ServiceNow acquires 4Industry, EY Smart to boost smart industry

Looking to augment existing operational technology (OT) management capabilities, adding connected worker offerings and enhancing expertise across key industrial markets such as manufacturing, energy, and transport and logistics, digital workflow company ServiceNow has signed an agreement to acquire 4Industry, a Netherlands-based partner whose manufacturing technology application is built on the Now Platform, and has completed the acquisition of Smart Daily Management, a connected digital worker application from EY.

ServiceNow’s cloud-based platform and services are designed to help digitise and unify organisations so they can find smarter, faster and better ways to make industries more connected, innovative and agile.

The company said it has made the strategic acquisitions just as industries such as manufacturing, energy, and transport and logistics are embracing digital transformation to achieve operational excellence and provide great experiences for connected workers. It believes continued investment in European technology and talent will significantly enhance its long-term roadmap for its global customers, delivering continuity across IT, OT and factory floor workers.

ServiceNow closed the acquisition of Smart Daily Management in early March, and expects to close the acquisition of 4Industry in the coming weeks. Financial terms of the deals will not be disclosed. 

The technology and industry expertise from 4Industry and the Smart Daily Management application will be used to build a new Connected Worker solution on the ServiceNow platform, expected in 2025.

ServiceNow said it will continue to maintain an alliance with EY and its partnership with Plat4mation, an affiliated services company of 4Industry. It will also work jointly with these companies as innovation and implementation alliance partners for both existing OT services and future Connected Worker offerings.  

“Companies can’t get to excellence if they are constantly rehiring and retraining talent each month,” said ServiceNow’s Lou Fiorello, vice-president and general manager of security and OT. “These deals allow us to combine best-in-class expertise and technology with the power of the Now Platform to help our industrial customers increase uptime, drive efficiency and improve quality.”

Founded in 2018, 4Industry develops a mobile-enabled application intended to make shop floor work more intuitive and efficient through a suite of digital tools and Smart Daily Management from EY. This will create more efficiency around time-consuming tasks, enabling ServiceNow’s industrial customers to drive operational performance.

“4Industry is strongly aligned with ServiceNow’s core philosophy that digitisation and automation are the keys to making employees happier and more productive,” said Luc Raeskin, CEO of 4Industry. “This feels like a natural evolution in our journey together. We can’t wait to get started and fulfil our mission of enabling the connected worker to become extraordinary by enabling them to focus on what truly matters in their work.”

Hank Prybylski, EY global vice-chair of transformation, said: “As the EY organisation evolved the capabilities of Smart Daily Management, it became clear that integration into the ServiceNow platform would maximise the ability for customers to deploy and scale the value. We look forward to further building on the EY and ServiceNow alliance, and deepening the impact we are delivering to clients across the manufacturing and operations technology functions.”