Overview
Introduction
IBM consultants help clients integrate strategy, process, technology and information to increase effectiveness, reduce costs and improve profit and shareholder value. IBM's services and consulting runs the gamut, from AI and automation to big data to networking and cloud services, and more. They've invested heavily in AI. IBM's portfolio of business-ready tools, applications and solutions are designed to reduce the costs and hurdles of AI adoption while optimizing outcomes and responsible use of AI.
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Vault Verdict
A career at IBM comes with a gold-plated guarantee that your resume will have some impressive luster, should you find yourself moving on at some stage. However, the degree to which the name impresses employers will be governed by their perception of the firm--many will know it as a giant that played a major role in creating the tech industry from the ground up. Others, however, may view it as a firm that has lost its cutting edge--a corporate behemoth where innovation is difficult to foster. Wherever the truth lies, it's a firm that has typically enjoyed solid ratings both as an employer and a provider of services.
About the Company
For those that knew IBM from its reputation as a manufacturer of hardware, the current iteration of the company may be hard to recognize. The company that existed in 2020 was the result of two major business events early in the millennium. The first occurred in post-Enron-scandal 2002, when IBM emerged from the feeding frenzy of Big Four accounting firms grasping the prize of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting arm—the tech firm's first major foray into the world of service provision. Two years later, the historic $1.8 billion sale of its computing systems and PC hardware side of the business to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo completed the change of direction for IBM, sending the firm inexorably down the consulting path, and ensuring a bright future for the Global Services division.
Having thus moved away from its traditio...
Why Work Here
Big Blue, at your service
While many of the consulting industry's traditional management and strategy firms have scrambled in recent years to incorporate IT into their practice areas, IBM has entered the industry from the opposite door. Though Big Blue always will be associated with computers, the company's business model over the past decade has trended toward services. These days, the Global Services division, including business consulting and IT implementation, contributes more than half of IBM's total revenues-$48.3 billion out of $91.4 billion in 2006-and employs more than 190,000 people worldwide.
PwC joins the fold
With an entrenched reputation as a corporation of computer geeks, IBM has had to work extra hard to establish itself in the consulting arena. The firm's services division got a major boost in 2002 with IBM's acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, which added some 30,000 employees in 52 countries to the 30,000 IBM consultants already on board. The acquisition came about after an unsuccessful attempt by PricewaterhouseCoopers to take PwC Consulting public in 2002.
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