ServiceNow vs. Salesforce: the importance of choosing the right that fits the needs  

Customer experience plays a key role when it comes to business growth. From the initial step of the customer journey through their lifecycle, companies aim to achieve the highest CSAT. That requires a lot of resources (both financial and human), strategic planning, as well as the right batch of technology stack. Here, we will compare two of the most popular software platforms used for these purposes  ServiceNow vs Salesforce.

Choosing the right technology that covers all needs (current and future) and can withstand ever-growing customers needs and competition is vital. However, markets overflow with possible solutions  from well-established names to brand-new players. That deepens the efforts of finding the one that fits the needs.

CRM and ITSM systems are the types of systems whose functionalities center around customers and their experience with the business. Thats why IT teams rely so heavily on tools like Salesforce and ServiceNow and embed them across their IT ecosystems, while companies that are still looking for the best systems to implement are often hesitating about ServiceNow vs Salesforce.

The two tools are found in the background, helping customer service and helpdesk teams manage their communication with clients and their requests. Both being powerful software, they have some distinguishable features that bring them closer and set them apart. In the following lines, well try to simultaneously decipher their main characteristics and compare them. By focusing our attention on the ServiceNow vs. Salesforce comparison, well outline why enterprises might want to use one over the other.

Well also look at the benefits of the potential ServiceNow Salesforce integration. What entities and data do the connection between ServiceNow and Salesforce allow to transfer; how using a no-code integration solution like ZigiOps can boost internal operations?  these are the questions well focus on while decoding the nature of a possible ServiceNow Salesforce connection.

What is ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is one of the most popular ITSM solutions. Mid to large-scale enterprises rely on it to help them optimize operations and workflows and even automate service management processes.

The SaaS platform helps service desk departments track, analyze and timely resolve client-related issues. Just like Salesforce, the ServiceNow platform is an all-in-one software solution. It consists of various modules which aim to help different business departments  IT, Customer Service, HR, Development, Security, etc. With ServiceNow, companies can automate and streamline their internal IT operations.

Companies choose ServiceNow because of the diversity of features, scalability, and control the system provides. You can check out the list of systems we can help you connect to ServiceNow (apart from Salesforce).

ServiceNow main features:

• IT Service Management. The ITSM nature of the systems allows for easy and fast configuration and deployment into the enterprises IT infrastructure. Its multifunctionality is reflected in the features its business users heavily rely on. In essence, ServiceNow's activities mostly center around the management of knowledge, requests (catalog, etc.), assets, costs, configurations, incidents, changes, and release of its products, as well as problems. Additionally, surveys, reports, assessments, benchmarks, and dashboards help shape the cycle of chain operations.
• ServiceNows ITBM feature aims to provide full transparency over the company's app portfolio and current projects. Thanks to it, Resource, test, and demand management are handled in a way that allows response teams to plan the enterprises next moves so that it scales its growth.
• Thanks to ServiceNow's comprehensive security features, IT teams orchestrate crucial activities such as data safety, configuration compliances, threat investigations, and timely incident response.
• The HR feature provides team members and customers with exceptional paths for interactions and high levels of end-user satisfaction.
• Through Application development, teams build their applications, control and speed up the time to roll out.
• The Customer Service Portal helps employees and departments connect, communicate freely, and exchange information. As a result, bottlenecks and data gaps are omitted, productivity enhances, and workloads speed up. Issue resolution happens quickly, elevating the levels of end-user satisfaction.

