Recently, InTACT's "Web Team" (as we were so lovingly known) moved between two sections. It's the result of a shuffle around where you basically did the same thing, just for a different boss (how very Public Service - look at the Department of Education & Training, formerly Department of Education, Youth and Family Services, formerly... you get the idea). Anyhow, the "web team" moved from "Solutions Delivery" to "Service Delivery"
Now, you'd think that under "Service Delivery" you'd be more productive than "Solutions Delivery". Not so. From what I've seen so far, Service Delivery is all about red tape. Endless reams of red tape and paperwork you never even thought existed. Where has this outburst come from?
As a few of you know, I'm responsible for a few archaic NT4 servers hosted out at BeTrusted (formerly SecureNet). For the last year and a bit, I've been actively trying to migrate the sites hosted on these servers over to InTACT servers. Why? Because then it's not my responsibility, the client gets better service, with an SLA, and there's one less NT4 server in the world.
Under Solutions Delivery, migrations were almost painless. Create a website on one of the InTACT servers, copy content across, change DNS, and tell the client how to make changes to their shiney new site. Usually, the hardest thing is convincing the client that Change is Good [tm].
Under Service Delivery, I haven't even been able to migrate one site yet. Why? Because you can't even create a new site without mounds of paperwork, approvals, and well, red tape. To create a new site, you have to get the client to pony up for a new site - in addition to what they're paying for their current site - even though the new one is essentially for testing purposes at the moment. Once the client has actually shelled out for it, there's risk assessments, signoffs from Customer Agreements, Finance, blah blah blah blah. It's utter bullshit. The main reason I've managed to get clients to migrate is because they see a cost reduction. Now, they have to pay to have two sites running concurrently, while Service Delivery goes through all their risk assessment signoff bullshit.
Supporting a shitty old NT4 server that's continually falling over is not in my job description. Supporting the shitty CMS on it is. I can't wait until the next time the server fails. I'll just throw up my hands and say, "I don't know, but if you fill in these forms, I might". Fuck you. I want to go back to Solutions Delivery, where people's heads aren't up each other's asses.