Combating Bureaucracy in the IT Department (Score 1)

It seems you work for a business embedded IT department that develops applications, and you have to request work from a centralized IT infrastructure services division that serves multiple business units. The frustrating experience you have shared is a well known side effect of this type of set up. The centralized IT unit is often allowed to operate as a cost center, where they get a bag of money at the start of the year. The amount is not based on the actual work they are expected to do that year, but rather it is an arbitrary percentage of the profits made by the company as well as industry standards. As you can imagine, when the supply of money is unrelated to work, the centralized IT unit has little incentive to pay heed to business urgencies. Instead, the unit continues to try and make optimum use of the said bag of money. Very often, the centralized unit will have a system of "charge-back" and it would appear that they charge for their services, however, this system is merely an accounting convenience and it is largely used for justification to the shareholders and auditors. The good news is that because the problem is systemic, there are fairly simple ways to get around it. The system can be made to work, even taken advantage of, if you know how it works. 1. Establish personal relationships with the group that does data center work (like server installs and upgrades) for you. Use common vendors as a channel for introduction. Take them out to lunch. After putting in a formal request for work, follow up through friendly, personal meetings. Avoid email exchanges, especially ones that are copied to too many people. 2. Build a case for how much delays cost in terms of opportunity cost. Use specific examples. Ask a senior manager in your division to share the document with a senior manager in the centralized IT unit. Ask for a written response from them. Persistent, written demonstration of flaws will eventually penetrate even the thickest bureaucratic walls. 3. Quickly escalate if things are not going your way. Quantify the opportunity loss (dollars/day), and send out an email every morning to management on both sides. In the escalation messages, focus on the business loss rather than wrong doing of groups or people. Managers use fires as a methodology to prioritize work, so go create the biggest one! I hope this helps. Please keep sharing your experiences with us. Good luck!