I liked the article. Easy to follow and understand. I have been consulting for more than 20 years and I have only found this situation a few times. But those were always ugly and the conditions by which the "politics" occured was equally unique. I disagree with the earlier criticism about 3rd party vendor control and our ability to demand information. I have faced these exact problems in state and federal government situations as well as private sector. The fact is, I do not think you have a lot of outside exposure if you believe you can impose your own policies on the parties you are working with. Keep in mind, and this is to those who are wanting to be judgemental, if it was easy, you probably would not have been called in the first place. Always good to ask for the simple to be possible, but accept the reality that in most cases, people are usually not that stupid and they *always* have their reasons. Otherwise, go work for a single company and then you can impose your policies according to your stupendously supportive boss 🙂

upwards and onwards!