In a past life I worked in a company that provided web sites using CMSs. At the time these things had quite complicated infrastructure requirements if you wanted to deploy a production grade system with high availability.

Inevitably a deployment would require us to work with the clients other IT providers. We always proposed that we be prime contractor in any such project as this would give us the authority to control the planning, rehearsals (plural) and eventual deployment. We became very good at mitigation planning due to painful experience.

There are big IT vendors out there wh charge premium rates for a level of service that would have to improve exponentially just to reach a standard below abysmal.

Just to give an example, my company planned for myself and a colleague to perform a complete install over 2 days. We reckoned that the 2 of us could do the entire thing by the end of the first afternoon and could give whatever mentoring and training the client asked for as a bonus (the value is always in the 2nd order).

We arrived at the data centre slightly before 8am and after some discussions with security (we weren't on their list) we were shown to a reception area and told to wait.....and wait. Over the next 2 hours we repeatedly asked to speak to the vendors project manager only to be fobbed off. Eventually we were told that he was on two weeks leave and they would have to find someone else to manage the process. Another 2 hours of delays and we decided to have an early lunch while the vendor attempted to find their collective backsides with both hands and a flashlight.

Obviously we had an off premises telephone chat with our line manager to see if he could get the client to lean on the vendor.

We got back to the vendor data centre and are eventually let in to the server room. The clients brand new servers are anything but new. One of them had a red warning light on it. A quick run through our checklist failed 2 of the 5 servers.

We were supposed to install a vendor bought copy of SQLSERVER. Vendor hadn't bought it.

Eventually we get to the point where we can begin installation at 3pm having lost most of the day. At 5pm we are instructed to leave the premises because the vendor only allows 3rd party access between 8am and 5pm.

A night in the worst hotel in Reading and a toxic breakfast didn't set us up for the next day. All 5 servers needed to be able to see each other. They couldn't. They should all have identical base installations. They didn't. Everything the vendor could have cocked up they had done so to Olympic gold standards.

The ufpshot was that any future involvement with this vendor made us quote the client or an extra day of health checks