A team at Apple that builds the company’s internal technology apps, servers, etc. is called the Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) group. According to an excerpt from an upcoming book, Always Day One by Alex Kantrowitz, Apple’s IS&T group “operates in a state of tumult,” BuzzFeed News reports.
Always Day One by Alex KantrowitzIS&T is made up largely of contractors hired by rival consulting companies, and its dysfunction has led to a rolling state of war. “It’s a huge contractor org that handles a crazy amount of infrastructure for the company,” one ex-employee who worked closely with IS&T told me. “That whole organization is a Game of Thrones nightmare.”
Interviews with multiple former IS&T employees and its internal clients paint a picture of a division in turmoil, where infighting regularly prevents the creation of useful software, and whose contract workers are treated as disposable parts.
“There’s a Cold War going on every single day,” Archana Sabapathy, a former IS&T contractor who did two stints in the division, told me. Sabapathy’s first stint at IS&T lasted more than three years, the second only a day. Inside the division, she said, contracting companies such as Wipro, Infosys, and Accenture are constantly fighting to fill roles and win projects, which are handed out largely on the basis of how cheaply they can staff up to Apple’s needs…
When IS&T’s projects are finally completed, they can cause even more headaches for Apple employees, who are left with a mess to clean up. Multiple people told me their Apple colleagues were forced to rewrite code after IS&T-built products showed up broken.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s IS&T group sounds like a wonderful place to conduct an intervention and perform a total makeover. If you work or worked for IS&T, let us know below how your experience is/was below!
If the Numbers App came from this then I fully understand. Just started trying to use it, and it’s absolutely maddening!!!! This whole incompatible version mess between Mac and iPad is total nonsense.
followup: 6 hours later, Numbers on the mac is still trying to update. Clearly not ready for prime time. Just bought Office for Mac on my new iMac I order today because the Apple Apps don’t work.
This sucks in 2020. Cripe, how hard is a spreadsheet program to get right, only been around for 60 years.
1 – NDA’s gag every termed employee & contractor, termed means “used to be” regardless of how or why they leave.
2 – ‘Over half’ of yearly performance reviews between 2000 and 2016, while meeting ‘all’ company expectations, result in 0% raises, even while benefit costs climb, so take home pay declines.
3 – Over 10 years of capricious negligence where they knowingly vent deisel exhaust into hallways.
4 – Religious persecution … insisting on using vacation time for religious observance.
5 – Coerced or forced education without pay and on your own time. Though they pay for books and classes, they change your tools and duties but you have to catch up on your own time off the clock.
6 – Age, political bias and silent hostility abound, with many ‘Boomer’ references. Management destroys and flushes discordant views and people to keep the young children happy.
7 – Work shifts based on personal popularity. No holidays allowed.
8 – Sexual abuse is never aganst a MAN, only by men on women.
9 – Management stresses that likeability is more important that results, then edit the survey responses to get what they want.
10 – While under evaluation and Dr care for stress induced chest pains, and following manager guidance, was termed for being too slow.
11 – No HR follow up, HR offices look like morgues & HR has rep for allowing management retaliation.
If Apple want it run well they ought to bring this ‘in house’ – not doing that is simply crazy.
It would cost a little more – but what difference does that make ? Apple is not exactly ‘broke’.
And it would mean that Apple could improve their services – chances are that it would end up generating more profit not less..
Apple also had this idea inspired by Steve Jobs of ‘laser like focus’ on just a few things – no more than 6, while I can see some benefit in that, Apple is now a big company and ought to use ‘divisions’ to accomplish distinctly different tasks.
Looked at from the alternate point of via Apple have a chronic problem of taking their eye off the ball when it comes to things outside of a narrow range.
There is a lot of scope for improvement in how they work on things.
It was interesting to go to your article and find out about this product, thanks. I often read essays before buying or taking the time to find a good book. This is my individual approach by analyzing several sources. Actually I read Jane Eyre in Essays and I give you this page, I really liked it, interested, I will order and read. Recommended for you to go over and get acquainted for a general understanding of the essence and subject matter of the book. Good luck to everyone and good books!
CitizenX headed IS&T after meeting Steve Jobs in his store. CitizenX is responsible for it total chaos.
Something doesn’t smell right here. If “IS&T-built products showed up broken”, they why would Apple keep giving them work?
This is typical of large corporate IT departments. It’s the same scenario where I work. Get used to it.
If the Numbers App came from this then I fully understand. Just started trying to use it, and it’s absolutely maddening!!!! This whole incompatible version mess between Mac and iPad is total nonsense.
followup: 6 hours later, Numbers on the mac is still trying to update. Clearly not ready for prime time. Just bought Office for Mac on my new iMac I order today because the Apple Apps don’t work.
This sucks in 2020. Cripe, how hard is a spreadsheet program to get right, only been around for 60 years.
Final comment: been a Mac user since 1984, multiplan (first spreadsheet for the Mac) was more stable then than Numbers is today. Fact.
1 – NDA’s gag every termed employee & contractor, termed means “used to be” regardless of how or why they leave.
2 – ‘Over half’ of yearly performance reviews between 2000 and 2016, while meeting ‘all’ company expectations, result in 0% raises, even while benefit costs climb, so take home pay declines.
3 – Over 10 years of capricious negligence where they knowingly vent deisel exhaust into hallways.
4 – Religious persecution … insisting on using vacation time for religious observance.
5 – Coerced or forced education without pay and on your own time. Though they pay for books and classes, they change your tools and duties but you have to catch up on your own time off the clock.
6 – Age, political bias and silent hostility abound, with many ‘Boomer’ references. Management destroys and flushes discordant views and people to keep the young children happy.
7 – Work shifts based on personal popularity. No holidays allowed.
8 – Sexual abuse is never aganst a MAN, only by men on women.
9 – Management stresses that likeability is more important that results, then edit the survey responses to get what they want.
10 – While under evaluation and Dr care for stress induced chest pains, and following manager guidance, was termed for being too slow.
11 – No HR follow up, HR offices look like morgues & HR has rep for allowing management retaliation.
If Apple want it run well they ought to bring this ‘in house’ – not doing that is simply crazy.
It would cost a little more – but what difference does that make ? Apple is not exactly ‘broke’.
And it would mean that Apple could improve their services – chances are that it would end up generating more profit not less..
Apple also had this idea inspired by Steve Jobs of ‘laser like focus’ on just a few things – no more than 6, while I can see some benefit in that, Apple is now a big company and ought to use ‘divisions’ to accomplish distinctly different tasks.
Looked at from the alternate point of via Apple have a chronic problem of taking their eye off the ball when it comes to things outside of a narrow range.
There is a lot of scope for improvement in how they work on things.
It was interesting to go to your article and find out about this product, thanks. I often read essays before buying or taking the time to find a good book. This is my individual approach by analyzing several sources. Actually I read Jane Eyre in Essays and I give you this page, I really liked it, interested, I will order and read. Recommended for you to go over and get acquainted for a general understanding of the essence and subject matter of the book. Good luck to everyone and good books!