Turns out that they just needed someone who was capable of following instructions and who was able to communicate things using specific language and they managed to find their guy on the inside.

This is any office job where you have to communicate with different teams honestly, not just IT. Getting things done is just building a list of competent people you can call to bypass all the various filters. One of the most common conversations at work is just "who was your guy at X who got Y done?".

It's extremely funny when you get blowhards who think the way to get shit done is to talk to the boss though. The small business tyrant clients we have just jump to the "I'll just call the boss then" the moment there is the slightest bit of friction or delay and it always makes me laugh. My boss is actually a pretty standup guy and really good at what he does, but if you're not important enough he will literally wait months to action something and these guys never are.