Travelport to Implement IBM Blockchain

John Teltsch has worked in sales, marketing and executive roles at IBM for 37 years. As general manager of IBM’s Partner Ecosystem division, John Teltsch engages with thousands of global partners in the areas of AI and cloud-based technologies. 

IBM is leveraging its AI and Blockchain technologies in new ways in the travel and hospitality industry. In October 2018, IBM and Travelport, a travel commerce platform, announced a new conceptual project that will use IBM’s existing Blockchain technology to seamlessly integrate the delivery of unique travel options between agencies and other industry stakeholders. 

In the past, travel agencies and travel managers have had difficulty creating a streamlined settlement process because of the different supply entities involved in travel planning. Using IBM’s Blockchain, however, Travelport will make it easier for travel agents to access information and bill customers in a centralized way so they can more efficiently craft travel plans and itineraries for their clients.

IBM Rolls Out Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture

John Teltsch serves as the general manager of IBM Global Business Partners. In his work at the company, John Teltsch partners with more than 160,000 global stakeholders in cloud services and analytics, as well as the Watson artificial intelligence (AI) platform. 

In September, IBM announced the worldwide debut of its Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture. The AI technology aggregates data from weather, satellites, and connected farm machinery to provide a comprehensive, predictive farming outlook that can be accessed from a smartphone app. 

The tool will allow farmers to make better decisions to increase the productivity of their farms--for instance, targeting specific areas that may be vulnerable to disease and/or pests so they can be treated accordingly, or calculating exactly how much water is needed through high-definition soil moisture readings, improving cost-efficiency by preventing water waste.

A Look at Cloud Computing Benefits

International business executive John Teltsch has worked for nearly four decades at IBM, where he has served in roles that range from general sales and hardware management to software product lines and global business development. Currently, John Teltsch is the general manager of IBM’s Global Business Partners.

Mr. Teltsch manages partnerships with over 160,000 firms and technological opportunities in areas that include mobile, analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. Cloud computing provides services over the cloud that have been traditionally hosted on-site. These services typically include servers, databases, networking, software, and business analytics. 

Cloud computing can be attractive to businesses due to the many benefits it offers. In addition to providing the ability to scale information technology quickly and easily, cloud computing effectively reduces costs. Rather than purchasing hardware and software and managing on-site equipment and data centers, cloud clients can focus on business goals. Users also benefit from increased efficiency with on-demand computing resources and strong security measures that stem from the controls implemented by cloud providers.

Three Concepts That Build High-Performing Sales Teams

A longtime IBM executive, John Teltsch has held titles such as vice president of software sales, general manager of global sales and IBM.com business unit executive. Currently general manager of global business partners at IBM, John Teltsch is adept at building high-performance sales teams.

Below are three tips for putting together a sales team:

*Define the sales culture
The sales culture of a team guides everyone’s actions and behavior. However, some leaders talk about their sales culture, but don’t actually live by it. Instead, the people hired into the team, and the training and coaching they receive, should reflect the culture. This ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to the sales process, and promotes a uniform experience for customers.

*Incorporate data
Data provides sales teams with a huge range of information, such as who their customers are, problems that exist, and the different ways customers may respond at points in the sales process. Data plays a huge role in helping team members succeed. However, leaders must make sure the entire sales team can understand this data.

*Promote collaboration over competition
With competition, someone always wins and everyone else loses. While this may encourage big earners, it’s not very helpful for encouraging success among the entire team. Instead, leaders should promote collaboration and encourage high-earning salespeople to coach and mentor team members who may not perform as well. Doing so encourages teams to work together more efficiently.

IBM Technology at the US Open

John Teltsch joined IBM in 1982 as a marketing representative. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has held a number of leadership positions with the company, including vice president of European software sales and general manager of global enterprise and commercial sales. For over a year, John Teltsch has served IBM in Armonk, New York, as general manager of global business partners.

For more than 25 years, IBM has functioned as a technology partner for the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing. Recent editions of the tournament, one of the sport’s four major championships, have benefitted from a variety of predictive analytics technology, including the Watson-powered IBM SlamTracker, which provides fans with real-time insights into matches. The 2017 US Open saw the introduction of Watson Media, a machine learning tool that utilizes a Cognitive Highlights feature to analyze match footage and edit the most attractive highlights reel possible.

