectors all use ServiceNow because it’s flexible and can handle their different requirements.
Salesforce vs ServiceNow
When it comes to CRM and IT service management, two big names stand out: Salesforce and ServiceNow. They’re both popular platforms that can do a lot, but they each have something different. Let’s take a closer look at both of them.
Salesforce vs. ServiceNow Features
According to the features listed above, let’s compare the two based on some key factors:
- Scope: Salesforce primarily focuses on customer relationship management and sales-related functions, while ServiceNow caters to broader organizational needs including IT service management and workflow automation.
- Customization: Both platforms offer customization capabilities, but ServiceNow emphasizes easy adaptation to specific business requirements.
- Maintenance Cost: ServiceNow highlights low maintenance costs, which can be appealing for businesses seeking cost-effective solutions.
- Real-Time Reporting: ServiceNow emphasizes real-time reporting and analysis, potentially providing more immediate insights for decision-making compared to Salesforce.
- Security: Both platforms prioritize data security, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of business information.
- Mobility: Salesforce offers a dedicated mobile app for sales activities, while ServiceNow’s mobility features are not explicitly mentioned.
Ultimately, the choice between Salesforce and ServiceNow will depend on the organization’s specific needs and priorities, such as focus on sales versus broader organizational workflows, customization needs, and budgetary considerations.
Salesforce vs. ServiceNow Integration Capabilities
Salesforce is good at connecting with other Salesforce tools and apps from other companies. It’s easy to link everything together. ServiceNow is also good at connecting with other IT services, but sometimes it takes a bit more work to connect with lots of different apps.
Salesforce vs. ServiceNow Customization and Flexibility
Both Salesforce and ServiceNow let you change and set things up in a big way. ServiceNow is often chosen because it’s easy to change and set up the way you want it. Salesforce is great because even if you’re not a programmer, you can still make big changes using its simple customization tools, which don’t need any coding knowledge.
Salesforce vs. ServiceNow User Interface and Ease of Use
The Service Cloud from Salesforce is a customer service platform designed to help businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. It has an easy-to-use interface that’s modern and simple. You don’t need much training to figure it out. On the other hand, ServiceNow’s interface is a bit more complicated, but it comes with a bunch of cool features and options to change things up.
Salesforce vs. ServiceNow Customer Support and Community
Both Salesforce and ServiceNow have good support from their users and communities. On Gartner.com, Salesforce has a rating of 4.4 stars from 1882 reviews, and ServiceNow has a rating of 4.3 stars from 1883 reviews. This means that lots of people like and use both platforms, and they have lots of people who can help you if you need it.
Salesforce and ServiceNow in 2024 and beyond
Let’s take a closer look at how these platforms have changed in 2024 and what new stuff they’ve added.
How Salesforce has Evolved in 2024?
Salesforce, the top cloud-based software for managing customer relationships, keeps getting better in 2024. Since it started in 1999, Salesforce has gone from just a simple CRM to a whole bunch of tools that help businesses with marketing, finding new customers, keeping customers happy, and lots more.
In 2024, Salesforce added a bunch of new stuff to make their platform even better. One cool thing they introduced is called Einstein Copilot. It’s like having a smart helper built into all Salesforce apps. With this feature, businesses can make various actions and processes happen automatically or create their actions using Flows, Apex, or MuleSoft APIs.
Another big change is the addition of generative AI in the Spring ’24 release. This helps companies work faster with AI and automation, and keep important customer and company information safe with Einstein’s Trust Layer.
For example, Einstein Copilot is a customizable, conversational, and generative AI assistant for CRM. It is intended to be integrated into all Salesforce applications to help teams become more productive. It can answer queries, summarize content, generate new content, comprehend complex discussions, and dynamically automate tasks on behalf of the user. Similarly, Salesforce Flows is a solution that enables you to automate business processes by creating apps called as Flows.
How ServiceNow has Evolved in 2024?
ServiceNow, a top platform for managing IT services and operations, has made big improvements in 2024. They’re focusing on making things automated, keeping everything super secure, and making sure customers have the best experience possible. They’re raising the bar for how things should be done in the digital world.
In 2024, ServiceNow is getting into using AI and ML technologies. By adding AI/ML automation to the NOW platform, businesses can make hard tasks easier, make smarter decisions, and change how they manage services and operations in the future.
Another big thing to keep an eye on, this year, is how low-code platforms are used in ServiceNow. These platforms make it easier to do tricky stuff like setting up complicated workflows, connecting with other systems, or making custom apps. They give businesses the flexibility and speed they need to change and grow as things keep changing.