Preferring ServiceNow over the rest of the ITSM systems available on the market has its benefits:

• Easy integration within the enterprise IT ecosystems and effortless communication with the rest of the systems integrated into it.
• ServiceNow is relatively easy to use. Once deployed, the platform helps automate crucial business workflows and repetitive tasks. Workloads and resources are optimized, and employee productivity enhances.
• The system helps track each step of the internal IT operations and keep track of their resolution progress.
• As a cloud solution, ServiceNow can easily fit the requirements and needs of any network its incorporated into. That crucial feature helps make processes agile. Also, this characteristic of the platform helps reduce expenses by applying a consolidation of applications on an easy-to-use service management level.
• Outages and downtimes are easily tracked, investigated, and resolved.
• ServiceNow's Automation helps eliminate human-related errors and data leaks. and save time. As a result, the company's costs are minimized.
• The centralization of the internal IT assets, their automation, and granular control help enhance the teams productivity.
• With its versatile capabilities, ServiceNow acts as a single substitute for a list of different systems. The result  companies reduce costs and even achieve higher ROI.

What is Salesforce?

Over the years, Salesforce has gained a reputation for being one of the most reliable and sought-after CRM systems. From small start-up businesses to huge enterprise conglomerates, Salesforce helps customer service departments organize and automate the chain of client-related communication across multiple channels: phone, chat, social media, website forms, etc.

Salesforce can store a large amount of customer-accumulated data (along with its correlated details. As a result, customer service has a detailed overview of the entire customer journey and can provide the best services, following any current situation.

As a multi-layered CRM solution, Salesforce has various useful features to help improve its users day-to-day work activities:

• Sales Module. This Salesforce module enables the company's sales team to manage the customers database and seek possible opportunities. Billing, contacts, and orders are instantly automated, enhancing the sales departments performance and helping them leverage their results.
• Marketing Module. Cross-channel communication with existing ad prospect clients happens fast. The marketing team can streamline, manage and even personalize their approach to each of their clients. This customer-centricity help build trust and loyalty among end-users. The incorporated data management feature strengthens the relationship between client and businesses and even elevates it.
• Commerce Module: the innovative AI, integrated into the Salesforce platform, allows the sales department to proactively engage with their clients. That is possible through personalization of the communication path across the touchpoint channels.
• Service Cloud Module: It contains a self-service portal where customer queries are met with timely resolutions, thanks to the large Salesforce community.

Benefits of deploying Salesforce into the enterprises IT ecosystem:

• Salesforces comprehensive data storage abilities allow its users to manage and organize clients data in detail, making it easy for marketing and sales teams to plan and execute their business strategies.
• The CRM offers full transparency over accumulated clients information like personal data, contacts, accounts, tasks, and events. That makes the customer approach much easier and allows personalization.
• Thanks to the stored details, Salesforce significantly enhances pipeline management. As a result, prospecting and connecting with clients on different channels happens faster.
• An enhanced CRM system like Salesforce also helps with enhancing the overall productivity of the teams involved. Due to the systems automated workflows, work is optimized, and valuable time is saved. Errors and misunderstandings are limited if not eliminated at all.
• As with any successful customer relationship management solution, Salesforce has its own highly advanced Analytics feature. It helps dissect and perform granular analysis of collected data, which is used for reliable business forecasts.

• The tool enables smooth cross-team communication and collaboration. That diminishes possible friction between teams, allowing them to focus on their most important daily tasks.
• Scalable and agile, Salesforce can easily be integrated with a large variety of ITMS, ITOM, Cloud, and other CRM systems. The platform has its marketplace, AppExchange, which hosts more than 3000 different applications to integrate.
• Easy to customize, Salesforce smoothly adapts to the needs of small to big-size companies.
• Perhaps the most crucial benefit of using the Salesforce platform is the accumulated data and its accessibility.

If there is a need for connection Salesforce with other systems, feel free to look at the integrations we support.

ServiceNow vs. Salesforce: the similarities

Although both belong to different software categories (CRM and ITSM), there are a few notable similarities.

Both ServiceNow and Salesforce contain features that allow them to act as CRM and Sales systems.

The two systems help enterprises optimize their internal operations, reduce expenses on more than one level, and enhance teams productivity.

They offer a detailed overview of the entire customer journey. The amount of data ServiceNow and Salesforce accumulate allows teams (IT, customer service, and sales) to personalize their approach to end customers, answer their queries and resolve their issues as fast as possible. That helps strengthen the business-client bond and even attracts new prospects faster than planned.

