I do have a modicum of sympathy for BA, in that my own business (a restaurant chain) is in the midst of changing over to a collection of new (to us) software programs integrating everything from a POS (point of sales) system to loyalty programs, delivery apps, marketing, online ordering, what gets sent on to the kitchen when orders are placed, order placement with our suppliers, our accounting, etc. etc. etc. This stuff can be incredibly complicated. We are investing a year and quite a bit of cash in doing this changeover.

On the other hand, business software can be done well or it can be done poorly. BA IT's department is certainly an example of a business doing it poorly.

The real point to be made is that whatever BA saves on having poor IT, is probably consumed 5X over in added expenses for dealing with the bad IT. This requires a battalion of added personnel to deal with the resultant problems, not to mention a lot of lost sales to customers who have simply had enough and who choose to go elsewhere.

We are setting up our new IT platforms in order to improve the customer experience, reduce mistakes, and to save money on both personnel and wasted money on orders that need to be remade or orders that are made that end up being trashed due to delivery and other customer service issues.

It would not be a bad idea for BA to take a long hard look at just how much their poor IT costs them in the end, in redundant personnel expenses and in lost business. If they did, they would fix their IT mess as quickly as they could.