Knee Jerk costs....

Achievement not activity. Results not process. Facts not emotion.

That's what it should all be about in the exciting world of Oracle applications.

In a big organisation with multiple modules and a bureaucratic culture, there are usually more crises - and also more people to deal with them of course. Some, however, just have that bit more drama than others. Today was one of those days at BadOrg PLC.

'There's a problem' was written all over my Technical Support Manager's face. Not a functional, technical or database issue which we dealt with at the rate of 500 per week. This was a 'management' problem. Two of the Senior Leadership Team had phoned my No. 2 in my absence. There were emails and voice mails all within an hour of the incident. The CEO on walkabout at one of the many organisation's locations had received a complaint from an Oracle Financials user to say the 'support for a reporting issue was taking a long time to get to resolution'. The CIO got a call, then her team, then us in the support team.

We had a name and location and that it was a 'reporting issue'. I got my No. 2 to lead on it and dedicated an Oracle Financials analyst and my business analyst on the case. There was no support call number. My team ran around like headless chickens and rightly moaned about the lack of information. Politics prevented asking the SLT members for more useful details.

The user had no support call on the system. They tried the HQ Finance team but no joy. They searched against other support calls at that location and came up with a couple of calls which they expedited. They eventually took the bold step of contacting the user, a provincial accountant, by phone and by email and via his boss...all to no avail. Yes the user who had the CEO and CIO in tow could not be found for 2 days...nor did he return any communications. I smelt a rat.

When he was eventually cornered ...... It was clear that:

1. The issue was related to OFA
2. No support call had been logged by the user
3. My team did not support OFA – Finance supported it themselves

My team was peeved but were accustomed to it all. I was furious and let the 2 SLT members know the outcome. I got a curt response. ' Thanks but he must have had a problem' . Oh so we have 3 or 4 people diverted from important tasks to chase around after a support call which either didn't exist or was never ours! And the bad publicity for my team.

. Time for a considered response.

Dear SLT

As always we aim to deliver excellent service in a very cost effective manner..

Today we closed a support call that never was, which was initiated outside our agreed process . We wasted a lot of time and received bad press on this non issue.

The cost of my time and 3 members of my team over 3 days?
£2100

The alternative course of action ( the support process) would have been an hour for a Finance analyst who support OFA:

£25

Additionally, in future we shall formally report back on these type of incidents to all interested parties.

Regards

John

I got no response from the 8 SLT members. I expected none. The point was made. There was no repetition.

It amazes me at the total waste of resources I see around Oracle applications projects, support and development. Nearly all decisions, activities, processes can be quantified and communicated more effectively in cash terms. It is far more powerful than reason and pure emotion.

Use it!

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