GEC NEWS WIREBill Farrell, Managing Partner for IBM Consulting in the Middle East & Africa, discusses the company’s role in shaping sustainable and impactful digital transformations.
How does IBM Consulting leverage its unique position within a major tech company to deliver innovative, AI-driven solutions?
IBM Consulting leverages its unique position as the only global consultancy within a major tech company delivering AI-driven solutions. Client expectations have changed in the Gen AI era with 86% of consulting buyers actively looking for services that incorporate AI and technology assets. At IBM Consulting, we’re meeting this new era of consulting with an approach we call the science of consulting. Unlike traditional consulting, IBM Consulting is leading with evidence over opinion; democratizing our knowledge by embedding it into our platforms; using technology to enhance the expertise of our people; testing and iterating to deliver better outcomes; and collaborating and partnering openly.
A core element of our approach is IBM Consulting Advantage, our AI-powered delivery platform that serves as the foundation for our consultants to access and apply IBM’s research, data resources, and the latest AI tools, including IBM Granite Generation 3. Granite 3.0 our latest, most advanced language model suite, is now the default model within IBM Consulting Advantage due to its high performance, cost efficiency, and transparency, maximizing return-on-investment (ROI) of AI for our clients. The platform’s advanced capabilities allow IBM consultants to make data-driven recommendations and predict outcomes, providing clients with strategies that are grounded in IBM’s proven deep expertise across AI, hybrid cloud, and open-source innovation.
The latest expansion of IBM Consulting Advantage contains AI agents, applications, and methods like repeatable frameworks that can empower 160,000 IBM consultants to deliver better and faster client value at a lower cost. IBM Consulting Advantage agents are accessed through an intuitive conversational interface powered by IBM watsonx, our AI and data platform, in which consultants can toggle across IBM Granite and third-party Gen AI models to select the right model for their task and ensure clients get best-fit solutions for their needs.
We believe the future of consulting is people plus software, and the future of IBM Consulting is our consultants plus IBM Consulting Advantage.
How does IBM Consulting tailor AI solutions for distinct industries, ensuring relevance and efficacy across diverse business needs?
At IBM Consulting, our AI-supercharged consultants create better and faster outcomes for clients by approaching our work as a science across people, processes, partners and platform. We focus on industry-specific needs by embedding our deep expertise within AI-driven tools and customized models, addressing specific pain points and opportunities. Our Granite 3.0 suite includes a range of specialized AI Assistants designed to perform at a high level across industry benchmarks. These AI models are fine-tuned to meet sector-specific demands, such as regulatory compliance in finance, operational efficiency in manufacturing, and patient-centered care in healthcare. We work with each client to understand their mission-critical requirements, then implement AI solutions that align with their goals.
We’ve also expanded our IBM Consulting Advantage platform to include domain-specific capabilities. IBM Consulting Advantage for Cloud Transformation and Cloud Management helps clients define and execute cloud strategies and minimize risks in cloud transformations. For business operations, IBM Consulting Advantage leverages AI to reinvent areas like HR, finance, and procurement. For example, at a global retail client, our AI-driven finance process solutions achieved a 60% reduction in invoice entry cycle time.
Our IBM Garage methodology further brings this to life as it scales transformation from conception to user-adoption through a user-centric, value-obsessed operating model. Through data-driven insights and continuous iteration, we ensure that the AI solutions we deliver are not only relevant but also adaptable to evolving needs. This agile approach accelerates innovation, allowing our clients to stay competitive and responsive to changes in their industries. By embedding these principles into every project, IBM Consulting ensures that our AI solutions drive meaningful transformations — making them purpose-built for impact across industries.
What role does IBM Garage play in helping clients achieve digital transformation goals?
IBM Garage is essential to our clients’ digital transformation journeys. Through IBM Garage, we co-create with clients, scaling solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes. Unlike conventional consulting frameworks, IBM Garage immerses clients in an iterative, co-creation model where they work alongside IBM’s cross-functional teams to ideate, prototype, and refine solutions in real-time. This method ensures that innovations are tailored precisely to clients’ unique business challenges and goals, significantly reducing the risks and costs often associated with large-scale digital initiatives.
Clients using IBM Garage have reported efficiency improvements of up to 20% and developer tool delivery speeds 75% faster than traditional approaches, enabling them to unlock new levels of value. This approach doesn’t just drive faster results but also empowers clients to leverage emerging technologies—such as AI, cloud, and IoT — in ways that continuously enhance business processes and deliver sustained value across the organization.
An example of this impact is our collaboration with Riyadh Air, where we implemented AI-driven systems across the airline’s check-in processes and in-flight entertainment, using IBM Consulting’s deep expertise and open ecosystem. All these capabilities were accelerated through IBM Garage to help craft seamless, personalized, and culturally enriching guest experiences across the travel journey.
How do collaborations with companies like AWS, Microsoft, and Adobe enhance IBM Consulting’s ability to provide end-to-end solutions?
We work side by side to fast-track innovation, design, build and operate high-performing businesses together with our clients and strategic partners. Our strategic alliances with AWS, Microsoft, Adobe, and others enhance IBM Consulting’s ability to offer comprehensive solutions. These partnerships allow us to combine IBM’s strengths—like AI, hybrid cloud, and data analytics—with our partners’ specialized platforms to address a full spectrum of client challenges across sectors.
For example, as an AWS Premier Partner, we leverage AWS’s cloud infrastructure to support clients in accelerating AI implementations, modernizing applications, and deploying secure, scalable solutions. Similarly, our collaboration with Microsoft enables us to facilitate seamless cloud transformations, integrating Microsoft’s suite of business applications with IBM’s consulting and technical capabilities to optimize workflows, enhance collaboration, and create resilient IT environments. With Adobe, we focus on crafting personalized, data-driven digital experiences that elevate customer engagement and brand loyalty through Adobe’s market-leading creative and marketing platforms. These collaborations enable us to leverage IBM’s advanced technology stack alongside our partners’ capabilities, meeting complex business needs with trusted, cross-platform solutions.
How does IBM Consulting incorporate sustainability initiatives into its consulting strategies?
Sustainability is a core focus within IBM Consulting, integrated directly into our strategies through AI-driven tools, responsible sourcing, and by enabling clients to meet their own sustainability targets. IBM believes that sustainable enterprises need to be responsible, equitable and viable to advance the quadruple bottom line. Our sustainability consulting advisory services guide clients on developing business strategies, managing ESG data, implementing risk management and reporting practices, navigating energy transitions, and the competitive advantage of their journey to become a sustainable enterprise.
For example, we’ve recently partnered with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to design and implement a digital Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (GHG MRV) solution by utilizing SAP’s Performance and Profitability Management (PaPM) tool. This platform automates emissions tracking, documentation, and validation by independent third-party auditors and provides standardized dashboards to stakeholders, ensuring transparency and compliance with evolving regulatory requirements.
