Originally posted by ArchAngel
apex -
The executive they have in charge of electronic markets is the poster child for the Peter Principle (hired by the previous CIO who surrounded himself with people who wouldn't challenge him) - no in depth technology expertise or skills, no strategic or tactical planning experience, no full lifecycle technology experience, no quality management experience, no large scale management experience at all, and has had to jump ship before all hell broke loose or had to be nursemaided along through previous jobs.
Add to that an environment where major architectural decisions are delegated to technicians with no experience in large scale technology architecture, commercial systems engineering, or strategic technology planning and who are more interested in pursuing technology adventures than building bulletproof commercial systems and where it's more important to not hurt someone's feelings than to get things done right or take decisive action to correct mistakes before they become problems and you've got a troubling situation for one of the major exchanges in the world. Remember, these are the same technoweenies who decided to pour millions of dollars into floor trading systems based on OS2.
The MERC is a tough place to get anything done: Their management on the systems side has had some challenges: some people have been replaced. One thing that I would say about the MERC - I dont know if its still true today - is that while I was there the culture of the exchange organization was not as cut throat as many other large companies: That is, it was deemed important to collaboratively solve problems. One of the issues with getting things done at the MERC in the past was that many important decisions needed direct or indirect approval by member committees or individual members. This made implementing important time-critical solutions more difficult than they needed to be..... My sense of things today at the MERC is that many of these types of issues have been greatly improved.
Gotta love it!