IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center
Introduction
The IBM Z is a mainframe that can process billions of transactions every day used by banks, insurance companies, telecommunication agencies, and more. However, companies are moving to cloud computing.
Many think that the mainframe has no place in their new infrastructure despite the fact that clouds run on mainframes (hybrid cloud) see 40%-80% lower TCO than public cloud alone.
The WHO. The WHAT. The WOW!
How might we show clients the value of IBM Z for their hybrid cloud strategy so that IBM can increase its hybrid cloud year over year growth revenue?
01
Introduction (TL;DR)
After IBM acquired Red Hat for $34 billion (one the largest tech acquisitions) to support its hybrid cloud strategy, there needed to be a way to support sellers and educate clients on the benefits of moving to the hybrid cloud.
With recent launch of the IBM z15 mid-tier platform, the following launch of the IBM z16, and the approach of IBMs largest systems event "IBM Z Day", IBM's CEO asked our team to build a site in less than 90 days to support these initiatives.
02
The Challenge
There were three main challenges our team had to overcome:
1. Tight deadline: Normally a project of this size would take 6 – 9 months. We had 3 months.
2. Market sentiment: Even though 71% of Fortune 500 companies run on the mainframe it is still seen as old and outdated by new potential clients.
3. Multiple users: Mainframes are a big decision and are interacted with in some way by nearly every person in a company's tech department from the CTO to the developer.
03
Client Solution
Design thinking sessions with our team and partners along with feedback from our research team guided our deliverable to be a "living site". This meant that unique content would be curated for each user depending on how they interacted with the site.
04
Business Solution and Execution
To build this, I planned 8 phases to complete the project:
1. Define the Core Team and Governance (Week 1 of 12)
2. Design Thinking Sessions (Week 2 of 12)
3. Design Layout and Wireframing (Weeks 3-4 of 12)
4. Content Curation and Marketing Plan (Weeks 4-6 of 12)
5. Development (Week 6-10 of 12)
6. QA Testing (Week 10 of 12)
7. Soft Launch (Week 11 of 12)
8. Hard Launch (Week 12 of 12)
IBM Master the Mainframe
User registration experience
🚩 Sprint-based revamp to mesh multiple registration sites into one seamless GDPR compliant journey.
🎯 Resulted in ~20% boost in completed registrations !