I have recently come off a 6 month consulting gig at a major Australian bank. One of which is discussed in the article. Having come from working within well respected technology companies I have been stunned by the complete lack of skill in their technology work force. Even the most basic of tasks couldn't be automated due to overly locked down workstations used by staff, those tasks that could be automated are outsourced to organisations that do not automate either. Conservatively I would suggest that over 50% of the full time direct technology employees do nothing on a weekly basis. I regularly came into the office and discovered staff sitting around chatting or browsing the internet, watching Youtube. I actually worked in a hot desk environment for a few weeks around various teams and the situation was no better across large sections of the organisation. At a guess in the 6 months gig I probably spent time with around 1000 staff, of which probably under 50 could actually competently do their job and that does not even touch on the outsourcing agreements. Multiple network agreements with various outsourcing providers, no clear ownership, vendors haggling over details, no clear escalation process, ridiculously crazy per-job pricing models where the job was never actually completed correctly and would often be charged multiple times to fix it, these multi-charges then had to be challenged by teams of people. The whole situation made me realise that it was time for me to head back to well respected technology companies. The entire industry is ripe for a complete disruption. The in efficiencies, useless staff, incompetence, crazy contract terms would mean there is no way for these cumbersome oafs to complete with an even remotely agile organisation.