ServiceNow and Deloitte Extend Strategic Alliance Agreement to Transform Employee Experiences for the Next Normal

ServiceNow and Deloitte announced that the two organizations have extended their strategic alliance to help customers accelerate their HR Service Delivery (HRSD) efforts and provide employees with exceptional digital experiences, anywhere. Together, ServiceNow and Deloitte will conduct joint go-to-market activities to support ServiceNow’s HRSD solution through global sales, enablement, and training activities. Leveraging its demonstrated track-record of success with ServiceNow and other Human Resource technology solutions, Deloitte will collaborate with ServiceNow to expand product features and functions which create business value at scale for joint customers.  

The need for business functions to work together has never been more important. ServiceNow’s HRSD solution complements Deloitte’s market-leading Human Capital and HR Transformation consultancy offering to unlock enterprise productivity and streamline a unified, omnichannel employee experience to manage their work needs, access important resources and raise inquiries. By eliminating silos across the workplace and allowing engagement with HR, IT, Legal and Workplace Services in one place, the Now Platform reduces friction for a truly unified employee service experience, so employees can focus on the meaningful work they were hired to perform.

“We looked to ServiceNow and Deloitte to help simplify our global HR processes while accounting for country-specific localization requirements that would enable Citibank to digitally transform our HR operations,” said Jeff Bienstock, Global Head of HR Technology, Citibank. “The joint expertise enabled us to offer easy access to information for employees and HR agents globally so we can continue to deliver world-class service with minimal disruption.”

As many organizations shift from a “work from home” to a “work from anywhere” model, ServiceNow’s HRSD solution enables them to better manage inquiries across a remote workforce and ensure critical events like virtual onboarding, offboarding and transitions are seamless. Deloitte will use ServiceNow HRSD to deliver a world-class digital employee experience solution to help clients transform their HR Service Delivery Functions and enterprise-wide Employee Experiences.

“The Now Platform has become the industry standard for digital transformation, and our customers are embracing technology to help them create simple, unified digital experiences for employees, from anywhere,” said Blake McConnell, SVP of Employee Workflow Products at ServiceNow. “Our strategic alliance with Deloitte will help accelerate the ‘next normal’ workplace so employees can stay connected and productive while working from home. As an Employee Experience leader, ServiceNow can cut across multiple G&A functions, providing employees with seamless, integrated solutions that help to empower their safe return to the workplace.”

“In recent months we’ve seen the needs of HR technology and workforce experiences rapidly evolve as organizations adjust to a virtual workforce. This shift has underscored the importance of operating in a digital-first environment to improve productivity and the flow of work while minimizing disruption across internal functions,” said Michael Stephan, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Leader of Deloitte’s US Human Capital practice. “Today as we expand our collaboration with ServiceNow, we do so with the work and workforce in mind, bringing more HRSD solutions to market to provide integrated digital experiences and reduced silos and help our clients transition to the future.”

In 2019, Deloitte and ServiceNow announced a strategic agreement to accelerate organizations’ enterprise digital transformations. The companies jointly developed new products, assets and solutions built on the Now Platform to help joint clients deliver seamless digital experiences across the enterprise, improve workflows and enhance productivity. In January, ServiceNow announced that Deloitte is the strategic go to market partner for its Financial Services Banking solution where ServiceNow and Deloitte will transform the way banks operate.

RIM now gets double attack from Microsoft, Nokia

Microsoft Corp and Nokia announced an alliance on Wednesday to bring business software to smartphones and counter the dominance
Apple of Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry.

The alliance between the world's largest software company and cellphone maker means the latest versions of Microsoft's Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and messaging, will be available on a range of Nokia cellphones, which make up 45 per cent of the global smartphone market.

The two companies, at one time fierce rivals in the mobile telecommunications business, expect to offer Nokia phones running Office sometime next year.

"This is giving some of our competitors -- let's spell it out, RIM -- a run for their money," said Nokia Executive Vice President Robert Andersson, in a telephone interview. "I don't think BlackBerry has seen the kind of competition we can provide them now."

Research in Motion's BlackBerry created the market for mobile e-mail, and its dominant position in the corporate sector, especially in North America, has protected it from Nokia's attempts to crack the market in recent years.

"RIM should be reasonably safe in the near-term because Nokia's presence in the US is relatively small," said Neil Mawston from research firm Strategy Analytics. "Partnering more closely with Microsoft will help to raise Nokia's profile in the US"

The alliance also aims to counter Google Inc's recent move into free online software, targeted at Microsoft's business customers, and the growing popularity of Apple Inc's iPhone device.

"It's clear that Nokia and Microsoft are both facing competitive challenges, most notably from Google," said John Jackson, an analyst at wireless research firm CCS Insight. "It makes sense for these two companies to work together to see if they can pool their competitive strengths to try and counter some of this pressure."

The alliance means Microsoft's new Office suite of applications could be available to a much wider audience than the users of Windows Mobile phones, which make up 9 per cent of the smartphone market.

"We see this as a great opportunity to deliver Office Mobile to 200 million Nokia smartphone customers," said Takeshi Numoto, an executive at Microsoft's Office business.

Analysts said Microsoft is clearly looking at the largest possible audience with the Nokia deal.

"The deal is a good win for Microsoft and it will surely now be hoping to upsell the Microsoft suite of operating systems
into Nokia's possible portfolios of smartphones, mobile Internet devices and netbooks over the next couple of years," said Strategy Analytics' Mawston.

The two companies stressed that the new venture will not affect the future of Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Nokia's Symbian operating systems for smartphones. Executives said Nokia has no plans to make a Windows Mobile device.

"We are extremely committed to Symbian," said Andersson. "This is very clear. This is a multi-year collaboration building on Symbian. We are as committed as before, if not more," he said.

Microsoft shares rose 2.1 per cent to $23.62 on Nasdaq while Nokia rose less than 1 per cent to 9.30 euros in Helsinki. Shares in RIM were 0.5 per cent lower in Toronto.

Agencies

IBM in sales alliance with Japan's Ricoh

IBM and Japanese office equipment maker Ricoh Co Ltd will start sharing each other's sales network this year and promote their servers and printers together, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

The alliance will enable them to offer corporate clients International Business Machines Corp's servers and Ricoh's copiers and printers as a comprehensive office information technology system, the Nikkei said.

Ricoh expects the new business ties with IBM to help boost its sales by 100 billion yen ($1.10 billion) in two to three years, the newspaper said.

The Tokyo-based company, which competes with Canon Inc, Xerox Corp and Konica Minolta Holdings in copiers and printers, forecast 2.15 trillion yen in sales for the current business year ending March.

IBM and Ricoh will start handling each other's products in their U.S. sales channels in spring 2009, with the cooperation set to expand to other regions including Europe and Asia eventually, the paper said.

Officials at Ricoh, which in 2007 bought IBM's digital commercial printer business for $725 million, were not immediately available for comment.

Digital commercial printers are used to print big documents such as product manuals and direct mail quickly and in large volumes, and are one of the fastest-growing segments of the office equipment market.

Source: Agencies