I understand your point and agree with it mostly. The complexity of development at Follett is not understood by anyone outside of IT and hell even some of those in IT(although I wonder if that is different anywhere else). Unfortunately the perceptions that were communicated by the new president at the first town hall meeting over a year ago that Follett IT is way out of line both in terms of cost and headcount does nothing but reinforce executive managements view that IT is overpaid, incompetent and lazy.
Regarding timelines, I do understand the business view that some projects are time critical. Text rental and Aurora are two of many I could think of. Although systems are not always ready, they are materially ready and the risk is manageable. The business will benefit from the project go live, while everyone acknowledges that there is technical debt that must be addressed following go live.
Follett will not succeed without successful innovation from information technology, although I believe it is too late since many quality resources have left or are leaving (one way or the other).
Bottom line is everyone in IT should be extremely proud of the many systems and initiatives that were implemented under very difficult circumstances. Each one of them, with the exception of the new corporate HR system that was scrapped entirely, delivered the necessary business value for Follett to move forward.
That said, I am glad I am an ex-employee as things will only get worse.