Delay in userid requests causes contract termination

[Peerpressure]

Hi,
Tried searching for any previous posts on this issue, as I believe this is can be 'a real headache' for contractors starting out in any new contract.
This being any unreasonable or prolonged delay between submitting your request for userids and access to the various computer systems and networks you are being employed to work on and the time it
takes for the request to be granted & notified to the new contractor.
As we all know 'in an ideal world' these submissions for Userids would be submitted and granted within the
first week of starting the contract on the client site ( using a typical non defence related employer )
But the tales of woe I've heard lately from contractors that have worked for IBM in the past and other employers ( who's user access request system leaves much to be desired ) - that is the User access request is countersigned by the manager and goes off into the wide blue yonder, usually another office or site in a different part of the country or even abroad. Leaving you waiting days or weeks waiting for your Userid to come through, only for you to submit the request again ( with the shift manager checking your request ) and again it disappears into a black hole with no response.
Of course such sites 'usually come with the Permies tales of woe' about the User access request system.
The danger for the contractor is its no laughing matter, within 4 weeks hes expected to be upto speed with all the systems hes expected to work on - anything that inhibits his performance ( eg hasn't got all his user ids, regardless of who's fault it is ) will result in contract termination.

[monobrow]

Hi,
Tried searching for any previous posts on this issue, as I believe this is can be 'a real headache' for contractors starting out in any new contract.
This being any unreasonable or prolonged delay between submitting your request for userids and access to the various computer systems and networks you are being employed to work on and the time it
takes for the request to be granted & notified to the new contractor.
As we all know 'in an ideal world' these submissions for Userids would be submitted and granted within the
first week of starting the contract on the client site ( using a typical non defence related employer )
But the tales of woe I've heard lately from contractors that have worked for IBM in the past and other employers ( who's user access request system leaves much to be desired ) - that is the User access request is countersigned by the manager and goes off into the wide blue yonder, usually another office or site in a different part of the country or even abroad. Leaving you waiting days or weeks waiting for your Userid to come through, only for you to submit the request again ( with the shift manager checking your request ) and again it disappears into a black hole with no response.
Of course such sites 'usually come with the Permies tales of woe' about the User access request system.
The danger for the contractor is its no laughing matter, within 4 weeks hes expected to be upto speed with all the systems hes expected to work on - anything that inhibits his performance ( eg hasn't got all his user ids, regardless of who's fault it is ) will result in contract termination.

er, yeah!, right on brother!

[pmeswani]

Sooooo... what's the point of this thread?

[xchaotic]

Relax and just keep invoicing.
Unless it's some sort of PlanB software that you plan on selling to BigBlue that automates the approval process...

[darmstadt]

Hmmm, whenever I've worked for Big Blue I've had all my userids, permissions, etc. waiting in an envelope for me on the first day...

[TestMangler]

Hmmm, whenever I've worked for Big Blue I've had all my userids, permissions, etc. waiting in an envelope for me on the first day...

WHS.

O/P you are a tulip monger......

[nomadd]

Relax and just keep invoicing.

This^

At my previous gig it took 4.5 weeks from me turning up to them getting my dev. PC set-up and working. Took in my own laptop and did as much as I could, along with reading lots of documentation. Client was apologetic, I kept on invoicing. No problems.

[Wanderer]

I believe this is can be 'a real headache' for contractors starting out in any new contract.

Absolutely. I've turned up on sites and it's taken a week to get me a PC. If you need privileged accounts then it can take even longer to convince them of your credentials and earn the trust/authorisation to access the systems you need.

Causing contract termination? Possibly in extreme cases, but if you have a decent project manager then they will sort this stuff out for you.

It's an occupational hazard really. As nomadd says, try and keep busy as best you can, keep chasing them and get the invoices in.

[2BIT]

Hmmm, whenever I've worked for Big Blue I've had all my userids, permissions, etc. waiting in an envelope for me on the first day...

^whs

[bassy]

This^

At my previous gig it took 4.5 weeks from me turning up to them getting my dev. PC set-up and working. Took in my own laptop and did as much as I could, along with reading lots of documentation. Client was apologetic, I kept on invoicing. No problems.

+1
Took me almost 3 months to get login stuff for my current gig. Continue to invoice, be pro-active and see how much you can do without access to the network (I had my laptop set up and wrote all the code and database stuff on there and then ftp'ed it to an area which the client could access so they could get hold of it)