Isn’t finger-pointing annoying? Especially when it’s coupled with a shrug of the shoulders and a dismissive attitude? I think it is. Of course, it’s kind of ironic that in raising the issue I’m actually pointing a finger at it, but too bad (he said, shrugging his shoulders and being dismissive).
But it’s a serious issue, especially as the technology we use to run our businesses (or upon which we build the entire enterprise) gets more complicated and providers become intertwined. Here’s what set me off.
I have a client who is fairly typical. They run their website on an external CMS. They use outside ad serving. They have another company providing their video streaming. Someone else does analytics. They have the requisite links to Facebook, Twitter, and others. In short, they, like damn near everyone else on the web, don’t exist in a vacuum. They know that and are acutely aware of these dependencies.
Here’s the problem. The providers don’t seem to be. When there’s an issue, inevitably it devolves into one provider blaming another or finger-pointing. And then to shrugged shoulders.
So here’s the thing. Like any of us who work together as part of a team, all this tech is linked together whether they want to be or not. The attitude can’t be “well, it’s not us so go figure it out”; it needs to be ” it’s probably not an issue with our stuff but when can we schedule a call together to help fix this? After all, even if it’s not our issue, it affects the performance of the whole. And we are a part of that whole.”
If you provide a service it creates a dependency. Someone is relying on you. “Not my problem” IS a problem until your client decides it’s not.
Thoughts?
Consult Keith 