A Closer Look: Celonis, ServiceNow and Find, Frame, Fix

Celonis and ServiceNow formed a strategic partnership in October 2021 to combine forces to couple the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) with ServiceNow's Now Platform. The aim is to accelerate transformation at the speed customers expect to realize new levels of performance.

Since the partnership was announced by ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott and Celonis co-CEO Alex Rinke, Celonis and ServiceNow have been meeting with joint customers, working on integrations and outlining a value proposition that is taking on more urgency amid supply chain disruptions and inflation.

The two companies have a mutual resale agreement and Celonis will be at ServiceNow's Knowledge 2022 conference. 

Rinke and ServiceNow Chief Operating Officer CJ Desai had a fireside chat at World Tour 2022 Bay Area. ServiceNow has been a Celonis customer and is standing up a Celonis Center of Excellence. Desai said:

"What we saw specifically is that Celonis is a very powerful product as you see definitely on the processes, whether it's on the ERP side or on the customer service side. Where this partnership becomes really important for us is when Celonis finds the problem and frames it in the context of the ROI. Then the ServiceNow workflow can take action. I think this is super complimentary as two platforms coming together so that all of you can maximize your investment not only in us, but all your critical transformational priorities."

Here's a look at where the partnership stands today. We'll update as developments warrant.

Meet Find, Frame and Fix

Find, Frame and Fix is a handy way to understand how Celonis and ServiceNow fit together. Find and Frame refers to Celonis' ability to use process mining to X-ray processes to find what's broken and then quantify the performance impact from inefficiencies. Celonis brings more than 100 process connectors and more than 500 pre-built analyses to the table.

ServiceNow's portfolio is the Fix portion of the equation with its Now Platform being used to build workflows, standardize, simplify and automate work. ServiceNow has more than 1,000 pre-built workflows.

Enterprises will be able to initiate ServiceNow workflows from Celonis and surface Celonis process insights in ServiceNow.

Another way to think about find, frame and fix: Celonis reveals broken work and outlines the business impact of change and ServiceNow enables the workflows across the organization.

Procurement, Order Management and Accounts Payable key processes

Celonis and ServiceNow are initially targeting procurement, order management and accounts payable as core processes identified by the partnership. Given the pain points with supply chain and inflation, the focus is timely.

The two companies know that many of the hidden inefficiencies in those use cases are the silent killers of performance.

A few examples:

• In procurement, optimization would result in better pricing, opportunities to pick more sustainable suppliers and streamline approvals.

• In accounts payable, invoice data entry errors and more efficient invoicing could yield real value.

• And in order management, canceled orders due to stock-outs could be eliminated and credit checks could be streamlined.

Here's how the Celonis and ServiceNow partnership would work in procurement.

While procurement is a top-of-mind area, there are myriad processes for the two companies to target.

Systems transformation play

McDermott has said on earnings conference calls that Celonis' value is that it can find, and frame broken systems and processes outside of the ServiceNow platform. The ServiceNow CEO sees a big market in transforming ERP processes.  On ServiceNow's fourth quarter earnings call January 26, McDermott said that "in the non-ServiceNow environments, especially where it's an ERP environment, Celonis does a very good job in the process mining to actually understand where the breaks are, and the opportunities are in the business process to drive business productivity and performance."

McDermott reiterated that take on ERP in a recent interview with Diginomica.

Desai at World Tour 2022 reiterated some of those views and said Celonis and ServiceNow combine to create a system of intelligence and action on top of existing ERP investments. "Some of the ERP processes we understand are complex. The upgrades are complex," said Desai.

The trick is using Celonis and ServiceNow to collapse data silos to make them intelligent and actionable.

Rinke completed the thought: "It's not really replacing the ERP, but it's adding this innovation layer and modernization layer on top of it," he said.  

Clean systems, modern processes

Combined, the two companies are planning to create low-code, future-state apps and workflows and embed process mining for real-time optimization as well as actions and workflows.

ServiceNow and Celonis have launched joint delivery methodologies aligned with their respective ecosystems and plan to offer unified customer support.

Larry Dignan

Editor in Chief (former)

Larry Dignan is the former Editor in Chief of Celonis Media. Before joining Celonis, he was Editor in Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine.