Enterprise innovation 'stuck in the 1970s' but 'ServiceNow out to change that' says CEO Frank Slootman

Slootman kicks off Knowledge 15 by arguing enterprise tools need to be as innovative as consumer tools like Uber, and execs unveil ServiceNow's new app store

The enterprise is "stuck in the 1970s" when it comes to delivering internal services, but the explosion of innovative applications that provide services at the touch of a button, like Uber, demonstrate that this doesn't have to be the case.

That's according to ServiceNow CEO Frank Slootman, who made the comments during "Managing everything as a service", the opening keynote of the enterprise cloud firm's Knowledge 15 conference in Las Vegas.

"The consumer side is going nuts. It's just been an explosion of services and all this stuff that you see like Uber and Waze, it's just incredible innovation," he told the audience gathered in the Mandalay Bay conference centre.

"The reason that the service side has exploded is because they really had to, because in terms of scale there was just no other way to reach the audience," Slootman continued, adding that "the mother of invention is necessity".

Slootman went on to discuss how humans, despite being "very communal and very social" by nature are increasingly turning to services that don't require having to speak to another person, such as using Uber to order a taxi using an app rather than picking up the phone, because it's more efficient.

"On the consumer side, we're not talking to people anymore, we're talking to machines, we're talking to clouds and we're talking to computers. It's how we shop, it's how we travel, it's how we do almost everything - even socialising," argued Slootman.

However, he said that for most people "when we get to the workplace it all changes" because the enterprise hasn't caught up with how people are using technology in their everyday personal lives.

"I'm always amazed how in my job I see many of you in your cities and countries. Your buildings are pretty impressive from the outside; they're shiny and bright and modern and just look the part," Slootman told the audience.

"Then I walk through the front door and get inside and it's not quite as glorious. You go inside and you're stuck in the 1970s. We're so behind in terms of innovation and productivity inside our workplace," he said. "That's really what ServiceNow is out to change."

One way in which ServiceNow hopes to bring firms up to date is through the use of its new enterprise application marketplace, which was announced during the opening keynote event.

The platform is designed to aid organisations to deploy "everything as a service" and ServiceNow executives argued that the new store will "enable IT organisations to be more agile, flexible and responsive to the needs of the business".

"Our customers know they can always do more with ServiceNow but don't always have the time or skills to create their own apps," said Pat Casey, vice president and general manager, ServiceNow Platform business unit.

"The store will inspire customers by providing ready-to-run apps for services they might have never imagined they could automate," he continued.

"We hope our customers will feel like kids in a candy store," Casey concluded.

ServiceNow customers include Pret A Manger. The fast food firm's director of IT, Andy Chalklin, has previously told Computing that ServiceNow's cloud-based service management platform has freed up staff to spend more time focusing on providing better customer service.