ServiceNow consultancy firm CoreX has made the first move of what it plans to be several in a strategic acquisition journey over the next six months to one year. On Sept. 25 CoreX announced it had acquired ITS Partners, a firm known for its expertise in operational technology, IT asset management, security operations and more.
“As ServiceNow cements itself as the go-to AI platform for business transformation, it’s critical that we have partners that can guide our customers along their innovation journey,” Tom Hannigan, President, Americas, ServiceNow, said in the press release. “The innovation, industry focus, and deep ServiceNow functional experience that CoreX and ITS deliver together position it as a valuable resource for any ServiceNow customer.”
The deal was the first completed by CoreX alongside its equity partner NewSpring Holdings and fits into the short and long term plans the firm’s founders have for building the next generation of ServiceNow partner business.
Taking ServiceNow technology to the non-IT market
CoreX was founded in December of 2023 by four former ServiceNow leaders with deep expertise in the vendor’s ecosystem of technology, partners and providers. Now, the team is focused on finding and delivering strong use cases for ServiceNow products in functions across non-IT departments including supply chain, procurement and financial operations.
“We see a massive opportunity with ServiceNow in bringing it outside the traditional IT world into non-IT enterprise applications,” said Rick Wright, CEO of CoreX. “We want to be the go-to shop that brings a transformative experience into core business operations.”
To do this, CoreX aligns closely to the shifting and growing goals of ServiceNow itself, and aims to fill what Wright calls a “void in the market” of truly strong boutique consultancies within the vendor’s vast ecosystem. All of this will drive more adoption within enterprises over the next few years.
“You have maybe five minutes of conversation with executives at industry events, and none of these people are in technical roles, but their eyes start to light up once they understand what’s possible,” said Wright.
Meghan Rexer, who heads the marketing and people functions at CoreX, sees this as a chance to continue driving outcomes-based value to customers.
“Everyone’s looking for tech to solve business problems,” Rexer said, highlighting that many enterprises have multiple resource management platforms and tools that work disparately, and what they truly need is an end-to-end solution in their workflows.
‘Small t transformation’ highlights changing buyer journeys and adapting technology mindset
Rexer and Wright both believe the days of massive, year-long transformation projects touching every facet of a business are largely gone, and what is now emerging is an emphasis on shorter windows with a higher ROI.
“For our customers, we aren’t seeing any more ‘big T transformation,’ but we are seeing evolving technology, especially in non-IT teams, to gain efficiencies more quickly,” said Rexer.
“We are now taking clients on a journey of mini-transformations within three month windows,” Wright added.
This is fueled in part by shifting priorities and the need for non-IT operations to see the benefits of technology quickly to justify its utilization. Emerging technologies like GenAI are also on the horizon, though Wright sees it as one part of a larger conversation.
“AI isn’t really the main conversation, but because we are having conversations about transformation and gaining efficiencies, we absolutely work to determine how AI can be leveraged,” Wright said.
M&A to fuel aggressive growth in the next six months as CoreX goes global
As noted above, the acquisition of ITS is the first, but not the last, acquisition to be closed by CoreX. Rexer said the CoreX team has identified other opportunities and are planning to close another two or three acquisitions over the next several months.
All of this is in line with the broader ServiceNow ecosystem, according to Wright, who sees an increase in partner and provider consolidation over the next year.
CoreX aims to be a global operation in 2025 with expansion plans targeted to Central and South America as well as Europe and a deeper growth in the North American market as well. The CoreX teams want to see in a potential acquisition target, among other things, a strong culture fit and focus on customer success, with a market differentiation that complements the existing strengths of CoreX.
“There is a desire within this ecosystem to be part of the next great ServiceNow partner,” Wright said. “We’re on a path to build the CoreX brand out fully and we’re going to continue to build into next year.”
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