(Bloomberg) -- ServiceNow Inc. has increased its workforce and expanded in enterprise software using a simple strategy: hire from its larger competitor, Salesforce Inc.

Over the last year, more of ServiceNow’s new employees have come from Salesforce than any other company, according to an analysis by Live Data Technologies for Bloomberg News. More than 240 Salesforce alumni were hired at ServiceNow in the last year, and over 820 in the last five years, the data show.

ServiceNow initially focused on tools to support information technology operations, but has moved into categories like customer service, bringing it into more direct competition with Salesforce, the top maker of customer management software. In the most-recent fiscal year, ServiceNow’s total product revenue of $8.97 billion passed that of Salesforce’s comparable product line, Service Cloud, which generated $8.25 billion.

ServiceNow’s stock has jumped fourfold since the start of 2019 — pushing the company’s market value to almost $155 billion, compared with Salesforce’s $277 billion. 

It’s not just rank-and-file workers switching over at the San Francisco Bay area companies — ServiceNow has poached senior leadership, including those who have helped define Salesforce’s unique corporate personality. 

Colin Fleming, who shaped Salesforce’s marketing through high-profile deals with Matthew McConaughey and the estate of Albert Einstein, earlier this month became ServiceNow’s chief marketing officer. Along with his hiring, the company announced an ad campaign with actor Idris Elba. Amy Regan Morehouse, who built Salesforce’s Trailhead user education program, was hired at ServiceNow last year to build a similar training ecosystem. 

The executive who used to run Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference, Debbie Brewer, joined ServiceNow in 2022, according to her LinkedIn listing. Even former Salesforce Co-Chief Executive Officer Keith Block has partnered with ServiceNow through his venture firm, Smith Point Capital.

“We’re a very aspirational company that a lot of people want to pull talent from,” said Bill Patterson, executive vice president of corporate strategy at San Francisco-based Salesforce, in an interview. “If other people make moves to come into our domain, it’s quite flattering honestly that they want to aspire to be more like us.”

ServiceNow, based in Santa Clara, California, has taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward its larger software peer. During an analyst event last year, Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott bragged about hiring top AI and product talent from Salesforce. He’s also taken thinly veiled swipes at Salesforce’s lower margins and large acquisitions, saying they lead to technical difficulty for customers. 

Of course, McDermott’s tenure as CEO at German-software company SAP SE was marked by large acquisitions, such as an $8 billion deal for Qualtrics International Inc., which weren’t always popular with investors. In 2016, Salesforce considered acquiring ServiceNow, according to leaked emails. 

When Salesforce purchased workplace communication app Slack in 2021, ServiceNow switched to Microsoft Corp.’s Teams. The change was tied to an expanding relationship with Microsoft as well as the ownership transition, a spokesperson said.

Salesforce’s Patterson downplayed any competition, saying that when companies try using ServiceNow for customer service management, “they don’t do well for long,” due to a lack of capabilities.

Disproportionate hiring from Salesforce could signal ServiceNow is trying to bulk up its ability to sell software beyond IT departments, said Tyler Radke, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. ServiceNow also may just be the flashier company now, he said. “Clearly the growth and excitement around Salesforce is a lot different than it was several years ago — you’ve seen a lot of people leave.”

The flow of employees to ServiceNow also reflects retrenchment in the rest of the industry. Like many other large tech companies, Salesforce announced in early 2023 that it would lay off thousands of workers. It cut 6,700 employees last year to about 72,700 as of the end of January. McDermott, by contrast, has vowed to avoid widespread job cuts and has increased the company’s headcount about 2,300 in the past year to more than 23,300, as of the end of March. 

About half of the workers who’ve joined ServiceNow from Salesforce over the last five years were in sales and marketing, according to the figures from Live Data Technologies. Roughly 30% were in product and engineering.

“We’re grateful that more than 1 million people applied to ServiceNow last year, and that we have the culture and success to attract a world-class team,” Sarah Tilley, senior vice president of talent at ServiceNow, said in a statement.

More than 2 million people applied for jobs at Salesforce last year, said a company spokesperson.

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