Many organizations across industries worldwide are implementing cutting-edge technology solutions, such as ServiceNow, to automate workflows and gain insights into business performance. The idea is to focus more on core business operations by streamlining the administrative or repetitive tasks with ServiceNow’s cloud-based solutions.
According to ServiceNow’s Global Impact Report 2023, 85% of Fortune 500 companies use ServiceNow.
Having said that, given the range of solutions available for implementation through ServiceNow or ServiceNow partners (an organization with the authority to deliver ServiceNow solutions to customers), the question that CIOs, IT procurement managers, or other such stakeholders in companies primarily get is, “How much does ServiceNow cost?”
ServiceNow offers a subscription-based pricing model, allowing organizations to access ServiceNow solutions by paying a recurring fee. Organizations may not be able to get the exact pricing details on the internet because ServiceNow does not explicitly provide the information, essentially because ServiceNow pricing is influenced by a lot of factors, and there is no one-size-fits-all cost.
In this blog post, we will deep dive into the three key factors that influence ServiceNow pricing for organizations.
The 3 Key Factors that Influence ServiceNow Pricing
While pre-implementation, consultation, and maintenance expenses are a couple of the elements included in overall ServiceNow pricing, there are three important factors that determine the cost of purchasing ServiceNow solutions. These include:
1. Industry and Region
ServiceNow offers solutions tailored to the needs of organizations in various industries, such as Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and more, across various locations. So, one of the primary factors that impact ServiceNow pricing is the industry and location of the organization. For example, the cost to be incurred by a healthcare company in the US planning to implement a particular ServiceNow solution will differ from that for a healthcare company in Asia-Pacific (APAC).
2. Application Suite, Package, and Licenses
The next important factor that drives ServiceNow pricing is the application suite, the application package, and the types and volume of licenses that an organization chooses to purchase. Each application comes with its own types of packages and licenses. For example, ServiceNow ITSM comes with three packages (ITSM Standard, ITSM Pro, and ITSM Enterprise) and three types of licenses (Requester, Business Stakeholder, Fulfiller). So, ServiceNow pricing for ITSM can be determined based on the package and the number and types of licenses an organization decides to purchase (to learn more about the common types of ServiceNow licenses, head over to our blog post).
By collaborating with ServiceNow or ServiceNow partners, CIOs, account managers, solution architects, and IT procurement managers, among others, can identify the right applications and license types to be purchased, saving costs, and ensuring a smooth ServiceNow journey.
How to Choose the Right Application Package?
Generally, it is advisable to begin your ServiceNow journey with the standard package of the chosen ServiceNow solution and move to the advanced package after three years or when your organization reaches the next level of business maturity and requires state-of-the-art technologies such as Generative AI on the ServiceNow platform. This approach helps improve cost-efficiency.
3. Company Size and IT Budget
The size of the company and its IT budget is another crucial factor that influences ServiceNow pricing. Typically, as the number of employees or active platform users increases, so does the ServiceNow pricing. Although, in some cases, the cost of purchasing ServiceNow solutions can be high, even for a small organization. For example, certain small organizations with 50-100 employees may have extensive IT needs, requiring a large-scale implementation of ServiceNow solutions. In such cases, the ServiceNow pricing could surpass the cost for a large organization, which, despite having 1000-5000 employees, may depend on IT and ServiceNow solutions to a lesser extent.
Apart from the above factors, the overall ServiceNow pricing may change when organizations have specific requirements, such as integrating ServiceNow with other systems or customizing the ServiceNow platform. Therefore, there is no fixed cost for ServiceNow solutions. While considering these factors can enable organizations to get a rough estimate of the total cost of purchasing and implementing ServiceNow, the right approach to get the exact ServiceNow cost is to connect with a ServiceNow representative or a ServiceNow partner.
Want to learn more about ServiceNow pricing and find out how much it will cost for you to implement ServiceNow?
ServiceNow – Less of a Cost, More of an Investment
Whether it is a large, medium-sized, or small organization, ServiceNow’s cloud-based solutions can help companies transform their business operations and accelerate digital transformation to maximize their ROI. If purchasing a standalone ServiceNow instance is costly for small or medium-sized organizations, they can opt for an MSP (Managed Service Provider) instance provided by ServiceNow partners like KANINI.
As a ServiceNow Premier Partner, we help organizations identify the right ServiceNow solutions after understanding their challenges, implement the solutions swiftly and effectively, and enable them to derive maximum value from their investments. Through our MSP model, we collaborate with the relevant stakeholders and make purchasing ServiceNow affordable for organizations while managing their instances and doing the heavy lifting on their behalf. Get in touch with us to learn more about our ServiceNow capabilities.
Author
Ravi Rajamani
Ravi is the ServiceNow Practice Lead at KANINI. He brings close to 18 years of experience in the IT industry and has strong program & project management skills spanning ServiceNow, Resource Management, Solution Design, and Service Delivery. He has a proven track record of helping enterprise customers leverage ServiceNow platform efficiently.