IBM’s technological influence at the US Open can be seen away from the court as well. Speech to Text API, for example, creates automatic subtitle support for all of the tournament’s video segments and player interviews, while Visual Recognition API helps identify players in pictures taken by tournament photographers. 

For more information about how the US Open takes advantage of the real-time, cloud-computing power of Watson, please visit the sports section at www.ibm.com.

IBM Launches Cognitive Computing Unit

With more than three and a half decades of experience in global roles with IBM, John Teltsch has provided transformational leadership across sales efforts, hardware division oversight, and the expansion of the IBM.com platform. Presently serving as general manager with IBM’s Global Business Partners, John Teltsch oversees a network partner-driven platform that spans mobile and cloud platforms.

In early 2017, IBM launched an OpenPower-driven cognitive computing hardware unit. The aim is to leverage the firm’s Power architecture and research in ways that expand machine learning, unstructured data, and artificial intelligence navigation capacities. As described by the head of the unit, this reflects a changing landscape in which computer systems are valued for the insight they provide rather than for strictly procedural, programmatic, and transactional qualities. 

Reflecting this mandate, the cognitive initiative will work across multiple sectors and with a variety of partners, with a focus on utilizing software and cloud capacities to generate insights in near real time. By pairing AI and analytics with cloud and on-premises infrastructure, comprehensive solutions can be provided to organizations of all types and sizes. This will be leveraged and extended across IBM's global partner ecosystem that John Teltsch continues to drive change and transformation across all it's offerings.

IBM Watson - Helping Teachers Find High-Impact Teaching Materials

Over the course of his 37-year career at IBM, John Teltsch has served in numerous divisions in several countries. Since July 2017, John Teltsch has held the role of general manager of Global Business Partners at IBM, which operates several community initiatives, including IBM Watson.

An agile search tool that allows teachers to quickly find learning activities, lessons, information on learning standards, and teaching strategies, Watson also helps teachers locate grade-specific didactic content that reaches students at their developmental level. The computer system even pairs teaching resources to help teachers explore materials in context and develop relevant lesson plans.

The evolution of Watson was informed by the input of educators from across the United States to ensure that all of the content aligns with the latest education standards. Teachers can rest assured that the materials they find through the use of Watson have been vetted by experienced educators with knowledge of evidence-based teaching practices.

3 Top Trends in Cloud Technology

A veteran leader at IBM with more than 37 years of experience at the company, John Teltsch
serves as general manager of IBM’s Global Business Partners. In this role, John Teltsch works with the company’s business partners on a variety of services related to the cloud, which continues to rapidly evolve. Following are a few of the latest trends in cloud technology. 

-Multi-cloud strategies. Instead of placing all their applications in one cloud provider, businesses are placing them in multiple public clouds. This multi-cloud strategy allows them to avoid being locked in with any single vendor.

-Increased storage. Cloud-based services have become such a mainstream way of doing business that storage providers are creating more and bigger data storage centers. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses should know how to leverage the additional storage to accomplish their goals. For instance, small businesses can find a custom storage space that suits their needs, and large businesses that employ big data can find storage centers capable of storing large data sets. 

-Increased need for security. With cyber threats a growing concern, businesses need to take additional precautions to protect their sensitive data. To thwart security threats, businesses without the resources to employ full security measures may want to contract cloud-based managed security service providers, who can provide stronger security services to protect their data.

IBM System x Servers

An experienced technology industry sales leader and senior administrator, John Teltsch has worked at IBM for more than 35 years, serving as general manger of global business partners since 2017. John Teltsch’s accomplishments with IBM include spearheading sales of its System x servers at the global level.

Hitting the global marketplace in the late 2000s, the IBM System x family of Intel and AMD chip based servers offered significant technological advancements in the march toward smarter, more efficient computing in the business environment. System x servers also increased corporate customers’ ability to manage levels of risk, respond rapidly to business opportunities, maintain ongoing business operations, reduce overall operational costs, and engender ongoing growth. The System x line incorporated best-in-class remote access and future-proof information technology measures with the latest in state-of-the-art energy management. 

In 2013, IBM sold System x to Lenovo as part of a $2.3 billion agreement that included the entire IBM x86 business line.

Spring Hill College President Transitions to President Emeritus Role

The general manager of IBM Global Business Partners, John Teltsch brings to this position more than 36 years of experience in leadership roles across numerous IBM divisions. Prior to beginning his career, John Teltsch earned a bachelor of science in economics and business administration from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, which recently announced a change in leadership.

