That's one hell of a situation. I can relate since I work for an I.T. department and my wife used to be a consultant for a firm that had to win State contracts in the United States. She's gone off on her own tangents about her firms I.T. department. I won't defend what your I.T. department did to you but hopefully I can give you some perspective. I.T. sucks. I hate working in that industry. I.T. departments are embattled because companies are trying to downsize them while simoltaneosly increasing their workload. If you want longevity in I.T. you have to be constantly proving that you can do more with less. You're literally trying to automate yourself out of a job. The key to survival for them is to take on tasks they can succeed at. Your issue probably had more complexity than they were prepared to deal with and it got buried under less important, but simpler problems that were in their face. Like the guy literally standing in their cube asking them to fix the Interweb. My question for you is, did you create a ticket? Email is a black hole. You have to create a ticket because tickets equal accountability. Customers think we're blowing them off when we say make a ticket. But what were really saying is, if you want to get your problem solved, make a ticket because we got a thousand other issues, plus this guy standing in my cube, that we're dealing with, and you're just talking to the intern, not the guy who's qualified to fix any of them. Tickets have tracking numbers just like FedEx, and you can set it to URGENT. When you set it to URGENT you're going to get the hotshot tech who wants the big problems because they're trying to promote. Also, if two weeks go by without a response you have a name attached to the ticket and a tracking number. Email is no guarantee that things are going to get done. People always make the mistake of emailing I.T. to get shit done faster. Look at the CC line of your emails. If they're are a ton of people cc'd on them that just means no single person is taking ownership of your issue. When you go to Susie she'll say Joe was supposed to do it, when you go to Joe, he'll say Bob was working on it. Here's my best advice for dealing with I.T. Get to know the people, and identify the most ambitious technician. Here's a secret, it's not the senior analyst, and it's definitely not the manager. Find the guy or girl whose trying to climb out of Tier 1 hell and wants interesting problems. Be their pal, take care of them, and they'll start do everything they can to please you.
I understand that, and the I.T. department at work are in this situation. I guess my main problem was the lack of communication that went a long with it and the fact they fail to see that my customer is also theirs. Just because they aren't client-facing it doesn't mean the customer service standards can be nil.
Winning accounts is what pays for everyone in the company to the lowliest little person to the mightiest; it's a team, and when one element of that team breaks down the entire team does.
I could tell them about all the hours I do, the uncomfortable things I have to accept from entitled clients and people who feel they can dominate me because we are seemingly in a position of servitude to them. I could tell them about having to deal with rejection, to see thousands of dollars go begging because I.T. didn't deliver, of weekend work, phone calls and callouts, of the constant grind to find, win and hold new clients...But I don't. I just do my job to the best of my ability expecting others to do the same.
The thing is, no one believes other people's excuses, only they, themselves, believe them. If we all went around whining about things nothing would get done. Communication is the key, and there was a lack of it and it's not acceptable.
Having said that, I do understand the pressures, I've been around for a good while.
This situation was escalated today and there will be a resolution, and probably some rolling heads. The industry I work in is well known for demanding results and that translates to accounts that trade. We'll see how it goes I guess. I was pleased to be able to communicate to the customer and attempt to re-establish the line of communication with the view to moving forward. I.T. will need to deliver.
I agree 100%. IT is this weird support role that isn't treated like it's part of the mission, but is absolutely critical to it. IT managers can get so focused on the thousands of little things that they forget the big picture. But at the end of the day, that direction has to come from the top. I hope things work out.
It's a collective thing we do, the elements of a company, and if everyone pulls in the same general direction things will progress. No element should be seen as better or more valuable than the other, down that path lies dissent and less reliable work-integrity. You're right about those at the top having to lead effectively too, it's the ethos I've always worked to as a leader in past iterations of my life.
Thanks for your commenting.
"It's a collective thing we do, the elements of a company, and if everyone pulls in the same general direction things will progress."
That's very true. A part of me thinks it's human nature to divide the whole into separate competing elements. I can see how that can be used for motivation at lower levels. But if leaders lose perspective that lack of sophistication ends up hurting the collective.
Military units operate as a whole, but have various elements that are completely different. Mortars, heavy machine gunners, riflemen, comms, NCO's officers etc. All have their own job but have to work together, a symphony so to speak. It works, so I know it's possible to do in business also., With some adaptation. It's the same concept, but different.
I think you get it.