About Scott Russell
In July 2022, Scott Russell appeared on the IBM video series "Common Grounds" alongside IBM's Rob Thomas to discuss the 50-year partnership between SAP and IBM. Russell described the relationship as a "great partnership" built on technology collaboration, citing examples such as NetWeaver and WebSphere. He stated that customers need to "digitally transform" and require the combined capabilities of IBM technology, services, and SAP applications. Russell emphasized that companies "don't just want to move to the cloud — they want to transform in the cloud" to navigate current challenges and future opportunities and threats.
Russell highlighted the announcement of "Rise with SAP powered by IBM Cloud as a premium partner," which he called an "end-to-end offering" that addresses customer challenges. He noted that neither company could achieve this alone. He also pointed to the potential of combining SAP's industry solutions with IBM's AI and Red Hat technology, asserting that the combination of IBM's technology with SAP is "unbeatable" regardless of the business challenge or industry.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Scott Russell's recent appearances.
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Transcript (11 segments)
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Rob Thomas0:12
Hello, I'm Rob Thomas with IBM and this is 'Common Grounds', a new series where we're gonna talk about what we're doing with partners to positively impact clients in the world. I'm joined today by executive board member, customer success, Scott Russell from SAP. Scott, great to see you, really glad you're here. So why are you excited? We've had a relationship for multiple decades.
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Scott Russell0:41
50 years.
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Rob Thomas0:42
But it's like every few years we go through a new phase. I think we're entering one of those new phases.
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Scott Russell0:46
Yeah, well, first of all, you're right. I mean, we should celebrate our history. We've got a great partnership from 50 years. We've done technology collaboration. When I think about NetWeaver and WebSphere or what we did... They need to digitally transform. They need the collective capability of IBM technology, IBM service capability and SAP applications. To be help serve it, it's pretty exciting.
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Rob Thomas1:22
I think it's the perfect time. And I think one lesson I've always learned working with you and the SAP team is the best things often start with the engineers. What are the challenges we can uniquely address together in your mind?
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Scott Russell1:36
Yeah, it's easy to get absolutely obsessed about the problems, but I like to look at it from an opportunity and I know you do as well. The opportunities for companies right now is to navigate uncertainty with technical and solution predictability. That's what we bring together in the cloud. I always think of it this way. Companies don't just wanna move to the cloud... what more we can do together?
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Rob Thomas2:14
We can't do this alone.
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Scott Russell2:16
IBM's cloud capability, your service capability, your application managed services, the bundling around 'em. What I'm excited about in the announcement that we shared just recently at Sapphire was Rise with SAP powered by IBM Cloud as a premium partner. It gives an end to end offering that we can't do alone, IBM can't do alone but together it solves the customer's challenges.
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Rob Thomas2:41
I think you just said every challenge that I talked to clients about consistently. So what's next? It's been 50 years. This is the next step. What's next? How big can this partnership be in terms of delivering value for clients?
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Scott Russell2:55
So I think of some of our industry solutions... That's exciting because it's something that it doesn't matter what business challenge, what industry you're in, the combination of IBM's technology with SAP is unbeatable.
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Rob Thomas3:23
Scott, I think you said it well. SAP Rise, driving business transformation powered by IBM consulting, Red Hat, AI. I think this partnership's gonna go for another 50 years. Thank you so much for being here, Scott Russell. This is 'Common Grounds', thank you for watching.
