Fresh off my trip to Dallas for IBM Think, I am reminded how much I enjoy the intimacy offered by these smaller regional events. Unlike their global counterparts, you can often get a closer look at the interaction between a vendor and its customers along with better insight into how IT leaders are handling their own transformation journeys. This setting was a wonderful complement to IBM’s theme of “Let’s create.”
Creation in business often requires combining the right technology with the right expertise. Historically, IT organizations tended to maintain the needed expertise in-house and would look to the vendor community for the right technology. Given the pace, scale, and complexity of modern IT, however, businesses often can’t meet their demands for expertise relying solely on in-house experts anymore. IT leaders have had to turn to third parties to fill in the gaps. And frankly, there is a scarcity of expertise in tech today. We see it in our research into pervasive skill shortages and IT personnel consistently being asked to assume more responsibilities.
IT vendors, such as IBM, that can offer a multi-cloud, multi-partner perspective that is customer-centric, and not just technology-centric, deliver tremendous value. The level of complexity in modern multi-cloud environments is so great, however, that one vendor, or even one cloud provider can often not cover everything alone.
IBM recognizes this challenge and opportunity. Its “Let’s create” message is not only an open invitation to collaborate, but also an acknowledgement IBM will work to integrate the right partners as well. Technology combined with the right expertise from the right partners is a powerful message, one that IBM is embracing.
For additional insights from IBM Think, please check out the video below.
Thanks.
