Working with Strategic Partners as an IBM Hybrid Cloud Consulting Leader

We recently had a conversation with Mark, who started his career as a Software Developer, and is now one of IBM’s Hybrid Cloud Consulting Leaders, covering Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

IBM Consultants work with visionaries across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world, enabled by our strategic partner ecosystem and robust technology platforms.

We spoke about Mark’s passion for helping clients succeed in adopting cloud technologies in a way that drives business benefits and value for them.

What has your career journey been like and what led you to this job in IBM Consulting?

My background is very much in client facing work. I see that the IT industry moves very rapidly; so, you must show that you can learn, as well as keep your skills fresh and up to date.

I’ve demonstrated my commitment to grow my skills, for example, by earning certifications and accreditation with Red Hat earlier this year. I also recognize the skills I have today may not be the skills I need in two years. It’s a continuous journey of refreshing and seeking opportunities to see where the world, and IT industry, is heading.

I would also like to point out that after learning new skills, your upskilling journey is not done! It’s essential to apply what you learned in a real business environment. This has been the way I’ve grown my skills. As a Consulting leader, I had to learn how our partnerships work by immersing myself in their environment. This enables me to see and hear, first-hand, the considerations, expectations, and success factors our partners are seeking.

What’s a project you’re proud of that’s made a big impact for an IBM Consulting client?

For me, it would be the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) project, where we built a digital team between IBM and the client, and together developed new applications for new digital portals.

I really enjoyed this project because the technology stack was much more modern than what the client was familiar with, which gave us the opportunity to leverage an agile DevOps strategy where everyone sat in the same room and worked collaboratively. This was a very different agile delivery method compared to the approach they had previously, which was to define a set of requirements and spend several years building a solution.

We were so proud of the end product because we could reveal to the client a completely new way of delivering solutions, and which from a business perspective, helped them be more successful and add more value to their customers.

When everything was all said and done, they experienced a very clear increase in their customer satisfaction because of the new portal that we developed with them.

What makes IBM’s hybrid cloud offering unique?

IBM Consulting has strategic partnerships with prominent cloud providers that drive the most business. We differentiate ourselves through our knowledge, commitment to capability building, accelerators we use, and our ability to work with other hybrid cloud providers. As an example, we have an IBM Consulting Cloud accelerator, which is a collection of methods, tools, repeatable assets, and code snippets that accelerates a client’s journey to cloud and enables them to deliver it at a lower risk.

IBM also focus heavily on our certifications and employee development (we finished 2022 with nearly 16,000 certifications!).

Since we always act in the best interest of our clients, there are some situations where we would recommend the IBM Cloud as the best provider, while in other cases, another provider may be a better fit for the client’s business. If there’s one thing you need to know about IBM, it’s that providing our clients with the best possible solution to their problem is our ONLY goal.

More and more of our clients have realized that they need to adopt a multi-cloud strategy, for several reasons, like avoiding a vendor lock in. Previously, when they were buying enterprise software agreements, there was always a concern about being locked in with a single vendor. But in public cloud platforms, a multi-cloud strategy, or even a hybrid cloud strategy, means you’re not solely dependent on one cloud provider.

This enables you to minimize your business risk around your dependency on an individual cloud.

What interests you the most about hybrid cloud platforms?

I became interested in hybrid cloud platforms, within the consulting business, because cloud is clearly going to be a major part of the tech industry going forward and will profoundly impact the way our clients will conduct their business.

What especially interests me is that I can clearly see the value proposition and business benefits of cloud for our clients. At IBM, we always talk about how our strategy includes delivering value through our AI and hybrid cloud solutions. So, for me, working with the hybrid cloud providers means working with the technology of the future.

Careers in IBM Consulting

A career in IBM Consulting is rooted in long-term relationships and close collaboration with clients across the globe.

If you’re interested in learning more about our Consulting roles, such as Cloud Architects, Data Architects, Solution Architects, Strategic Partner Sales Leads and other opportunities at IBM, please visit our careers website.

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