ServiceNow

Corporate brand

An enterprise cloud software company whose platform automates IT, employee, customer, risk, security, and other business workflows.

Last updated November 4, 2026

AI crawler reads

No AI crawler has read this profile since Oct 28, 2026.

Overview

ServiceNow is an American enterprise software company that provides a cloud platform for designing, operating, and automating business workflows. The company is best known for IT service management, but its scope extends across IT operations, customer service, human resources, security operations, governance, risk and compliance, software development, asset management, and other enterprise functions. The business began in 2003 as Glidesoft, founded by Fred Luddy in Santa Clara, California. Luddy had previously been chief technology officer of Peregrine Systems and sought to create a modern, cloud-based successor to enterprise service-management tools that had become difficult to maintain and deploy. ServiceNow initially focused on replacing fragmented help-desk and IT-support processes with a shared, configurable system delivered over the internet. The company incorporated in California in 2004 and changed its name to Service-Now.com in 2006 before later adopting the shorter ServiceNow name. ServiceNow's central proposition is a common workflow and data layer for large organizations. Instead of treating every department as a separate application silo, the platform connects requests, approvals, assignments, assets, knowledge, service-level commitments, risk records, and operational data. Customers can configure applications and create workflows using platform tools, while developers can extend the system through JavaScript-based scripting and ServiceNow's Glide object-oriented interface. This architecture has allowed the company to expand beyond traditional IT help desks into broader enterprise automation. The company grew from a small venture-backed start-up into a major public software provider. Early financing from JMI Equity enabled hiring beyond Luddy, and the business reported positive cash flow in 2007. Frank Slootman became chief executive officer in 2011, and ServiceNow completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2012. Soon afterward, the company moved its headquarters from San Diego back to the Santa Clara area. John Donahoe later served as chief executive before being succeeded by Bill McDermott, formerly chief executive of SAP, at the end of 2019. ServiceNow has expanded its capabilities through both internal development and acquisitions. Acquired technologies have contributed to mobile applications, machine learning, analytics, cloud-management tools, observability, enterprise search, conversational interfaces, and AI. Its products are generally sold as subscription software to enterprises and public-sector organizations, with implementation and integration frequently supported by large consulting and technology partners. The platform is organized into product families and applications rather than a single stand-alone product. Core offerings include IT Service Management, IT Operations Management, IT Asset Management, Strategic Portfolio Management, Customer Service Management, HR Service Delivery, Security Operations, Integrated Risk Management, Governance, Risk and Compliance, and App Engine. Performance Analytics provides reporting and visualization, while mobile and low-code capabilities let organizations expose workflows to employees, technicians, customers, and managers. Artificial intelligence has become a major part of ServiceNow's product strategy. The company has added machine-learning features, conversational experiences, generative summarization, text-to-code functions, and partnerships intended to bring large-language-model capabilities into enterprise workflows. In this model, AI is used not only to produce text but also to classify work, recommend actions, summarize cases, search corporate knowledge, and initiate governed business processes. ServiceNow operates internationally and serves customers across industries including financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, healthcare, government, retail, and professional services. Its competitive positioning rests on breadth of workflow coverage, integration among applications, enterprise security and governance, a large implementation ecosystem, and the ability to standardize processes across complex organizations. The company has also faced scrutiny over platform access controls after reports in 2024 that misconfigured knowledge-base permissions could expose confidential information from corporate instances. ServiceNow remains an active, publicly traded enterprise-cloud brand headquartered in Santa Clara.

