5 for 15: Charles Woodall, ServiceNow head of service providers and integrators, Asia-Pacific and Japan

1. Key channel plays for 2015

The biggest partner play in 2015 will be embracing the next wave of Cloud adoption across what has historically been considered on premise and legacy lines of business. The lines of demarcation between Cloud and legacy systems are no longer blurred and now cross all lines of business, so looking to move new areas of the enterprise, beyond IT, into the cloud will be key this year. There’s a sizable opportunity for integration providers to help enterprises move to the Cloud.

2. Key technology for 2015

Cloud will continue to dominate business discussions in 2015, specifically we’ll see a quiet storm gathering around enterprises adopting Cloud platforms. Cloud platforms are typically less understood architecture but serve as a growing greenfield for enterprise innovation, application creation and business agility. Those enterprises that leverage cloud platforms will unearth a number of great business opportunities in the year to come.

3. Key message to the channel for 2015

In 2015, ServiceNow will continue to invest heavily in our partners and supporting programs. We believe the only barrier to partners success is the limits of their imagination. Partners need to look for opportunities to sell broadly across the whole enterprise and not just within IT.

4. Key warning to the channel for 2015

The biggest risk for the partner community in 2015 is continuing to promote legacy on premise solutions that do not enable businesses to both future proof their IT environments and provide measurable value to the broader business. While myths around the Cloud still exist, its important for partners to help customers see through the clutter and understand the true benefits of leveraging the Cloud.

5. Key to your company’s success in 2015

The key to ServiceNow’s continued success in 2015 will be its ongoing engagement with CIOs and showing the value of our services across other business divisions such as HR, legal, finance and facilities domains. Our customers are embracing our Cloud platform in a much broader sense then originally designed. Subsequently, our partners are an integral part in helping our customers realise the benefits of adopting ServiceNow.