Alright, let me tell you about this thing that happened a while back. It felt just like that annoying kids’ song, you know, the purple dinosaur one? Just going in circles, felt like forever.
Starting the whole mess
So, picture this: I needed to get a specific software license approved for a project. Sounds dead simple, right? Just fill out a form, get a signature, done. That’s what I thought, anyway. First step, I tracked down the request form on the company intranet. Took me a good twenty minutes just to find the right blasted page, hidden away like some secret treasure map.
Filled it out. Every single box. Sent it off to my manager first, standard procedure. He signed off on it quick enough, no dramas there. Said, “Okay, now just send it over to Procurement.” Easy peasy.
The Merry-Go-Round Begins
So, I forwarded the signed form to the Procurement department’s general email. Waited a couple of days. Nothing. Pinged them again. Silence. Okay, maybe email wasn’t the way. I found a name on the company directory, someone listed under software procurement. Gave them a call.
“Oh, you sent it to the general inbox?” she asks, like I’d just confessed to a crime. “No, no, you need to submit that through the online portal.”
Portal? What portal? Turns out there was a whole separate system nobody told me about. Fine. Found the portal, registered, logged in, and guess what? It needed the request filled out again, in their own special format. Copied everything over. Attached the manager’s signed form, just in case. Clicked submit. Success! Or so I thought.
A day later, email notification. Request Rejected. Reason? “Requires IT Security pre-approval.”
Seriously? Okay, deep breaths. Found the IT Security contact. Sent them the original form, explained the situation. They replied pretty fast, actually, but said they needed a “Technical Assessment Form” completed first. Another form. This one was longer, more technical. Filled that beast out, sent it back. They approved it within a day. Phew. Progress!
Back to Square One… Almost
Right, back to the Procurement portal. Resubmitted the request, this time attaching the IT Security approval email AND the assessment form, along with the manager’s signature. Felt like I was building a legal case file.
Rejected. Again.
This time the reason was: “Budget code provided is invalid for this type of expenditure.”
Called Procurement again, got someone different. Explained the whole saga. He listened patiently, then said, “Ah, yes. For software licenses over $X amount, it needs VP approval first, then it goes into the portal with the VP’s signature and the correct department budget code, not the project code you used.”
Nobody, not my manager, not the first Procurement person, not IT Security, mentioned anything about a VP signature. Why was this info so fragmented? It was like everyone only knew their tiny piece of the puzzle.
- Find original form.
- Get Manager signature.
- Try email procurement – Fail.
- Find portal.
- Refill form on portal.
- Get rejected (Need IT Sec).
- Contact IT Sec.
- Fill out IT Sec form.
- Get IT Sec approval.
- Resubmit on portal with IT Sec approval.
- Get rejected (Wrong code / Need VP).
- Track down VP.
So, I had to go bother the VP, explain the whole thing again, get his signature on another copy of the original form, find the correct budget code from finance, and then resubmit the entire package through the blasted portal for the third time.
Finally Off the Ride?
This time… it actually went through. Took nearly three weeks for what should have been a day or two. Just constant loops, redundant steps, talking to different people who gave different answers. Round and round and round we went. It wasn’t complex work, just navigating the maze they’d built. Honestly, by the end, I wasn’t even happy it was approved, just relieved I could stop chasing my own tail.
What a performance. Sometimes the simplest tasks turn into these epics because the process is just… well, you know. Like that song.
