ALKHOBAR/PRETORIA: These days, the business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn.com has become a record of shattered dreams. Every time I check my list of LinkedIn connections, there’s another hurt recorded. One more job is gone. One more family is scrambling to make ends meet. Some people actually avoid contacting their colleagues who appear to be in distress. The attitude is that those folks will probably be in need of solace and God forbid! They just might ask for a favor. Believe me, this is the year to discover who your “trusted” connections really are.
I logged on to LinkedIn last week and found that someone I’d known in the IT business for a decade had suddenly transformed from group IT director to college student. I was horrified. There’s no use wondering anymore how such a thing could happen. Immediate action is required. I sent off a quick e-mail asking, “Are you thriving or surviving?”
In just a few minutes the reply came back: “Hi Molouk! Great hearing from you again. Yes, I left Dubai at the end of March and have returned to my home country, South Africa. I have used this opportunity to retire from my IT career and have gone back to college to study photography on a fulltime basis, with the objective of going professional within the next few months. I’m having an absolutely great time and love being back home. I will also be arranging safaris here in South Africa and offering my services as a guide.”
I was stunned but delighted. Dean Polley had mentioned years back that he hoped to make a living someday by hosting photographic safaris. It had never seemed though that “someday” was very near. Now Polley was living his dream and a phone call was in order to discover how he’d decided to dump information technology and become a professional shutterbug.
“Becoming a photographer used to be a dream and I always said that if the right opportunity came up, I would grab it,” Polley told me. “A couple of things happened. I was made redundant due to the economic collapse in Dubai. I had a brief look around in Dubai, but the job market wasn’t attractive, particularly for somebody in my position. I had been in the Middle East for just over a decade and suddenly I felt that now was the time to leave, no matter what. If you look at my website, www.deanpolley.com, it has been put together over a couple of years with the long-term objective of showcasing my work when I became a professional photographer. I decided that I would go for it.”
Polley’s last job as group IT director was just short of the chief information officer (CIO) title. In his position, he found himself with all of the CIO’s responsibilities, but he had none of the power that the title bestows. It wasn’t pleasant. There had been no strategy in setting up the networked systems within the company. There was no accountability to ensure that the vice presidents of each division utilized the systems in a manner that maintained the integrity of the data which was stored to produce corporate reports and analysis.
“One of the clearest examples of this was when our chairman wanted a business intelligence (BI) reporting system on our human resources system. It had to be the best. This thing should be able to give him at the click of a button the split of UAE nationals against expats, a split on grades, male or female, by age, etc. These were very high level specifications. And he wanted this system ready for use within a few months,” Polley said. “I explained to him that the business intelligence system would sit on top of the ERP system and it would be totally reliant on the accuracy of the information residing in the ERP system.”
The group IT director already knew that there were issues with that data. The Human Resources (HR) department refused to enter information in all the fields required in the HR module of the ERP system. No amount of reasoning or pleading could convince them to do otherwise.
In record time the IT department integrated a BI reporting system with the ERP system. It had great dashboards and brought up very easy to read reports. The technology was excellent. Unfortunately most of the reports were inaccurate due to the discrepancies in the HR data. Even worse, the few reports that were correct, highlighted information that the company found interesting, but they didn’t make any changes in their HR policies based on their newly discovered knowledge. After all the effort and resources that had gone into installing the BI system, there really was no intelligent use for it.
“The bottom line is that with ERP, if you don’t use the system the way it was meant, it’s never going to work,” Polley advised. “For example we had many complaints about our Oracle System — that it didn’t give proper reports. But then when we investigated, we discovered that the Finance Department was actually bending the system. Oracle Financials comes with a set of industry recognized best practices for financial management. The system has predefined processes. So you go to apply the process but the people in the department say, ‘No that’s not the way we do things here.’ Then they insist that the system be customized to meet their nonstandard requirements. When you start customizing a system such as Oracle or even SAP for that matter, and you start breaking processes, it has a ripple effect and it starts affecting the rest of the system. You end up with a system that’s really muddled, and of course you’re not going to get accurate reports.”
Polley became increasingly disturbed over management issues in regards to the company’s IT resources. Monthly there were thousands of inane calls to the IT department’s help desk asking questions such as how to make text bold in a document or how to create a company PowerPoint slide. Extensive online help resources and tutorials couldn’t stem the tide of frivolous inquiries. A portal set up to improve corporate communication never flourished because employees wanted personal instruction in its use.
What happened in Polley’s last position was no different than similar situations he’d been handling for years. But he’d lost the passion for IT. He felt that he no longer had a career. It was just a job to earn income and meet his family commitments.
“I felt that my creativity in life was being stifled. I’m not that old, but I do realize now that I’m in the second half of my life. I started asking a lot of questions about the purpose of my life and what I’m doing with my lifetime,” Polley commented. “What added value is there in putting in an IT system for a business? What real value does that add to the world? To the environment? To making life better for people? Yes, an IT system automates a process, but what real value does that add? I just didn’t get any fulfillment out of it anymore.”
Years before, he’d started spending his vacations in the African wilderness on photographic safaris. He never felt more euphoric then when he was out tracking game and searching for that perfect picture. On a trip to Rwanda to photograph gorillas he found that his snapshots could do much more than capture a beautiful scene. Appalled by the poverty in the Rwandan countryside, Polley used photographs he took of the desperate need to raise money to fund supplies for five primary schools in northern Rwanda. “I found that the fund raising for those schools gave me far more fulfillment than any IT project I’d ever undertaken,” he reminisced.
When he was made redundant in March, Polley decided that the time for a life change was at hand. Over the last three years he had been saving money with the objective of making the transition from IT to photography when the time was right.
“My family has been fantastic about my decision. I have their full backing and support, and they are excited for me as they know that I will make a success of it,” Polley said. “In particular, my fiance has provided me with so much support and encouragement. For now, my family has not been impacted, as I have made financial provisioning to carry me through this transition period. I am taking courses to enhance my skills and have already accepted some short term photographic assignments that can be worked in around my studies.”
That doesn’t mean IT won’t have a place in his new life. Polley was a programmer and systems developer when he first entered the IT field. With those skills he has been able to design, develop and maintain www.deanpolley.com to his high standards. He is also using a powerful Apple Macintosh computer and various image editing applications along with his camera to create magnificent photographs. Now technology is a tool for Polley to use in achieving his goals.
“My days are no longer about putting in systems that support systems,” he said. “I have no regrets, not one. I love being back in my home country. Apart from the other bonuses such as being close to family, I am back in the culture that I’ve grown up with and I’m more comfortable with. And I’m doing something now that I really, really enjoy. Each day that goes by I can see a little bit of progress towards reaching my goal. I am striving towards it and I have no doubt that I will make it.”
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