The story itself was from the early 90's (which only seems like yesterday!) and involved the first of the major federal government outsourcing deals of that era. Remember OASITO (The Office of Asset Sales and Information Technology Outsouring)?

The Department of Veteran's Affairs was one of the first big federal agencies to sign-up to outsource their entire IT operations to IBM. To facilitate the service IBM needed to fly in a shiny new mainframe straight from the US to add capacity to one of their data centres. From memory, the box arrived in Melbourne and required big-rig transportation to Sydney (given all mainframes are the size of small apartments right?). Deadlines were tight. Installation service levels had to be hit. This was the beginning of the largest IT outsourcing spree in global history. Both the Australian Federal Government and IBM sought a good start; an elusive quick win. 

The story continues that the gentleman who was driving the truck had outstanding warrants and was arrested somewhere in country Victoria by an armada of constabulary. The whole truck, mainframe and all, was subsequently impounded pending an investigation.  To salvage the day IBM were required to send out some "heavy-hitters" from Armonk to negotiate with the local authorities and appeal through the Federal Government to have the impounded "contraband" released in order to hit the go-live deadlines.

Like I said, this is more urban myth than organisational history but fables and myths are an important part of organisational culture. They explain, they express, and they legitimise a lot of why we do what we do. And too often organisations assume that everyone knows about those stories and anecdotes that uniquely represent the culture, direction and vision of their company. I think we need more of them.

For me this story has always represented something uniquely Australian, if not slightly outrageous. Yet it has also represented one of those "extra-mile" stories and "mystique" stories that typifies the industry in which we work. You can almost picture the country kids sneaking peaks inside the back of the truck to catch a glimpse of the mysterious machine and an alto voice calling from the darkness, "Hello Dave?"

While I can recount quite a few memorable myths from several companies I have worked in, I guess we are still carving out our own here. But that's not to say I can't wait to hear the first one. Let me know if you hear it first.