Business and IT Stupidity

If you push Office 2010 to 1000 networked computers using a GPO you should have your fingers and your nuts removed with a pair of vice grips. If you were forced to do it by way of lacking budget or CIO ignorance, then you get a pass (as long as you offer up those folks for tasering)

Company "A" decides to switch cell phone contracts to a new provider because they were offered a huge discount. The decision was made at corporate headquarters where cell coverage was reliable. However, at the biggest operations office there was no coverage at all by the new provider. After issuing phones, employees realized they were useless and turned them back in. Great savings plan.

Company "B" wrestled with cost reductions and decided to close one office and move the operation to the nearest branch some 25 miles away. The relocated branch was home to one of the most lucrative contracts in the company. The customer insisted on a clause that required the service provider to maintain a "suitable presense" within 5 miles of their facility. Now there was none. Contract cancelled, and bids went out for a replacement. Company "C" wins the bid and hires employees away from the faltering company "B". Problem solved.

Company "D" decided one year to change their compensation package from mostly cash to mostly unvested stocks and options. From 70/30 to 20/80 actually. Withing six months of applying this new mix to performing employees, the reason became clear: they were selling the company and nullifying unvested and un-optioned shares awarded. Awesome benefit plan!

IT engineer at company "E" decides it would make sense to remove an expensive engineering software product from 3 workstations and install it on their Terminal Services host so everyone could use it without installing it locally. After it was suggested they confirm that with the vendor first, they chose to ignore the concerns and proceed. A week later they realized there were issues with multiple users launching it concurrently inside the TS host, so they called the vendor. The vendor rather politely informed them that had they read the EULA, it clearly states TS hosting is strictly forbidden and unsupported. After the IT guy argued back the vendor said "ok, then we will bill you one license for every TS CAL you own for that host" (the cost per license was $10,000 at the time and they had 250 CALs). The product was quickly removed.

All of these are 100% true and I witnessed them firsthand.