GCG Quote-to-Cash TLS team: The Journey of Catalyzing TLS Digital Agility

IBM is the hybrid cloud and AI technology and services leading provider, focused on delivering client value through a combination of technology and business expertise. IBM solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of capabilities in software, consulting services and a deep incumbency in mission-critical systems, all bolstered by one of the world's leading research organizations.

Briefly describe the nominated team: history and past performance (up to 1,250 characters):

Greater China Group (GCG) Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS) is a $200M business with hundreds of clients annually acquiring infrastructure services and lifecycle technology support solutions.

GCG Quote-to-Cash (Q2C) TLS team is responsible for supporting the TLS business, providing an end-to-end quote-to-cash support, executing the company's hybrid cloud and AI strategy, enabling and delivering the end-to-end digital transformation to make TLS business more productive and competitive.

Exploring transformational potentials, embracing leap In Technology and launching solutions to adapt to new changes are always the core spirit of the team. In the year of 2025, the GCG Q2C TLS team embraced new challenges to enable and deliver the end-to-end digital transformation of IBM, being the key leading role to deploy new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The new ERP platform is a next-generation, intelligent ERP system, which replaces and integrates multiple legacy systems to enable flexible and resilient operational support to IBM's Sales and Service Delivery, Supply Chain, Procurement, Finance and Operations, and is a significant milestone of the digital transformation of TLS business for faster response to our clients and the whole Market.

Outline the team's achievements since July 1, 2023 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 1,500 characters):

To deploy new ERP system in GCG, the team stood up to the challenges and went beyond their usual job scope to organize, to experiment and to lead:

1. Timely prepared and conducted 56 business scenarios cross-regions to address various business demands for the whole project.
2. Led 10 cross-functional workshops and discovery session to seek process alignment, simplification and improvement opportunities to support new system deployment and enable smooth system interface and data migrations.
3. Designed the samples (45+) for testing, monitored the defect found and drove out solutions, while handling complex deals for valuable feedback.
4. Proposed 15 change requests (CR) to CIO to optimize legacy system capacity for Taiwan specific business scenarios: (50+ tickets raised, tracked and resolved).
5. Conducted 10 rounds of training across regions with full coverage on end-to-end process maps and changes, created comprehensive user handbook and digitalized it for easier access. Transactions with over $50M signing and revenue of TLS business landed in the ERP system after launch with full digitalization of end-to-end business operations, enabling IBM TLS business unit to operate with higher speed and simplicity. On a yearly basis, 1000+ billing and invoices for IBM's VIP clients in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan supported in this new platform, with embedded customer analytics, sourcing and purchasing recommendations through embedded AI and real-time insights generation for faster and easier business decisions.

The team has demonstrated its strong ability of adaption and innovation and sets up an example for its counterparts in the industry.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 1,500 characters):

To successfully deploy the ERP system, the team has addressed the following challenges with expertise, client-centric spirit and business resilience:

1. The ERP implementation required end-to-end process reinvention, including business brand, product & offerings, project management, service delivery, vendor management, quote to cash, account receivable, finance and accounting, to make the business functionality landed smoothly.
2. Business environment and scenarios vary across regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan with full readiness, details needed to be streamlined and customized before system deployment to meet local client's demand, especially for VIP accounts.
3. Multiple legacy tools in today's system landscapes need to be adjusted, migrated, integrated, and sunset to be suitable and accessible to fit for this new integrated system, which need deep dive, verify and revisit to avoid risk and bugs and they bring up the difficulties and complexity in this project.

The team has successfully reduced the billing and invoicing operations cycle time by 25% with significant productivity improvement. More than 40 ideas submitted in discovery, more than 35 proposals on process simplification through constant efforts on innovation; Significant RPA (Robotic Process Automation) program were identified and implemented with around 4000hrs of savings with operational accuracy improved to nearly 100%; Average process steps were reduced by 30%.

More importantly, the initiative facilitated development of a culture of adaptability, resiliency, and innovation not just within the team, but within the TLS business unit through leading transformation activities at all levels with its expertise expanded beyond transactional support and to full business cycle.