Pierce Harriz IBM's Young Customer Service Professional of the Year

International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is an American multinational technology company in Armonk, New York, with operations in ~171 countries. IBM produces and sells more than 7000 computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM Z is the backbone of the world's leading businesses.

Pierce Harriz joined IBM on September 3, 2024, and in just 13 months has made a profound impact in Level 2 Support. His primary area of responsibility is the z/OS Unix System Services (USS) component one of the most technically demanding parts of the mainframe operating system.

Mainframes are vital to the worlds business environment - 55% of all enterprise applications need a mainframe to complete transactions, 80% of the world's corporate data resides on mainframes and 30 billion business transactions are processed on mainframes every day using z/OS.

From day one, it was clear that something exceptional was unfolding. Pierce blends deep technical expertise with relentless curiosity and a passion for learning. He rapidly absorbs complex information and translates it into meaningful results. Beyond his strong problem-solving and analytical skills, Pierce also demonstrates exceptional leadership, social influence, resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility. His outstanding service orientation and excellent communication skills make him a trusted and respected colleague across teams and to our clients.

Pierce's talent and potential have already drawn attention from senior leadership. His journey is just beginning, and it promises to be extraordinary.

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

Pierce's accomplishments in the z/OS USS environment are remarkable. In his SME Support role, he collaborates directly with IBM Development teams, contributing to code changes and system improvements a rare level of engagement for someone so early in their tenure.

• Jumpstart People's Choice Award: As Lead Architect, Pierce designed a tool that significantly reduced security check times and mitigated cyberattack risks on z/OS systems.
• Entrepreneur Award 2025: Lead developer KIKA calendar This tool improved time-tracking accuracy, speed, and usability - a high-visibility initiative, saving approximately 1 hour per support person per week (~2000 SME's)
• EPOLL Performance Improvement: Lead Pierce enhanced I/O performance by optimizing EPOLL over traditional select() & poll() calls. His work enabled benchmarking to resume retaining a major client considering a platform switch.
• Complex Case Resolution: Pierce resolved 1 year old client issue in his 1st two weeks. He modified C code on both client & server sides, automated OpenSSH setup & reverse-engineered system calls to identify the root cause.

These achievements reflect Pierce's exceptional coding skills, diagnostic precision, and ability to drive innovation and client trust.

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):

Pierce's domain - z/OS USS - integrates a full POSIX-compliant Unix environment (File system, processes, signals, etc.) into a fundamentally different, traditionally non-Unix mainframe architecture originally designed for batch, transaction, and EBCDIC-based processing. Mastering this environment requires not only deep technical knowledge but also significant, hard-earned experience that typically takes many years to build. Pierce did it in one and already identified multiple source code bugs and collaborated with Development to enhance z (zero-downtime) stability.

His rapid ascent earned him weekend on-call duty - a responsibility reserved for trusted SMEs. This speaks volumes about his technical excellence and composure under pressure.

Enterprise clients rely on top-tier engineers for their most critical workloads. When those experts hit roadblocks, they turn to Pierce. He not only resolves their issues but reverse-engineers code, identifies root causes under extreme time constraints, and restores stability - where downtime could cost millions.

Programming is common. What Pierce has achieved in such a short time within IBM Support is rare. He brings insight, resilience, and mastery when it matters most - with one of the best support personas in the business.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 1,500 characters):

Pierce presented his KIKA tool to the Vice Presidents of IBM Technology Lifecycle Services Infrastructure, who commented: "Excellent work. We need more of these tools that enhance efficiency and productivity."

Support Team comments:

• "Before KIKA I would spend over 3 hours per week accurately updating my utilization, I had to set time aside each date for it was too cumbersome to keep it updated in real time. I love KIKA because of the intuitive interface, easy drag and drop. I use it consistent and reliably each day" - Laura Sperling Senior IBM Support Rep
• "KIKA makes it significantly easier and faster to enter time records, less error prone and takes half the time as the current process." - Dash Miller - Senior zOS Service Planner

Client Satisfaction:

Pierce has achieved four customer satisfaction survey results already, each with a perfect score.

• Clients commend his swift action, detailed documentation, and clear guidance that enabled rapid resolution and deeper understanding of complex issues.

October 2025, Pierce was recognized as New Hire of the Month - an exceptional accomplishment considering his mere 13 months with IBM.