Yesterday was quasi-busy for us...quasi because things were slow up until 1 or 2 PM, then we received a trickle of issues that bled over into my night, allowing me the pleasure (smirk) to put in 5 more hours of OT this week (we are up to 12 so far).
The most agonizing of these started around 3 PM or so. Our customer's Corporate IT Team (CITT) called and asked us to raise the priority of a case regarding the time entry system they use which is tied to SAP. One of the modules that calculates vacation has gone wonky and while this is not normally a high sev, we are at the end of the year and all calculations have to be perfect to close the books.
I get the case and investigate. The partner group (major IT provider) who supports this app has a tech (consultant) working on the issue, but they have stopped working because they cannot connect to the DB. Up until last year, DB issues were theirs to deal with, but that now has been passed to us. Instead of CALLING the DB for support, she E-MAILS them and then puts the case into a pending status until she gets and answer. I decide to step in and get a DB and the consultant talking. I set up a confcall and we begin working. She works with the DBA for 10 minutes or so then she says she has to drop off, but she wants me to call her in 5 minutes. I agree. I try to call her several times but no luck. She does not pick up. I ask the DBA to try to call her a couple of times before he leaves and he agrees. Both he a and I are trying to get out of the office. Him to his wife and me so I can be on call the rest of the night.
I get home and take care of the dogs (feed, water, let them out to pee...) and my phone rings...another priority ticket that I need to coordinate. No worries. I get that one started (after logging my laptop onto the VPN and calling the tech working on the issue) and decide to call the consultant from the earlier case. To my surprise she has not even TRIED to log on to the DB. She spends the next 5-10 minutes making excuses on why she has not resolved the case yet. She could not get in touch with the DBA, she was not home (it was 3 :00 AM and she was on call), she can't make international calls...cry me a river, PLEASE. We have had nothing but problems lately with this sort of thing from the thord party provider our customer has chosen to support their software. We cannot blame them because we singed the contract to "manage" IT for our customer no matter who they chose to support them. It makes a hard job...interesting to say the least.
Well anyways, after listening to this consultant from a land far, far away I ripped into her on the merits of cooperating, her lack of dedication, etc and how I was going to file a formal complaint. If I manage to escape getting written up by our management for "unsportsmanlike conduct" then God is really watching out for me. I pulled no punches, stopping short of swearing. I was mad.
A couple of hours later I get confirmation the issue appears to be resolved. I wonder if my temper tamtrum helped or hindered that?
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