The challenge facing Teltsch and Lord is making sure the massive IBM sales restructuring is executed in the sales trenches, said Wyllie. That is going to be key to making sure the sales restructuring takes hold in the field.” “The fact that he is in that role is a big deal for partners. “John came from running the partner channel so he gets partners and now is running the Americas,” said Wyllie. Wyllie said he is also encouraged that John Teltsch Jr.-who led IBM’s partner ecosystem for two years from July 2017 to June 2019-is now the general manager of the IBM Americas Technology Group. Lord–who joined IBM four years ago as chief digital officer-has done a good job of being able to break through the IBM culture to get things done, said Wyllie. I don’t think you could find a better executive to lead the new partner ecosystem go-to-market model.” He gets partners and he gets IBM and he has the ability to get things done in IBM.
“I’m excited about Bob’s appointment,” said Wyliie. Mark Wyllie, CEO of Flagship Solutions Group, a Boca Raton, Fla., IBM cloud partner that has provided transformative cloud services for NASCAR and The Atlanta Falcons, said he was heartened by Lord’s appointment to the new post. I think sometimes we may have missed that piece.” 1 to bring value to your clients but also how you make money and how you get value out of this whole equation. This is our hybrid cloud architecture and platform and AI solutions, and this is how you can bring it to market: No. “I have a platform to go talk to each of those four sectors in a way that I could not have done before.
“His software vision is so dead-on,” he said of Krishna. The driving force behind the new ecosystem buildout, said Lord, is Krishna’s crystal-clear software vision. That means building a robust ecosystem across the board from IBM’s traditional VARs and VADs to ISVs to IBM global systems integrators and even IBM’s Global Business Services group all focused squarely on driving the Red Hat OpenShift cloud model. Lord, the onetime former global CEO of dot-com solution provider darling Razorfish, said Krishna’s call to action is for him to “step up” and “really go hard” on building out the IBM RedHat OpenShift hybrid cloud and AI partner ecosystem. The appointment of Lord, who has been overseeing cognitive applications, blockchain and developer ecosystems for the past two years, comes after Krishna told investors last week that he is “elevating the role of partners,” with IBM set to invest $1 billion to “rapidly” expand its cloud ecosystem.Īt the start of the year, Krishna dramatically simplified the IBM go-to-market model by reducing the number of customer groups from 50 to just two, clearing the way for less competition between the IBM direct sales force and partners. Krishna is putting all the pieces in place-including Lord’s appointment-to ensure the hybrid cloud partner ecosystem model is a top priority in 2021. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna (pictured) is making IBM’s cloud partner ecosystem a top priority with the appointment of IBM Senior Vice President Bob Lord as the new head of worldwide ecosystems and blockchain.