An IT Christmas Carol

An IT Christmas Carol
It was Christmas Eve and while everyone in the office
was celebrating except poor Bob Scratchit, the
ACME Ltd CIO who was very low. Things in IT
just didn’t seem to be going his way. He was for ever
having to justify his existence and that of his team.
“I’m for ever writing up reports for why this didn’t work, why
this project is over budget, why that project was cancelled,
why staff seem to be leaving on mass, why the CEO,Ed
Scourge's pet project is 3 months behind schedule”
Bob was not a happy man and knew that he wouldn’t get
his bonus again this year, for the third year running.
© Copyright My Perfect-IT
Limited 2014

Bob’s boss ,the CEO at ACME Ltd, Ed Scrouge, was
having an entirely different Christmas Eve. His £1
million salary had just been topped up by his
guaranteed £500k bonus. So he had plenty to be
happy about. His was the only guaranteed bonus,
everyone else had to justify theirs and this year it
looked like he would be the only senior executive
receiving his. But he thought “I’ve worked hard so I
deserve it!”, irrespective of the company results which
weren’t bad but could have been a lot better if some of
the IT Projects had delivered their promise.
“That Bob Scratchit just isn’t delivering the goods, he’s always
asking for money for this, money for that and I occasionally
give him some of it, but he just wastes it” he thought “so its
his fault that the bonuses won’t be paid this year”
The working day ended at 13.00 as it was Christmas Eve
and everyone went home for the Christmas break.
(2 whole days)
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It’s 5 minutes to midnight when Ed hears the sound of rattling chains
An apparition appeared and declared itself to be the ghost
of Jack Marlow, the CEO at ACME prior to Ed’s
tenure. Unfortunately, poor Jack passed on shortly
after retiring. A shame as he had amassed a small
fortune but hardly had time to enjoy any of his ill-gotten
gains. He was well known for doing anything
to increase his bank balance and normally a lot of
people suffered due to his selfish attitude, but he didn’t
care just as long as he profited. Ed had used Jack as
his a role model, as he too wanted to swell his bank
account, so his team and decisions affecting them came
secondary to his personal profit .Ed like Jack was not
well liked by his IT team or the business in general,
but as Ed told his staff “you are not here to enjoy
yourselves or to like me, you are here to do exactly what I
tell you too or get the sack”.
The ghostly voice of Jack extorted “beware Ed, repent now,
don’t do as I did, it’s not too late, listen to your staff, help
them, forget about self profit” “Bah humbug” thought Ed
“this is just a dream, I’ll wake up in a minute.”
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Unfortunately, for Ed this was no dream and Jack began
to wail again “Listen to Bob Scratchit, he knows the way
to redemption, don’t end up like me doomed to spend all of
time looking for solutions to the world’s information
problems. You will be visited by another 3 ghosts before the
night is over..heed their warnings!” and with that Jack
disappeared.
Ed again retorted “Bah Humbug, Jack’s gone, 3 more ghosts
indeed I’m glad that’s all over, off to bed now. Oh how I hate
Christmas, everyone buying presents for each other, what a
waste of money and being nice to each other, oh yuk”
Ed was in for another surprise he wasn’t going to sleep
just yet and there was great bang and another ghost
appeared.
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Ed was aghast as the Ghost that appeared and looked and
sounded feminine “I am the ghost of Christmas past and I
am going to take you back to see your roots...take my hand”
with a flash they were back somewhere Ed
recognised. It was the company in which Ed has
began his career in Goodguys Bank and Ed was a
graduate trainee in the IT department. Yes, Ed
actually started his career working in IT.
It was the Christmas party and all the staff from
Business and IT were happily intermingling and
conversing. Ed could see and hear the younger
version of himself talking to the head of the Sales &
Marketing department, Arty Crafter, “Ed you guys in
IT have done such great job this year working together with
us. You’ve listened to all our requirements and delivered
systems that are great. It’s really given us a competitive
edge in the market by providing the information we need
when we need it and so accurate. We can now confidently
make decisions based on the facts not speculation. Thank
you”
Ed played a major part in the transformation of the IT
Systems at Goodguys Bank and because of it found
it easy to obtain a more senior role at ACME.
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IT Christmas Carol
The scene changed to ACME Ed had been here for 10
years and by always doing what the CEO, Jack
Marlow had told him, namely put in the cheapest
tactical solution, Ed was now the IT Director and
Jack made sure he always got a good bonus. It was
the annual Christmas party here and Ed was listening
in on a conversation amongst his staff. Pete Murray,
senior project manager was talking with the his team,
“I’m leaving next month guys, the systems are now at
breaking point, it’s a real mess, Ed has sold us down the
river and I for one don’t want to be around when it all goes
belly up. I’ve tried talking to him about sorting this mess out
but all he is interested in is his bonus, not spending money
sorting the IT problems out”
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IT Christmas Carol
Ed closed his eyes and was hack at his apartment. There
was a knock at he door and yet another ghost entered.
“I am the ghost of Christmas present...come with me” Back
at the party.
Ed had now been CEO since Jack’s departure and had
continued Jack’s guide of implementing point
solutions at the cheapest cost. Bob Scratchit his CIO
had pleaded with him to give him the budget to sort
things out properly but Ed just ignored him and only
authorised budget for tactical solutions. The cracks
were beginning to show.
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IT Christmas Carol
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to come
This was a brief stay and the ghost disappeared and
another took his place. “I am the ghost of Christmas yet
to come..take my hand” They arrived at something that
looked like the outside of their office building but it
looked totally empty. Two of Ed’s managers walked
past and Ed over heard their conversation. “If that
stupid idiot Ed Scrouge had listened to Bob Scratchit ACME
would not have gone bust and we’d all still have our jobs.
He was talking sense when he told Ed we needed to get
back control of our IT systems and the only way to do that
was to go back to basics - understand where we were, what
was missing, and then plan to fill the gaps and integrate
everything. He even told Ed he had found a innovative new
software company that had a new product that could help
big time but Ed said no and that is when we started to lose
out to our competitors, we just couldn’t respond to the
changes in the market. What a waste of such a great
company. Anyway no one will employ Ed again with his
reputation for bringing down ACME all on his own. I hear
Bob Scratchit is IT Director at one of our competitors, at
least they saw his potential!”Ed was very perturbed at
what he heard and asked the ghost “is this just what
might happen in the future or will happen in the future?”
The ghost replied “what happens in the future depends
on what we do in the present” With that Ed was returned
to his apartment.
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IT Christmas Carol
Two days later back at work Ed invited Bob to his office
and they spent the whole day discussing what needed
to be done to get back control. Bob told Ed that he
thought the most sensible thing to do first was to
invest in a tool called PI, from a company called My
Perfect-IT Ltd as this would help them to:
 Establish where they were
 Find out what was missing
 Develop Plans for filling the Gaps and integrating
everything
 Get back in control
YOU COULD GET A FREE TRY OUT OF PI
• NO OBLIGATIONS
• NO NAG SCREENS
• JUST A FREE GIFT FROM US SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT
PI COULD DO FOR YOU
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IT Christmas Carol
Limited 2014
To get a free TRYOUT
Version of Pi just click me
Or email me :
ronsheldrick:myperfect-it.co.uk
Or visit us at
http://www.myperfect-it.co.uk/

An IT Christmas Carol

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An IT Christmas Carol