History

ServiceNow was founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy as Glidesoft, Inc. in Santa Clara, California. Luddy had previously been chief technology officer at Peregrine Systems, an enterprise software company whose products addressed service management. His new company was conceived as a cloud-delivered alternative to older, heavily customized enterprise tools and was intended to make IT support and other internal services easier to request, track, and automate. Luddy was initially the company's only employee. In 2005, a $2.5 million venture investment from JMI Equity supported the hiring of five additional employees and gave the young company the resources to develop its subscription software model. The company changed its name to Service-Now.com in 2006. In 2007, it reported annual revenue of $13 million, opened its first Silicon Valley office in San Jose, and reached positive cash flow. Its early growth was driven by organizations seeking a web-based system for help-desk tickets, service catalogs, configuration records, approvals, and workflow management. By early 2011, ServiceNow had offices in San Diego, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, London, and Frankfurt, and it had developed a significant consulting relationship with Accenture. Frank Slootman was appointed chief executive officer in April 2011. During this period the company broadened its ambitions from IT service management toward a general enterprise platform capable of coordinating workflows and data across departments. ServiceNow completed a $210 million initial public offering in June 2012 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. After the offering, the company relocated its headquarters from San Diego to Santa Clara, California. Public-market status supported continued investment in sales, research and development, international expansion, and acquisitions. ServiceNow subsequently became a constituent of major U.S. stock-market indices, including the S&P 500 and S&P 100. Acquisitions became an important part of the company's product expansion. Mirror42 strengthened performance and dashboard capabilities; Neebula Systems contributed cloud-management technology; and later purchases added security, machine learning, mobile, analytics, design, application development, observability, enterprise search, and data-management capabilities. The acquisition of SkyGiraffe helped form the basis of ServiceNow's mobile platform, while the purchase of Lightstep supported observability. Other acquisitions, including Loom Systems, Passage AI, Element AI, Intellibot, Era Software, G2K, UltimateSuite, and additional specialist businesses, were directed toward automation, AI, analytics, and workflow intelligence. In 2019, ServiceNow announced that John Donahoe would be succeeded by Bill McDermott, who had previously led SAP. McDermott became chief executive at the end of that year. Gina Mastantuono joined as chief financial officer in January 2020 and later also became president. Under this leadership, the company continued shifting its narrative from an IT help-desk provider to an enterprise workflow and platform company. The ServiceNow Platform uses a common data model, configurable applications, APIs, workflow tools, analytics, and JavaScript-based extensibility. Its Glide interface supports database interaction and platform scripting. Product families cover IT, customer service, human resources, security, risk, compliance, operations, software development, and application creation. Interconnected modules allow events in one business process to trigger tasks or controls in another, such as assigning remediation work after a risk or audit finding. Artificial intelligence has become increasingly central to the platform. Earlier machine-learning functions helped classify and route work, while later releases added conversational experiences, generative summarization, text-to-code, enterprise search, and AI-assisted workflow execution. A 2023 partnership with Nvidia focused on AI services for enterprise help desks. ServiceNow's broader strategy has been to embed AI into governed business processes rather than offer it only as a general-purpose chat interface. The company serves global enterprises and public-sector organizations across many industries. Its ecosystem includes consulting firms, systems integrators, technology partners, and a developer community that helps customers implement and extend the platform. ServiceNow's growth has also brought operational and security scrutiny. In 2024, reports described a potential exposure of confidential information caused by misconfigured access controls in knowledge-base environments used by corporate customers. The issue highlighted the importance of customer configuration, permissions, and governance in a highly extensible cloud platform. ServiceNow remains an active public company headquartered in Santa Clara.

2024
United Kingdom investment announced
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow announced plans for a $1.5 billion investment in the United Kingdom.
2023
Generative AI features released
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow released generative-AI functions such as summarization and text-to-code, while announcing an AI partnership with Nvidia.
2021
Observability and workflow intelligence expansion
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
Acquisitions including Lightstep, Swarm64, Mapwize, and Gekkobrain broadened observability, data, location, and workflow capabilities.
2020
AI and automation acquisition program
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
The company acquired Loom Systems, Passage AI, Attivio, and Sweagle, among other technology businesses, to expand automation, AI, and data capabilities.
2019
Bill McDermott succession announced
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow announced that Bill McDermott would succeed John Donahoe as chief executive.
2017
Design and mobility expansion
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow acquired Telepathy and SkyGiraffe, strengthening its design organization and enterprise mobility capabilities.
2014
Neebula Systems acquisition
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
The company acquired Neebula Systems, adding cloud-management capabilities.
2013
Mirror42 acquisition
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow acquired Amsterdam-based software developer Mirror42.
2012
Initial public offering
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow completed its public listing on the New York Stock Exchange and subsequently moved its headquarters to Santa Clara.
2011
Frank Slootman becomes chief executive
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
Frank Slootman was appointed chief executive officer as the company entered a period of accelerated expansion.
2007
Positive cash flow and Silicon Valley office
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
ServiceNow reported its first positive cash-flow year and opened a San Jose office.
2006
Name changed to Service-Now.com
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
Glidesoft adopted the Service-Now.com name as it developed its service-management brand.
2005
JMI Equity financing
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
Venture financing enabled the company to expand beyond its founder and hire its first additional employees.
2004
California incorporation
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
The company was incorporated in California.
2003
Company founded as Glidesoft
[1]ServiceNowen.wikipedia.org
Fred Luddy founded Glidesoft in Santa Clara, California, to build cloud-based service-management software.

