Heard that part of the layoffs will be to toast the T&I Lab. That would be around 50 people or so. Anyone heard similar?
27 replies (most recent on top)
Are you kidding me, the lab is our CIO’s ONLY accomplishment during his tenure at Enbridge. As useless as it is, I’m afraid that’s the last thing that’ll be on the chopping block
I agree that nothing useful comes out of the Innovation Lab. If they cut it out, the TIS could save an easy 10 MM. Have you seen who is leading the lab? Lord, could you get someone qualified? On that note, TIS HR should look into their employee qualifications, especially Managers and Directors. As some of the posts mentioned, Blondes do have a special place. Why do we also have directors with only 1-2 reporting? Having favoritism goes a long way in TIS. I hope HR is watching for the DEI numbers to decline because of no work-life balance.
I am in TIS. This department lacks cohesive direction. Priority setting is not its strong suit.
Innovation needs to be part of every team and not with a centralized group that picks and chooses what it delivers.
Some senior leaders are great to work for. Others I’ve heard expect their teams to meet after hours and on weekends. Like what?
Our operational teams are bare boned, struggling to meet business demand often making mistakes due to the sheer amount of continual activity - patching, addressing security findings, upgrading, cloud migrations, etc. It’s non stop. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important activity to keep our systems secure but there is not time for much else.
But we are off to something new, again: AI. Remember cr-p in, cr-p out.
I love what I do and I know I do my job well but I’m ok if I go. It’s time for a change. Only favorites that have the ear of the CIO seem to go anywhere. It is clear not everyone is treated equally here and thats a shame because there are a lot of good, talented people in this department.
Like many, I’m looking forward to getting the next two weeks over with. Time to move on.
Hmmmm .... outsource Applications/Support because it's just something that monkeys can do. That's panned out well.
I'm sorry - does swinging a wrench and turning a valve in the field make anyone more important than someone who knows computers/applications/data. Maybe - be thankful you have unions protecting you - assuring you get compensated for every hour you work, all training, etc... tech workers ... nope. You're expected to work 15 hours a day minimum, keep up to date to advise "MANAGEMENT" (If you can say that anymore) on your own time and dollar. Most of the time, directors and execs, because they 'ran a spreadsheet with macros once, and can do fancy stuff on their ipad to organize their calendar', don't even listen to experts. That's what high paid consultants and SI's are for .... you get to look smart with an army of people and pad your management resume looking you can "LEAD" "LARGE TEAMS".
It's not a big deal, though - Excel/Office are great products. We don't need things likes systems/applications/productions and processes to manage all the regulator filings things like compliance, where work needs to be completed - because you're "BIG SWINGING WRENCH" is so impressive and massive and just slays everything like the BEAST you are .... LOL.
How bout you get your BIG BEAST WRENCH OUT and order me some valves so you can play with yourself properly.
oh you big DAWG - I'm blushing right now cause your BIG BEAST WRENCH is so much impressive.
Not sure if the Lab will be shuttered, there's a likelihood of it undergoing a rebranding and integration with other technology teams within TIS, such as RPA, Chatbot, and generative AI. Despite the Lab's annual cost of $10M yielding limited benefits, the CIO isn't one to acknowledge shortcomings.
This discussion in this thread consistently points to the potential streamlining of the BRMs. Is this group essential? Is TIS achieving greater project value than before the formation of the BRM group? It would be beneficial if the TIS team assessed the actual benefits this group brings compared to a time when the BRM role didn't exist. While not idealizing the past, it's worth noting that TIS previously operated with fewer managers, each carrying more accountability, yet successfully executed projects and supported applications.
If you want to cut costs, consider shutting down the Innovation LAB. Take action to eliminate this expensive, flashy organization that drains money without providing any real benefit to Enbridge, other than serving as an expensive marketing gimmick
All that may or may not be true, but the outcome is the same - the dog needs to go.
TIS is a shell of its past self, that is true. But the things driving it - impersonal fixation on tiny dollars in rates, partnering and outsourcing, constant restructuring, and the replacement of the top leadership with politically astute and technically incapable career snakes was driven by and performed by the business.
They built the current state. They fired all the people who kept it a pragmatic responsive group.
If you buy a service dog, chain it to a post in the back yard, feed it once a week and beat it every day, don't be surprised when it's not good as a service dog anymore. Don't blame the dog. You did it.
Yeah, the lab is joke that provides no value. Whenever a big shot is coming to visit the LAB the CIO gets non-lab staff to spend the day working in the lab to make it "look" like there is a lot going on. It must be cool working with high-tech stuff and never having to worry about a deliverable while burning someone else's cash.
