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ServiceNow Inc. is feeling good about itself after posting solid financial results again in its latest quarter, beating market expectations and seeing its stock price edge upwards in after-hours trading.

The company, which sells workflow automation software to enterprises, reported third-quarter income before certain costs such as stock compensation of $129 million, or 72 cents per share, on revenue of $676.2 million. That easily beat Wall Street’s view, which had pegged the company down for earnings of just 60 cents per share on revenue of $657.9 million.

ServiceNow’s strong performance can be put down to its success on the customer acquisition front, especially in the government sector, executives said.

In an earnings call, ServiceNow Chief Executive John Donahoe said the company now counts more than 5,000 enterprise customers in total. This includes 25 transactions with more than $1 million in net new annual contract value that were closed on during the third quarter. The company now has 614 customers with more than $1 million in annual contract value, which is up 37 percent from the same period a year ago.

Donahoe said on the call that the company had picked up a number of new customers from the U.S. government. “This was our largest federal quarter ever, with the U.S. government representing our biggest deals, and underscoring how digital transformation is becoming both a public and private sector imperative worldwide,” Donahoe said.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said it wasn’t surprising to see ServiceNow’s customer base growing, as it provides key services that almost any enterprise can benefit from.

“Economies are becoming service economies, and services need services, which are covered as “cases”,” Mueller said. “And case management remains the secret sauce and growth engine for ServiceNow as it grows in traditional segments, like IT management, and newer ones, like employee call centers.”

ServiceNow will be hoping to secure more new customers following its acquisition of a company called FriendlyData earlier this month that’s intended to make its platform easier for nontechnical users to work with. FriendlyData, which was acquired for an undisclosed price, allows workers to query data in plain English and obtain insights that can be used to inform business decisions. Its technology should be useful because voice is rapidly emerging as a user interface in the workplace.

In any case, ServiceNow’s shareholders seem to be encouraged by the company’s progress. In the after-hours trading session, its stock price rose 2.5 percent, quite a healthy rise on a terrible day for the overall market. Update: Shares were up only a small fraction of a point in midday trading Thursday.

Photo: ServiceNow/Facebook