ServiceNow snaps up UltimateSuite to bake task mining into its offerings

Enterprises’ quest to address process debt continues, and they are increasingly turning to tools like process intelligence to help them (see Exhibit 1). The process intelligence landscape is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate as pure-play vendors are snapped up and integrated into larger offerings by the likes of Microsoft, SAP, and Automation Anywhere. Process mining addresses a macro view of processes and is used for application event log analysis; in contrast, task mining (or process discovery) is a deep dive into granular, user-task-level views of process activities, as described in an earlier research paper by HFS.

In late 2023, ServiceNow sneaked in one last announcement—the acquisition of pure-play task-mining firm and former HFS Hot Vendor UltimateSuite. UltimateSuite’s task-mining capabilities will be integrated into the Now platform, creating a proposition that ServiceNow hopes will entice enterprises to identify and address process bottlenecks and drive improved operational efficiency.

Exhibit 1: Process intelligence is the leading approach to addressing process debt

Sample: 260 process intelligence enterprise leaders, 2023
Source: HFS Research, 2024

UltimateSuite’s data collection approach makes it a quick, scalable task-mining tool

Founded in 2020, UltimateSuite is a pure-play task-mining vendor with a 25-person team in Prague. HFS previously highlighted UltimateSuite’s approach to data collection; its task mining tool collects object-based data directly from an employee’s screen, tracking their process journeys across multiple applications to deliver complete transparency into how work is actually done. UltimateSuite’s product is installed directly onto the employee’s workstation, allowing it to be implemented quickly with minimal disruption. The vendor’s clients have told us this feature is a key strength. In addition, by collecting user-level data, rather than relying on computer vision like other task-mining tools, UltimateSuite’s product is less resource-hungry and faces fewer scalability challenges.

HFS believes the real value of these tools is realized when they are leveraged in harmony, combining process and task mining to generate data that can create actionable insights to transform how companies work. That’s what makes this acquisition interesting; ServiceNow’s Now platform already has process mining capabilities that allow the creation of business process flows from the data available for in-depth analysis to find and fix issues and optimize performance. This platform has been upgraded to the NowX platform, which introduced new technologies like GenAI, performance analytics, and AI-based search. Integrating UltimateSuite’s task mining solution could allow enterprises to really x-ray their entire organization.

Task mining capabilities could be a missing puzzle piece for ServiceNow

The Now platform is a cloud-based platform for automating workflows across a variety of systems and functions within an organization. The goal is to drive productivity and efficiency to fuel customer and employee experiences. In recent years, ServiceNow has leaned on process mining to help clients do this, introducing its own proprietary capabilities and partnering with market-leading Celonis. But this doesn’t paint the full picture; process mining tools typically analyze transactional data from enterprise applications, providing insights into a specific workflow, but the reality is that tracking a process end-to-end requires data from multiple different applications, screens, and systems.

That’s where UltimateSuite comes in; it enables user-level analysis. Implementing UltimateSuite’s task-mining capabilities will enable a deeper understanding of processes, allowing it to cross multiple applications, screens, and systems. It’s expected to provide insight into long-running processes and collect critical information that can be fed into ServiceNow’s existing analysis and automation tools.

Where does this leave the ServiceNow–Celonis relationship?

In the recent Vancouver release of its Now platform, ServiceNow released a batch of new upgrades to its proprietary process mining capabilities; it even rebranded its process optimization offerings as process mining. In addition, despite partner Celonis being the market leader for process intelligence, boasting extensive process and task mining capabilities, ServiceNow opted to look further afield with the UltimateSuite acquisition.

A year ago, you would be forgiven for wondering if ServiceNow might be looking to follow the footsteps of Microsoft, IBM, and SAP and attempt an acquisition of Celonis—especially given the existing investment. But with this latest news, the strength of the relationship seems much harder to gauge.

The Bottom Line: ServiceNow’s UltimateSuite acquisition is set to bring a new level of insight to clients. Enterprises should watch out for integration-related teething issues.

Properly integrated, UltimateSuite’s task-mining capabilities will complement ServiceNow’s existing offering and give clients enhanced insight and transparency, ultimately enabling identifying and tackling process bottlenecks—a cherry on the top for existing ServiceNow clients. However, the acquisition has certainly muddied the water between ServiceNow and Celonis as they start to look more like competitors than partners, and it’s a situation both vendors should look to clarify for their clients.