Cloud automation company ServiceNow Inc. is going after more industries as it tries to find new avenues to grow its revenue streams.

The company announced today at its Knowledge 2021 event that it’s expanding into the manufacturing and the healthcare and life sciences markets with new products and tools that it says will support companies’ digital transformation efforts.

In manufacturing, ServiceNow announced a new Operational Technology Management platform that integrates with outside tools such as Siemens AG’s Managed Detection and Response product to help ensure the availability of customers’ most critical technology systems.

The company said the new offering works by connecting information technology systems with factory machines to provide manufacturers with greater visibility. Using pre-built workflows and change management processes, customers will be able to get a better understanding of the connections and dependencies between their computer systems and machinery, avoid downtime and improve their response to and recovery from any issues that come up.

The Operational Technology Management platform is all about empowering factory workers through relevant training, data and digital workflows in order to improve decision-making, ServiceNow said. It said this will lead to big improvements in overall equipment effectiveness, a reduction in costs and continuous performance improvements.

The new product features out-of-the-box integrations with a number of existing manufacturing tech systems, such as Atos SE’s Atos Product Quality Inspection tool that helps manufacturers manage product quality and reduce supply chain risk. It also pairs with Fujitsu Ltd.’s Smart Factory tools to enable predictive maintenance for factory machines, the company said.

In addition, customers can integrate ServiceNow’s Operational Technology Management with Siemens’ Managed Detection and Response platform to enhance factory security.

“To secure the digital-driven economy of the future, industrial companies need cybersecurity solutions capable of monitoring, detecting, and acting on credible threat intelligence targeting operating environments,” said Leo Simonovich, Siemens’ vice president and global head of industrial cyber and digital security. “Our new collaboration brings together Siemens Energy’s Managed Detection and Response solution with ServiceNow Operational Technology Management to provide a purpose-built cybersecurity offering that protects the digital operating environment with precision defense.”

Healthcare and life sciences

ServiceNow’s second industry vertical offering announced today is all about improving workflows by connecting cross-functional health teams and streamlining touchpoints between patients and healthcare and life sciences organizations.

The foundation of ServiceNow Healthcare and Life Sciences Service Management is a new “Healthcare Agent workspace.” The company said it provides a 360-degree view of each patient for clinicians and contact center agents so these people can access the right information at the right time.

It also supports a new healthcare data model that enables interoperability of patient data, as well as the flow of information across organizations and departments. The pre-built workflows meanwhile are meant to reduce the friction that ServiceNow says is created by a reliance on paper-based notes and “tribal knowledge.”

Mutaz Shegewi, an analyst with International Data Corp., said that amid the shift from in-person visits to virtual healthcare, organizations need to provide better digital experiences for patients. “Organizations that provide solutions to help scale the digital front door will drive the future of healthcare,” he added.

Vaccine management

ServiceNow also announced an update to its existing Vaccine Administration Management product that debuted earlier this year and is used by organizations to scale up vaccine distribution and administration among the population. The product is designed to solve the “last-mile” challenge of vaccine rollouts that have faced significant delays in many places as a result of disconnected legacy computer systems and data silos.

Today’s update adds new capabilities for organizing appointments. For example, clinicians and their staff can now schedule walk-in appointments for both first and second dose appointments with in-person registration. Contact center agents also gain access to available appointment times, giving people an option rather than just scheduling for the first available slot. Finally, the platform now supports the ability for people to reschedule their vaccine appointments at different vaccination centers.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that today’s updates are another example of how ServiceNow continues to push the envelope in enterprise automation with its ticket- and workflow-based value proposition that can be applied to most kinds of business processes.

“ServiceNow is following functional and vertical directions to provide more in-depth capabilities to customers,” Mueller said. “This can be seen today with its new capabilities in smart manufacturing on the functional side, and more in-depth vaccine management and healthcare tools on the vertical side.”

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