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True story: our IT department sucks
I recently got a speeding ticket in California doing 80 mph. I was told I could do “traffic school” which is an online test and avoid a fine. The officer said I would get a letter in the post. That was 13 December and still no letter. So I rang up the local country court number which was on the bottom of the speeding ticket.
I was given a number of options. I hit 2 for traffic.
I was given some more options; 1 to go to automated system where I could pay my fine and register for traffic school, or 2 to wait for an operator.
I selected 1. I then got a message “The automated system is currently not available but will be available by 30 Nov 2014” and then it hung up.
I redialled and hit 2, and then 2 to wait for an operator.
I sat on hold for 35 minutes, with no hold music to show I was still connected. Eventually spoke to a very nice lady.
She said “You have called too soon. It takes 4-6 weeks to enter the citations into the system and then a letter may be sent out. Give us another month or so and then call back if you haven’t received a letter.”
I then told her about the automated system and the 30 November message. Her response was staggering: “Oh yes. The system has been down since May and IT used to keep changing the message to update the date when it would be fixed. But now they are too busy even to change the message”
Citizen Developers
This is why there is the rise of the Citizen Developer armed with web-based automation tools so they can fix things for themselves.
Here is the demand picture according to Gartner:
And here is where IT budget is spent, leaving opportunity for the Citizen Developer in the “line of business apps”