TIS was never that good, but there was a time when it was not too bad - that was until they started outsourcing.
Given TIS’ performance to date, we’ll take our chances.
For a lot of years I got a first hand look at nearly every time the business put their foot down and demanded IT deliver exactly what they asked for. And it was always Homer Simpson's car.
The business arrives with the equivalent of a child's macaroni art project describing the need. Then "information professionals" figure it out.
The business, over and over, demonstrated that the way they think business should be done is the way it has been done for decades, and by golly, don't you change it one iota!
IT as a purely subservient role is what you're moving towards with all this partnering. Enjoy it. You don't know what you got until it's gone.
TIS reads all your emails :)
The screen video recording software that big corps use makes for good entertainment in the NOC.
They keep taking away tools while having this BS idea of an innovation lab. Since the new tie came on board the service is trash. Keep outsourcing everything to india and getting rid of the few talented people left in that group
"Shut up and fix my laptop" is a perfect way to describe what the limits of TIS’ ownership should be.
I completely agree that the path forward for businesses writ large is through information and analytics. However, I completely disagree with the notion that TIS should be the ones to lead that. They’ve proven time and again that they’re disconnected from the actual business we’re running here (a pipeline company!).
The vision and direction for the use of tech to strengthen the business should be driven from within the business; the people who actually understand what we do. When we need IT infrastructure to carry information, we’ll call TIS at that time, and tell them exactly what they need to deliver, as a SERVICE to the business.
What is TIS?
I am the poster below, and I am also the guy who despises the innovation lab.
But as to what TIS should be providing, the fundamental modern nature of information is a part of that. Business information. If TIS had simply stayed in the lane of providing only rudimentary tech, if Enbridge existed at all today they'd be considered a joke.
"Shut up and fix my laptop" is a fantastic way to never modernize, and die of obsolescence.
We certainly need TIS support who keeps our infrastructure running and they generally do a good job. What we DON’T NEED AND CAN’T AFFORD is an over-priced and underperforming T&I Lab who is all talk and no action. This can be outsourced by project. It will be shameful to keep this group around while ops continues to get axed.
To the poster below, I think most people agree that an IT function is needed. Someone has to provide laptops for us to work on, look after the networks that move data, etc.However, that should be all they do.
They seem to think they “own” things like AI, business data analytics, etc. While those things may or may not be good to do, the decision is up to the business units. If I want IT help to support my business, I’ll call you. But don’t think that you’re in the driver’s seat, because your only job is to do what I tell you to.
Don't see a point in the roles existing, eh? That's pretty funny. If TIS put their tools down, it would not take long before you'd be shutting lines down. They are more than just important to Enbridge - they are mission critical.
In fact, part of the reason for shoving everything towards big external outsourcers is to (in the eyes of executives) minimize the risk of having key individuals that hold critical knowledge. They think they can throw money at these companies to make the risk go away.
If the wrong people are cut during this time, they will destabilize things. And they may find themselves needing to pay a premium to bring some folks back...
TIS and TCS are two different things.
And TCS is not getting cut, in fact their numbers is growing.
TIS is already very lean with one or two SMEs left behind to bail TCS out. If you think your support experience su-ks now, letting any more TIS folks go will result in total cluster fu-k.
However, there are some completely useless managers that no one will miss if they are gone.
cutting every function of TIS that doesn't directly play a role in cybersecurity would be a huge W. If you do a little in depth looking into how their support function works, basically you submit a ticket and then somebody on the other side of the globe is given a step by step task list of questions to ask you once they narrow in on the scope of your issue. if they cannot solve your problem via this route, they eventually send you back to someone stateside who has a marginally better knowledge of our system. but in my experience they still can't fix the issue most times and give you some kind of half аss answer.
plus they gave us Mya. Plus they gave us a home site whose search function is completely fuсkеd beyond belief and totally useless. to be completely honest, if a role in TIS doesn't directly relate to stopping a hacker from playing red-light-green-light with our valves, I don't really see the point in their position existing.
I’ve never seen anything useful come out of there. An easy cost reduction.
My deepest hope is that these changes put TIS back in its box. You are a service provider to the rest of the business, and that is all you are. And that business is an energy infrastructure company, not Google.
One can only hope the imagineers survive the cuts. Without the innovation lab, there will be no pony for the dog and pony show.
TIS is a joke
TIS always seems on the short list. Gas company. NOT a tech company
If you're referring to the Innovation Lab, it's a shame that that thing is lumped in with TIS. It's an expensive parasite. If it's shuttered, so much the better.