Reflecting on two years at IBM
Where has the time gone?! Two years at IBM has flown by! Being at the heart of the Microsoft transformation here at IBM has been both hugely rewarding and to be fair, quite frustrating at times where things are almost, but not quite the same to how they were at Microsoft! Thank you to all those that have put up with my many mistakes along they way, you know who you are ;)
I confess, in many ways the transition from Microsoft was not as huge a leap as I was expecting, having worked for large systems integrators previously I was more than ready for the context switch - that said, what I wasn't quite expecting was how similar the organisations were! As I write that, I'm sure that many may have a little gasp at this and say surely not! So for all you fine folk, I've pulled together some of the main areas that stand out to me, though of course there are many others...
IBM Consulting =|= Industry Solutions Delivery
IBM's consulting arm spans three key areas, Hybrid Cloud Service (HCS), Business Transformation Services (BTS) and Cybersecurity Services (CSS) which between them span pretty much the full gamuet of Microsoft capabilities - very similar to ISD. I've also discovered during my time here that IBM has such a depth of industry knowledge, is been truly humbling to be working with some of these folk! Find out more here: IBM Consulting and here: Better together: IBM and Microsoft make enterprise-wide transformation a reality - IBM Blog
IBM Customer Success =|= Microsoft Customer Success Unit
Similar to Microsoft, IBM's CSMs are technical experts who help you deploy and adopt Hybrid Cloud and AI, find out more here: IBM Customer Success
IBM Research =|= MS Research
IBM Research in many ways so similar to MS research and also compete at many levels, such as Quantum, LLM's etc. Again you can see the great work that's being done here: IBM Research
IBM Institute for Business Value =|= N/A
This is such an amazing capability that didn't really exist at Microsoft whilst I was there. The quality of the insights provided, typically in a vendor neutral manner is a must read for everyone! You can find the publications here: IBM Institute for Business Value -- Research, reports, and insights | IBM
IBM Technology =|= MS PG/Engineering
Again many similarities, IBM Technology supports many of the largest institutions on the planet, as does Microsoft! Find our more here: IBM Products and here: IBM Z Mainframe Servers and Software
IBM Skills Build =|= Microsoft Learn Student Hub & many others
Skills Build is a truly awesome (free) platform provided for both those in education and adult learners alike: Free Skills-Based Learning From Technology Experts | IBM SkillsBuild
Reflecting on my time here, there is nothing better than being able to look at something and say yes, yes I made a difference, be it managing to bring tother the Women in Tech teams in both organisations supported by the amazing Lily Satterthwaite, working to build a better Microsoft community experience with Vishal Anand FBCS, Mike James and others, bringing IBM and Microsoft account teams together for greater impact and of course, helping build our tech intensity on all things Microsoft... did I mention Azure AI/copilot yet?! 😂
However, more than this, I'm super proud of our team, led by Tim Callaghan & Miles Holden and Alix Horton, Azhar Amir Mohammed, Dave Brannan, Richard Stokes, Cyrus Irandoust, Mike Haigh, John Sheaf, Lorraine (Lorri) Siviter, Scott Adamson plus Gaurav Sharma, Richard Hogan and many, many others, along with our global leadership Chris McGuire, Nigel Cain & Francesco Brenna plus not forgetting our fabulous UK Microsoft Partner team Sally Victoria McMillan and Laurence Tinsley. Thank you for all that you do, for keeping me busy(!) and of course for making it fun along the ways :)
Last and not least, a huge congratulations also to all the others that joined with me two years ago, cohort of July 2022 you know who you are :)
To us all, not only have we 'moved the needle' during our time here, but this is a journey that still continues and ably bolstered in no small part by our amazing IBM companies, Nordcloud, an IBM Company, Neudesic, an IBM Company, SiXworks an IBM company and many others, who are a testament to our continued drive to truly be a 'Hybrid by Design' organisation (learn more on this by registering here: IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV): Hybrid by Design and tech architecture Webinar | Power Global) and watch this 🚀 fly as we further extend our global leadership in the Microsoft space!
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