From Cisco to IBM: How Professional Services Became the Most Important Role in Enterprise Tech w/ Sanjay Pal, WW VP of Software Professional Services at IBM

From Cisco to IBM: How Professional Services Became the Most Important Role in Enterprise Tech w/ Sanjay Pal, WW VP of Software Professional Services at IBM

From The Thread Podcast by Justin Vandehey

April 24, 2026 · 21 min · Season 1 · Episode 149

About this episode

Justin interviews Sanjay Pal about the evolving role of professional services in enterprise technology and its significance in the AI era.

Justin sits down with Sanjay Pal, Worldwide VP of Professional Services at IBM, to explore what it really takes to lead services at global scale and why the role is more strategically important now than ever before. Sanjay draws on his journey from Cisco to Accenture to IBM to break down what has fundamentally changed about services delivery in the AI era, and what has stayed the same. He shares how IBM thinks about standardizing delivery across 16 global markets without sacrificing client ex...

People in this episode

Host: Justin Vandehey

Guest: Sanjay Pal

Topics covered

  • professional services
  • enterprise technology
  • AI era
  • global scale
  • services delivery
  • leadership

Keywords

  • professional services
  • IBM
  • Cisco
  • Accenture
  • AI
  • global markets
  • services delivery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cisco, Accenture, IBM

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