Connectivity with other systems happens without much fuss.

ServiceNow vs. Salesforce: the differences

The most notable dissimilarity of Salesforce vs ServiceNow is that the first is a fully operational CRM system, while the latter's focus is on IT back-end operations management.

Salesforce is a customer-centric solution intended to help Marketing and Sales departments communicate with new and existing customers via different channels. The platform perfectly maps out the entire line of the customer journey (from the initial contact to its retention). Crucial personal data is accumulated, stored, and sorted out in a way that helps personalize clients messages.

ServiceNow, on the other hand, focuses mainly on internal workflows. Through their optimization and automation, enterprises have the time and resources to enhance their productivity and resolve client-related issues timely. The platform seamlessly communicates with the rest of the applications used by sales, service desk, and sales teams. Streamlining workloads helps those teams focus on providing consumers with the best experiences.

ServiceNow vs. Salesforce: what if used together

The ServiceNow Salesforce combination is a union between two quite comprehensive solutions. Their inclusion in one tech kit has its advantages. Once connected, the Salesforce team can transfer their customer cases to the ServiceNow IT team for issues investigation and remediation automatically. Tickets sync instantly. Client requests and incidents are immediately tracked to their root cause and resolved.

The integration between the two ( ServiceNow and Salesforce) also helps cut off manual work, misinformation, and gaps in the transferred information. Cross-team communication and productivity are also enhanced.

Using ZigiOps for a ServiceNow Salesforce integration

Why choose the ZigiOps connector? With ZigiOps bi-directional integration between Salesforce and ServiceNow, enterprises seamlessly transfer Cases, Comments, and Attachments between the systems. This allows coherent end-to-end data transfer between them and improves cross-team collaboration immensely. ZigiOps comes with a long list of pre-built templates, ready to be used. It also enables customization to fit specific use cases. Automate vital tasks in less than a few minutes and enhance productivity and team communication.

A powerful, no-code integration tool like ZigiOps helps instantly establish a stable and secure ServiceNow Salesforce connection. ZigiOps allows the immediate transfer of data between the two bi-directionally  such as Cases, Comments, and Attachments. The ZigiOps connector automates crucial ServiceNow Salesforce tasks/operations in less than a few minutes and enhances productivity and team communication. No additional coding is required.

With the help of the ZigiOps no-code connector, the ServiceNow Salesforce integration opens a channel for coherent end-to-end data transfer between the two systems and improves cross-team collaboration immensely.

Additionally, ZigiOps enables seamless end-to-end ServiceNow Salesforce data exchange in an instance. All data synchronization processes happen in a smooth manner.

ServiceNow vs. Salesforce: comparison chart

Here are some side-by-side comparisons to help you decide about ServiceNow vs Salesforce.

Conclusion

Choosing the right type of technology to implement in the enterprises IT ecosystem is critical for its survival and growth. The decision must be based on the needs of the company and its future goals. That's why opting for agile and highly scalable software that can withstand potential turbulences is vital. Also, concentrating on providing the best possible customer expediencies is key for market expansion and ROI. This is why companies often need to decide: ServiceNow vs Salesforce.

Both systems (ServiceNow/Salesforce) are great and help with gaining competitive advantages. Thanks to their comprehensive features, the two help sales and marketing teams cope with customer inquiries, resolve any potential issues in time and build healthy relationships with customers. Having either of them embedded in the IT infrastructure of the company provides stability and personalized communication with prospects and current customers. However, many enterprises need to use both for different reasons. The ServiceNow Salesforce integration allows companies to cut costs, enhance their departments performance and achieve high levels of CSAT.

Also, the ServiceNow Salesforce connection enhances the systems capabilities and takes automation to the next level. Improved cross-team collaboration, faster issue resolution, higher productivity, and easier scaling also come as a benefit of the ServiceNow Salesforce integration.

If you need a ServiceNow Salesforce integration, feel free to book a technical demo with our specialists.