As business technology rapidly evolves, organizations find themselves with many innovative tools that may not connect with each other. For organizations investing in new software, like customer communication platforms or onboarding solutions, they need to find new ways to connect workgroups and conserve resources. When this happens, IT is tasked with either developing a custom application to fit specific business needs or finding a cost-effective solution in the marketplace.
ServiceNow offers a solution that satisfies each option: a marketplace offering applications and third-party integrations certified by the platform and guaranteed to perform. Organizations can choose from free and paid options to integrate their existing software, find new applications to solve problems, and more. Combined with their development platform that makes it easy for customers to build custom apps, the ServiceNow Store can be a game-changer for these companies.
What is the ServiceNow Store?
The ServiceNow Store is a marketplace for both free and paid applications explicitly developed on the ServiceNow platform. Every ServiceNow Store app is created and supported by ServiceNow technology partners. ServiceNow has also verified every application’s compatibility with the platform and its security. So customers can quickly deploy new features without needing to undergo lengthy or expensive application testing.
What does the ServiceNow Store Offer?
Right now, there are a total of 347 available applications in the ServiceNow Store. Compared to the 80 applications offered when ServiceNow released the store in 2015, the platform is quickly increasing the number of options for customers each year. As Pat Casey, Vice President and General Manager of the ServiceNow Platform Business Unit said of the store’s release, “The store will inspire customers by providing ready-to-run apps for services they might have never imagined they could automate. We hope our customers will feel like ‘kids in a candy store.’” There are already 96 applications specific to the ServiceNow Kingston version in the store, which was just released a few months ago.
Applications in this marketplace include third-party integrations, like the recent ServiceNow Slack integration or GitHub integration. Offering these integrations means customers will not need to invest in new technology or business solutions. Instead, they can seamlessly connect their existing software to the ServiceNow platform.
Finding What You Need in the ServiceNow Store
Despite the sheer volume of applications and integrations available, the ServiceNow Store is organized to make it very easy to find what you need. Customers can browse through the store’s offerings by sorting by application type, ServiceNow release, price, and industry. Sorting by category is useful if you are looking for specific products within these areas:
- IT Business Management
- IT Operations Management
- IT Service Management
- Platform
- Security and Risk
- Service Management
- Software Lifecycle
Customers can even search for applications built by ServiceNow’s own technology partners, like Infocenter, which is helpful when evaluating different options to support the platform and its strategic feature implementation.
Try Before You Buy
There is nothing worse than wasting money on a product or application that nobody in the company ever uses. It is even worse to invest in a piece of technology that ends up being too tedious or confusing to offer a real solution. That is why ServiceNow’s store gives customers the ability to download free 30-day trials of most applications.
The NOW Support team released an instructional video in 2017 that offers technical advice for customers looking to try, buy, or install applications. This video explains how to navigate the ServiceNow store to download and install trials and applications. It also offers step-by-step instructions on purchasing applications using either a credit card or a purchase order. Customers looking to try or purchase apps for the first time will find this video guide helpful.
Get Notified when Apps Update
Customers do not need to worry about using an outdated application on their ServiceNow platform when purchasing it through the store. When a partner upgrades or changes an application on the marketplace, ServiceNow sends an email to your company’s admin and sends a notification to their production instance. Quick upgrade notifications offer continued value for customers on the platform.
Expanding Platform Value Through the ServiceNow Store
ServiceNow customers have more options than ever to customize their platform to fit business needs. With nearly 350 applications and integrations at their fingertips, organizations can connect existing software and workgroups easier than ever. This enhanced customization is another way that ServiceNow has become a powerful leader in digital transformation through service management. Explore the ServiceNow application market to find new ways to connect and improve your company’s technology.