Spring Hill College has announced that Christopher P. Puto, PhD, is shifting from the role of president to that of president emeritus. As such, he will fulfill numerous leadership positions, including as founding director of the John J. Burke Center for the Study and Advancement of Free Enterprise, chair of the Board of Trustees Real Estate Task Force, and chair of the Spring Hill College Foundation Trust. 

An alumnus of the Spring Hill College class of 1964, Christopher P. Puto, PhD, studied economics and went on to earn both an MBA in marketing from the University of Miami and a PhD in business administration from Duke University. His transition to the role of president emeritus is part of a larger succession plan of the Spring Hill College Board of Trustees, the chair of which shared the college’s appreciation for Puto’s dedicated service during his tenure as president.

What Are Cloud Service Providers?

A veteran leader at IBM, John Teltsch serves as general manager of Global Business Partners. In this role, John Teltsch maintains responsibility for revenue from thousands of IBM business partners around the world, including resellers, system integrators, value-added distributors, independent software vendors, and cloud service providers. 

The presence of cloud service providers has grown tremendously in recent years, as businesses have found ways to create economies of scale through this industry-disrupting technology. The cloud refers to services and software programs that operate over the internet, allowing businesses and individuals to use these products and services without having to install them on their computers or purchase extensive hardware. 

Services and products offered on the cloud include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). With IaaS, cloud service providers allow businesses to operate a networking or computer infrastructure through the cloud, while SaaS allows businesses and individuals to access applications they need through a subscription service, which is especially beneficial for those who need an application on a temporary basis. 

Another key benefit to cloud services is secure storage of data. Cloud service providers offer valuable storage space and allow customers to access their data whenever they need it. To ensure the security of data, providers often attain a variety of certifications, such as SSAE 16 and various ISO certifications, which demonstrate a commitment to secure, reliable, and accessible data storage services.

The Benefits of Software as a Service

With more than 35 years of industry experience, John Teltsch held a number of leadership positions prior to his current role as General Manager of Global Business Partners. Over the course of his career at IBM, one of the ways that John Teltsch has helped clients revolutionize their business models is through the use of software as a service. 

A growing trend in the technology sector, software as a service, or SaaS, allows businesses and individuals to sign up for software packages that are accessible on multiple devices via the Internet. Rather than purchasing software, users pay a monthly fee in exchange for software access. 

One of the advantages of SaaS, or software on demand, is that the software vendor continually updates the software automatically, allowing users to remain up-to-date on the latest versions instead of purchasing an entirely new version for download. Further, SaaS is ideal for users who need a software program for only a limited period of time, as they can pay per month for the access they need instead of spending money on a program they may never use again. 

SaaS also offers cloud storage for all files and allows users to access their files from multiple devices wherever they have an internet connection. Finally, software vendors can often tailor certain applications according to the needs and branding of their clients. With the convenience and savings available through SaaS, this technology has grown considerably in recent years as an affordable tool to meet the unique needs of each user. IBM is leading the industry in innovation and change across cloud software as a service space which John Teltsch leverages these offerings and capabilities through IBM's ecosystem of partners.

Sigma Chi's Horizons Program

A longtime leader at IBM, John Teltsch serves as General Manager of Global Business Partners. In this role he collaborates across a board set of IBM Ecosystem of Partners to find opportunities for growth in analytics, cloud, security, artificial intelligence and modern infrastructure. Prior to beginning his 35-year career at IBM, John Teltsch gained leadership experience in college as one of the founding brothers of the Spring Hill College chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity, which operates a unique leadership program called Horizons. 

Horizons offers leadership training to qualified Sigma Chi members who have at least two years remaining in college. A unique component of the program is its outdoor setting in Snowbird, Utah, where students participate in outdoor activities. Prior to beginning the outdoor adventure in Utah, applicants to the program are required to engage in self-reflection through a series of questions, after which they complete pre-trip readings. 

Upon arrival in Utah, students participate in outdoor adventure experiences designed for whole-brain learning, which entails the use of both mind and body. After the outdoor component of Horizons, participants engage in a mentoring experience with Sigma Chi members as well as in follow-up leadership sessions online. 

To learn more about Sigma Chi and its Horizons program, visit SigmaChi.org/horizons.