imagine

Imagine you work for a branch of a company that is an exclusive Macintosh shop. There is no possible way you could ever have a PC in your building.

Now imagine your corporate office buys a new piece of software that only runs on Linux. The corporate IT guys work with the software company to make a version compatible for PC. 130 offices run on PC-only shops with no Macs anywhere. You are one of 20 offices that run on Macs only.

Your branch is the largest one in the company that is Mac-exclusive. You are told “you will take this new software and make it work through this pretty portal we made for you, and you’ll charge clients a BUNDLE to use the portal and like it.” You say “ah, but we promised clients they wouldn’t have to pay extra, and either we give them back their money, or we find a way to make this work on Macs.” The corporate IT guys say “okay, well, this stuff only works on PC.” The ONE IT guy who works on the Mac side says “can we discuss making it work on Mac, at least in a limited fashion (since it only works in a limited fashion on PC)?” The project manager for your corporate office says “no.”

The PC group has more than 100 people in IT and development. The Mac group has one. People working at PC offices can call IT and get instant help, even if they’re in East Bumblefuck. People working at Mac offices can ask people at other Mac offices if they’ve figured any of this stuff out, or hopefully call their one (buried under a workload) IT guy. Even Mac offices in huge cities like Chicago with huge client bases.

Welcome to the company I work for.

(The Linux/Mac/PC example is a bit of an oversimplification, but it would take far too long to explain what’s ACTUALLY going on.)

Oh, and by the way, even the PC rollout won’t be ready by Friday, which is when all clients MUST begin using this product.