Case Studies
Salesforce and ServiceNow have been instrumental in driving business success across various industries. Let’s explore some success stories of businesses that have leveraged these platforms in 2024.
Success Stories of Businesses Using Salesforce in 2024
Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, has been at the forefront of helping businesses leverage their data effectively. Here are some success stories from 2024:
- HIC: At HIC Global Solutions, Piyush Singhal, who is the co-founder and CEO, used Salesforce’s features to make tasks easier by automating them. They did this by using ready-made actions or creating actions that can do many things using Flows, Apex, or MuleSoft APIs.
- Concern Group: A mental health care organization, saved time on administrative tasks and improved customer experience by using a clever appointment management system.
- Zurich North America: They made their HR process easier as they moved towards digitization.
These companies have not just changed CRM but have also become important partners in driving business innovation, making designs focused on users, and ensuring strong data security.
Success Stories of Businesses Using ServiceNow in 2024
ServiceNow, a revolutionary platform for advancing technology and the digital landscape, has set a new standard in this digital era. Here are some success stories from 2024:
- HDI: HDI made a brand-new portal for HR services using ServiceNow.
- Zurich North America: This company made the HR process easier as they moved towards using more digital tools.
- York Risk Services: York Risk Services upgraded their HR services using ServiceNow to make them even better for the future.
These organizations have reaped the benefits of a customized ServiceNow platform and accelerated automation across their IT workflows.
Which One is Better in 2024: Salesforce Vs ServiceNow?
Picking between these two platforms depends on lots of things, so let’s talk about their pros and cons, and what you should think about when choosing between Salesforce and ServiceNow in 2024.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Salesforce
Salesforce is a big CRM platform with lots of positive points that make it popular. It helps with sales and marketing by automating things like keeping track of leads and managing data. In 2024, Salesforce added some new stuff like Einstein Copilot, which is an AI assistant that talks to you, and some AI features that help you do things automatically.
But Salesforce also has a few downsides. It might be hard for people who are new to it, and it can be pricey for small businesses. Plus, it doesn’t have as many IT service management features as ServiceNow does.
ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a big CRM platform that businesses use for managing IT services and operations. It’s good at making IT tasks easier and more automated. In 2024, ServiceNow added AI and ML technologies to make automation even smarter for businesses.
However, ServiceNow’s interface is a bit harder to use than Salesforce’s, and it might take more work to connect it with lots of other things.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Salesforce and ServiceNow in 2024
When choosing between Salesforce and ServiceNow, it’s crucial to understand your organization’s specific needs and evaluate the key features and capabilities of each platform. Here are some factors to consider:
- Scalability: Think about how your business will grow over time. Will the platform be able to grow along with your business?
- Customization: Check out how much you can change things on each platform. Can you make the platform work the way you need it to for your business?
- Integration Options: Think about how well each platform can work with the systems you already have. Can it fit in smoothly with what you’re already using?
- Pricing: Evaluate the pricing structure of each platform. Is it cost-effective for your business?
- Customer Satisfaction: Look at what other people are saying about each platform. Are the people who are already using it happy with how it works?
Conclusion
When comparing Salesforce and ServiceNow, we can see that both platforms have their strong points that can be useful depending on what your business needs. Salesforce is good at managing customer relationships and making sales better because of its powerful CRM features. On the other hand, ServiceNow is great for managing IT services, making tasks smoother, and delivering services efficiently.
Both Salesforce and ServiceNow have changed over time to keep up with how things are changing in the digital world, making them useful for any organization. When you’re deciding between Salesforce and ServiceNow, you should think about what your business goals are, what you need to do day-to-day, and what your team needs.
Keep in mind, that the right tool is the one that helps your organization reach its goals and is easy for everyone to use. Whether you pick Salesforce or ServiceNow, both can help your business change with technology and succeed in 2024 and the future.
We recommend you explore these tools further and harness their potential to propel your business forward. After all, in the rapidly evolving digital world, staying ahead means continually adapting, learning, and making the most of the tools at your disposal.
References
- https://blog.externetworks.io/salesforce-or-servicenow-whats-the-better-choice/
- https://iide.co/case-studies/swot-analysis-of-servicenow/
- https://crm.org/news/servicenow-review
- https://biznewske.com/swot-analysis-of-salesforce/
- https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/it-service-management-platforms/vendor/servicenow
- https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/sales-force-automation-platforms/vendor/salesforce
- https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/product-release-news-spring-2024/
- https://cyntexa.com/blog/what-is-salesforce/
