Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has once again stirred the pot, this time with a bold pledge to expand into IT Service Management (ITSM).
During a recent appearance on the Motley Fool podcast, Benioff highlighted how Salesforce is "building new apps, like ITSM."
The comment followed his earlier teaser during an earnings call: "At our TrailheadDX event... You might get a glimpse of the new ITSM product that's coming if you look hard."
While that product flew under the radar at the event, Salesforce seems set to make some significant moves in the ITSM space.
The murmurs are particularly intriguing, given the current dynamics of the ITSM and CRM markets.
ServiceNow, the dominant player in ITSM, has been making waves by venturing into CRM, a domain where Salesforce reigns supreme.
Indeed, in the CRM market, Salesforce outsells its closest competitor - Microsoft - by almost four-to-one.
Yet, ServiceNow now wants to take a big piece of that pie.
ServiceNow Is Making Its CRM Intentions Clear
Earlier this week, ServiceNow agreed to acquire Moveworks for $2.8BN.
In an interview with CNBC, Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, highlighted how the roll-up will aid numerous front-office teams and bolster his company’s bid to be "the market leader" in CRM.
For years, many have challenged Salesforce's CRM market dominance, competing primarily on price. So far, they've only managed to secure a fraction of the market.
However, ServiceNow can offer something a little different.
Unlike other market players, it doesn't just compete on front-office functionality.
Instead, it connects its CRM application with various middle- and back-office workflows, touching order management, inventory, invoicing, and beyond.
In doing so, ServiceNow takes an end-to-end approach that enables a more data-rich CRM experience.
While Salesforce may still claim ascendancy in ease-of-implementation and core CRM feature-depth - especially as ServiceNow relies on partners to deliver a marketing CRM - ServiceNow has differentiators.
As such, it may offer a long-term threat to Salesforce, especially given its popularity amongst IT teams.