Products and positioning

An enterprise-grade cloud workflow platform that connects departmental processes, operational data, automation, analytics, and AI in a governed system of action.

Enterprise workflow platform
ServiceNow Platform
The core cloud platform provides a shared data model, workflow engine, application framework, APIs, security controls, analytics, and development tools. Organizations use it to configure standard applications and build specialized workflows for employees, customers, technicians, managers, and other users. Its JavaScript-based extensibility and Glide interface support customization and integrations.
IT service management
IT Service Management
IT Service Management supports help-desk operations, incident and problem management, change control, service catalogs, requests, knowledge, service-level tracking, and configuration-related processes. It is the product family most closely associated with ServiceNow and provides the operational foundation for many enterprise customers.
IT operations management
IT Operations Management
IT Operations Management helps organizations discover infrastructure, map services, monitor operational conditions, manage events, and connect technical signals with business services. It is designed to give operations teams a consolidated view of infrastructure and service health while automating responses to recurring conditions.
Customer service software
Customer Service Management
Customer Service Management extends workflow automation to external customer support. It connects cases, self-service, knowledge, fulfillment teams, product or service records, and field or back-office processes so that customer issues can be routed and resolved across organizational boundaries.
Human resources software
HR Service Delivery
HR Service Delivery provides employee-facing service portals, case management, knowledge, document and request workflows, and support for common human-resources processes. The product uses the same platform approach to coordinate HR teams, employees, managers, and other internal service providers.
Risk and compliance software
Integrated Risk Management
Integrated Risk Management connects risk identification, policy, compliance, audit, evidence collection, issues, and remediation activities. Findings can generate tasks and assignments through connected workflows, allowing organizations to coordinate governance and control activities rather than manage them as isolated records.
Security software
Security Operations
Security Operations applies ServiceNow workflow and case-management capabilities to security incidents, vulnerabilities, threat response, and related operational work. It is intended to connect security teams with IT, asset, risk, and business-service data so that response actions can be prioritized and tracked.
Enterprise analytics
Performance Analytics
Performance Analytics provides reporting, trend analysis, dashboards, indicators, and visualization for ServiceNow workflows and operational data. It helps managers evaluate service performance, workload, process bottlenecks, risk conditions, and other performance measures using information generated by platform activities.
Artificial intelligence · 2023
ServiceNow AI
ServiceNow AI encompasses machine-learning and generative-AI capabilities embedded in enterprise workflows. Functions include classification, recommendations, conversational assistance, case summarization, enterprise search, text generation, and text-to-code features. The strategic emphasis is on applying AI within governed business processes and allowing resulting actions to be tracked in the platform.

Controversies

2024
Knowledge-base access-control exposure
Reports said that a misconfiguration in access-control settings for the knowledge-base module could make potentially highly confidential information accessible across more than a thousand corporate user environments. The matter highlighted the security implications of customer permissions and configuration in a highly customizable cloud platform.
Source

2023
Generative AI integrated into the platformProduct launch
Background
Large-language-model technology was becoming a major direction for enterprise software and service operations.
Action taken
ServiceNow released generative summarization and text-to-code capabilities and announced an AI collaboration with Nvidia.
Aftermath
AI became a central part of the company's product narrative, with emphasis on embedding assistance and automation into governed workflows.
Source
2019
Leadership transition to Bill McDermottStrategy
Background
ServiceNow announced a leadership change after John Donahoe's tenure as chief executive.
Action taken
Bill McDermott, formerly chief executive of SAP, was selected to lead ServiceNow.
Aftermath
The company continued positioning itself as a strategic enterprise platform while investing in workflow automation, AI, and industry applications.
Source
2017
Expansion beyond traditional IT service managementStrategy
Background
ServiceNow sought to make its platform useful across more departments and user groups than the traditional IT help desk.
Action taken
The company acquired design, mobility, security, machine-learning, and workflow-related businesses and expanded its application portfolio.
Aftermath
The platform developed into a broader enterprise workflow system spanning IT, employees, customers, security, risk, and operations.
Source
2012
Public listing on the New York Stock ExchangeOther
Background
ServiceNow had expanded its cloud service-management business and required public-market access to support continued growth.
Action taken
The company completed an initial public offering and began trading under the ticker NOW.
Aftermath
ServiceNow continued international expansion, product diversification, and acquisition activity as a public enterprise software company.
Source

Recent events

2026-10-23
ServiceNow announces general availability of ServiceNow Arc[3]ServiceNow宣布ServiceNow Arc正式推出it-online.co.za
Reported: 2026-10-23
ServiceNow announced the general availability of ServiceNow Arc, a personal, long-running AI agent whose actions are governed at runtime by ServiceNow Super Intelligence Control Tower and enforced by Nvidia OpenShell.
2026-10-21
ServiceNow Arc becomes available[4]ServiceNow Arc 正式可用original.ifeng.com
Reported: 2026-10-21
ServiceNow announced that its long-running personal AI agent, ServiceNow Arc, was officially available, with its management system controlling related operations at runtime and OpenShell enforcing constraints.
2026-10-19
ServiceNow announces 18 San Diego sales layoffs[5]ServiceNow宣布在圣迭戈裁减18个销售岗位sandiegouniontribune.com
Reported: 2026-10-19
ServiceNow announced that it will lay off 18 workers in sales at its San Diego office. The article reports this is the company's third round of San Diego layoffs this year.
2026-10-12
Sakon launches Ask Milo AI companion application for enterprise telecom on ServiceNow Store[6]Sakon 推出企业电信 AI 伴侣应用 Ask Milo，现已上线 ServiceNow 商店itbusinessnet.com
Sakon announced the availability of Ask Milo, an AI-powered companion application for its Sakon Telecom Connect platform, now available on the ServiceNow Store. The application lets employees complete common enterprise mobility requests conversationally within ServiceNow.
2022-01-06
NetImpact receives ServiceNow ITAM certification and Workflow Badge[7]NetImpact 获得 ServiceNow ITAM 认证及 Workflow 徽章prnewswire.com
Reported: 2022-01-06
NetImpact announced that it received IT Asset Management Product Line Certification and was awarded the Now Platform Workflow Badge.
2021-11-11
AMI Strategies launches mobilityNOW in the ServiceNow Store[8]AMI Strategies在ServiceNow商店推出mobilityNOWprnewswire.com
Reported: 2021-11-11
AMI Strategies announced that its mobilityNOW mobility-management platform was live in the ServiceNow store, enabling enterprises to manage mobile and IoT device lifecycles through the app.
2021-10-25
Mindtree and ServiceNow expand Connected Operations partnership[9]Mindtree与ServiceNow扩大Connected Operations合作prnewswire.com
Reported: 2021-10-25
Mindtree announced an expanded relationship with ServiceNow to build industry-specific IoT solutions using ServiceNow Connected Operations for enterprises, including those in manufacturing and consumer goods.
Unconfirmed
ServiceNow invests $10 million in CareAR[10]ServiceNow 向 CareAR 投资 1,000 万美元crn.com
CareAR received a $10 million strategic investment from ServiceNow.
2021-08-05
ServiceNow announces acquisition of Swarm64[11]ServiceNow宣布收购Swarm64itbusinessedge.com
Reported: 2021-08-05
ServiceNow announced that it had acquired Swarm64; completion was scheduled for the third quarter of 2021.
2021-07-24
ServiceNow expands partnership with Microsoft[12]ServiceNow扩大与微软的合作webpronews.com
Reported: 2021-07-24
ServiceNow expanded its partnership with Microsoft to include Azure Sentinel, Threat & Vulnerability Management, Teams, and SharePoint integrations, enabling data from Microsoft services to be brought into ServiceNow for analysis.

Showing the 10 most recent.

Sources39 sources

Cite this profile: Cite the canonical profile. /brand-wiki/servicenow · Editorial policy · How profiles are compiled