I have been a consultant for 13 years (past tense and I guess current tense as you will see).  In that time, I learned that your job was dependent upon the customer.  Very much so.  This was not a business you could do an "oops" and get away with it.  You had to make sure they were happy all the time.  And I learned that quickly.  Numbers meant nothing, the customer perception meant everything.

At times, the wishes of my company would conflict with the desires of my client.  And those were the worst of times! But in all of those cases, I sided with the client.  Why?  They were paying the money, even if their name was not on my checks (I will say they were few and far between as I had great bosses at the company that realized as I do - that is why it was and is such a successful company).

But due to politics, my company was driven out of the market where I live.  Not because of performance, as they had one of the highest satisfaction ratings of any of the consulting companies in the old capital of the confederacy.  And I sought other employment instead of relocating.

I wound up with the Commonwealth for a variety of reasons, the most important one is I need to start thinking of retirement.  But a funny thing happened on the way from an invisible head count (Consultant) to a regular COV Employee (Commonwealth of Virginia).  The former governor decided to pull all of us under the umbrella of the State organization in charge of the big iron!  Why?  Economies of scale.  Which is horse puckey as there has been none.  It was just a ruse to outsource the operation to a private company.  And that has happened.

But this state organization was not well regarded by the client agencies in the past, and that is why they hired outside consultants.  So the governor changed their name, and said "See?  We have a new Face!".  But the new face was filled with the old pimples.  And nothing really has changed.

Having been a consultant, it was not a big switch for me.  I knew the drill.  But what was new to me, is the way the new "Consulting company" (Other state Agency) treats its "Customers".  Instead of living by the motto of "The Customer is always right", they are living by the motto of "My way or the highway", and I do not like that.  Nor do their customers.  And it has been but a year, but already there is dissension in the ranks.  The client agencies are grumbling, and soon that grumbling will turn into rebellion.

"How?" ask my co-workers?  The new agency has a monopoly on the consultants.  But I being an old timer now (been around a long time), tell them a story of long long ago (1990 to be exact).  When Networks were just starting to take hold, and the old Arrogant Agency refused to allow a job description of "Network Engineer" into the lexicon of state government.  So how did I get hired?  As an SPA and then as an SA (SPA = Senior Programmer Analyst, SA = Systems Analyst).  We took care of the fledgling networks, but that was out titles.   You can call a dog catcher an animal control officer, or a Quadrupedal Observer, but the job duties define the job, not the title.

And now, the agencies are going back to looking for some SA and SPAs.  Just looking at this stage.  But I don't blame them. For the old evil Agency that had the name change, is still doing the wrong things.  They have no conception of Customer service.  What they want is for us to close trouble tickets ASAP, regardless of whether the customer is happy.  I think we should leave them open and work to resolve the issue and then close them so that the customer is happy (sometimes, the Customer does not know what they want, so it takes time to make them happy).

But nope, the clowns in suits are only worried about "metrics".  How fast we close the ticket.  Is the issue resolved?  Nope!  No, matter, the metrics look good,so the clowns in suits are happy.  But the Customers are not.  And eventually, instead of Sr. Network Engineers running local networks, and Network Engineers helping out, there will be System Analysts running them, and Senior Programmer Analysts helping out.  And they will not be employed by the face lifted agency.  But by the client agencies.

There is a reason that so many companies got a foot hold into the consulting business with the state.  because the customers of the old agency was contemptuous of their customers.  As is in the new one (and by extension, the now private company trying to take control of the whole shebang).

The only thing that has changed in 20 years, is the name of the clowns in the suits, and a set back for the customers, as they now find new ways around the clowns, and get some real customer service  As I said, it has been a year, but I doubt I will be working for the clowns in suits in 2 years.  In 2 years, I will be back working for my old organization, and making sure that tickets are not closed until the problem is resolved, not when the clowns decide enough time has been spent on it.

History.  It will repeat itself when idiots don't learn from past mistakes.