IBM ANZ chief: We're resetting relationships
- 22 May, 2019 14:38
IBM is "resetting relationships" and changing the way it is "showing up" the company's Australia and New Zealand managing director David La Rose told an audience of customers in Sydney today.
"One thing that is constant in our lives both professionally and personally is change. IBM is also changing and hopefully that's starting to resonate, with the way we're showing up," he told the IBM Think Summit this morning.
"We're resetting relationships, expanding long-standing relationships, to ensure that we can help you be the partner of choice, a trusted partner, as you go through those challenges in your particular industry," he said.
La Rose pointed to Big Blue's $1 billion 'blockbuster' government contract win, signed in July last year. The whole-of-government deal with the Federal Government’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) "really demonstrates how we showing up differently" La Rose said.
The deal has seen IBM expand its work with government from four agencies to 17.
The 24 months leading up to the deal were marred by legal battles and revenue declines, with IBM coming under fire for its role in the bungled 2016 eCensus portal project with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The company was called out by then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a radio interview that “there has clearly been a failure in the work that was done” by IBM.
La Rose added that relationships had also been extended in the private sector, namely with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ.
Across Australia, government agencies and enterprises were moving to "chapter two" of the digital era, the managing director said, as organisations moved from experimentation to "reinvention".
This new chapter was characterised by multi-cloud environments and digital and artificial intelligence at scale, La Rose added.
The ANZ chief confirmed that IBM's acquisition of software company Red Hat is "almost complete".
EU antitrust regulators today announced they would decide by June 27 whether to clear IBM's US$34 billion bid for Red Hat. US regulatory authorities approved the deal without demanding concessions earlier this month.
La Rose said the acquisition will be a "big part of how we continue to support the needs of this chapter two".
