ServiceNow rewards Chirantan ‘CJ’ Desai, appoints him as company president and COO

Last week, digital workflow management platform developer ServiceNow celebrated the end of what has been a great fiscal year 2022 and the company chairman and CEO Bill McDermott took the opportunity to introduce the new man that he hoped would lead the company to an even stronger 2023, Chirantan “CJ” Desai.

Desai has served as the chief product engineering officer at ServiceNow for 5 years now and his promotion to president and COO is a huge expression of the company’s faith in his leadership abilities.

In a prepared statement, Dermott said that Desai’s appointment is part of a plan to make ServiceNow the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century.

“CJ is a leader of consequence well-known in the industry,” the CEO said. “His track record at ServiceNow speaks for itself, from strengthening our platform to driving our customer experience. This is exactly how we are orchestrating our company to perform on an end-to-end basis from innovation to execution with our customers.”

ServiceNow has had a particularly good Q4 having beat guidance for subscription revenue growth, operating margin, and free cash flow margin. This is against the backdrop of harsh economic times that have seen big tech companies' revenue flatter.

ServiceNow made 126 deals worth $1 million and above in Q4, Dermott said.

“Based on this new business surge, we are giving a very strong guidance for 2023,” he said. “Our guidance reflects a disciplined forecast that appropriately balances our well-founded optimism for ServiceNow’s business. We will work hard to go beyond this. And we’ll begin that march in Q1.”

With a lot of businesses shifting to the cloud, there is an increased demand for digital workflow management, a need that ServiceNow hopes to tap into fully in 2023.

“Businesses want integration, automation, great experiences, and business impact, all of which need a cohesive plan with a trusted platform”, McDermott said. “So this is now without any doubt a platform economy, and only a few platforms will be relevant in this shift. And none are as well positioned as ServiceNow.”

Before joining ServiceNow Desai had been serving as the president of EMC’s emerging technology division for three years.