ServiceNow Embroiled In DOJ Probe of Government Contract Award (cio.com) 10
snydeq shares a report from CIO.com: ServiceNow has reported potential compliance issues to the US Department of Justice "related to one of its government contracts" as well as the hiring of the then-CIO of the US Army to be its head of global public sector, the company said in regulatory filings on Wednesday. The DOJ is looking into the matter. Following an internal investigation, ServiceNow said, its President and COO, CJ Desai, has resigned, while "the other individual has also departed the company." That executive, Raj Iyer, told CIO.com, "I resigned because I didn't want to be associated with this fiasco in any way. It's not my fault."
CEO Bill McDermott told financial analysts in a conference call Wednesday that someone within ServiceNow had complained about the situation and that an internal probe "determined that our company policy was violated."
"Acting with total transparency, the company proactively disclosed the findings of the investigation to the proper government entities. And as a result, today, we're announcing the departure of the individual whose hiring was the subject of the original complaint," McDermott said. "We also came to a mutual agreement that CJ Desai, our President and COO, would offer his resignation from the company effective immediately. While we believe this was an isolated incident, we are further sharpening our hiring policies and procedures as a result of the situation."
"Acting with total transparency, the company proactively disclosed the findings of the investigation to the proper government entities. And as a result, today, we're announcing the departure of the individual whose hiring was the subject of the original complaint," McDermott said. "We also came to a mutual agreement that CJ Desai, our President and COO, would offer his resignation from the company effective immediately. While we believe this was an isolated incident, we are further sharpening our hiring policies and procedures as a result of the situation."
market responded (Score:1)
Lets see how thousands migrate away. (Score:3)
This was not about the optics (Score:3, Insightful)
No one resigns because they want the appearance of 100% honesty. Not ever. The revolving door from the military sector to the industrial side of the miliary-industrial complex is as inexorable as plate tectonics. (Note I did not chose a weather metaphor because we can not longer count on that the way we used to.) The system demands that ex-military be on the "civilian" side of the table talking to the current government types, who know they will migrate to the better paying private sector as their next big career move.
It is possible that the CIO was not the bad actor, but it is certain that someone high up at ServiceNow committed a felony and got caught red handed. This kind of public damage control is an attempt to avoid a criminal investigation. No one wants to kill the goose laying the golden eggs and this is how it's done. A public scandal might interfere with the gravy train and that must be avoided at all costs.
So the CIO who resigned will be well rewarded for taking a hit to protect the system. My guess is they will be promoted to the even more lucrative position of being a board of directors member. You get a few of those gigs and the payout is staggering. The workload is minimal and the perks are incredible. Huge cash and stock payouts, travel and accommodations of the highest caliber, and access to the realm of power at the billionaire level.
The bad actor will never be fingered. They will still get some sort of golden parachute. The problem will just go away. Case closed.
Friend Of Mine Told Me This About ServiceNow (Score:5, Interesting)
He worked in a local government function that used ServiceNow.
He called it the slowest, kludgiest, crappiest piece of web-based software he ever used ... when it was UP
He said the old mainframe-based application that ServiceNow replaced was much more useful and easy to use, not to mention faster and better integrated with how his department used/needed the application to work.
At one time he invited me to his office to show me both applications side-by-side so I could see formyself.
FYI - This friend has since passed on so no use calling him to testify at some government hearing.
Re:Friend Of Mine Told Me This About ServiceNow (Score:4, Interesting)
He called it the slowest, kludgiest, crappiest piece of web-based software he ever used
Wholeheartedly agree. An absolute piece of worthless garbage. Arguably the worst piece of software I have ever used in any capacity. Slow doesn't begin to describe it. Let's put it this way. Until the most recent update, a timer would appear showing you how many seconds you were waiting after you clicked an item such as a ticket number. Sometimes you got lucky and it only took a few seconds (less than 10), but in the majority of cases you could sit there and watch the timer count up to 30 seconds (I've seen it as high as a minute) before you got the screen you wanted. Now imagine your job is to manage tickets and you wait 30 seconds every time you just want to see what the ticket is about. The most recent update no longer has a timer, for obvious reasons.
SN has no sense of state. By that I mean, you have your ticket window open in one tab and asset inventory (such that it is) open in another tab. If you refresh the asset inventory tab it doesn't refresh itself, it takes you to the ticketing page. And vice versa. Whatever you used last is where it takes you to. It doesn't keep you where you were even though you are in a separate tab.
Here's a neat little quirk. If you put in the serial number of an item to search for it, you get that item, and every other item in your database. It doesn't return one item, it returns all items with yours at the top. In what other database system when you ask for one item do you get everything else as well?
The only reason SN should exist is to show first year programming, database, and design students what not to do.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm. I have to admit, the only time that happens to me is when I screw up and there are long running tasks in my process queue.
I'm a SN admin, and I really like SN, so I gotta admit my bias here but... I think it's likely that whoever designs and manages your SN instance doesn't know what they're doing... or didn't, when the system was set up 5-10 years ago, and you're living with old technical debt. I'm not even that great of an admin, and the longest delays we have in our instance are a few seconds... but
Re: (Score:2)
SalesForce resents your assertion IT isn't the slowest, kludgiest, crappiest piece of web-based software ever yes.
hahahaha (Score:2)