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Year 2000 Unit Representatives Work Groups Report

Y2K Significant Problems and Common Solutions:

(Attendees: Deborah Fisch, Randy Frank, Glenn Hiller, Vahid Lofti, Diana Maly, Mike McPherson, Violetta Ogilvy, Ed Thierbach, and Phil Ray)

• Concluded that there were no technical issues on the list which are not already being addressed in some way.
• Identified a great need for an educational campaign to assist the campus community in dealing with the most common issues presented to the individual user. These education materials should be distributed widely by the central administration, and should also be made available to colleges and departments for local training and support activities.
  • Recommended that distribution of "Bug Bytes" be discontinued or reevaluated.
  • Recommended an educational campaign be prepared for delivery in 1999 to all faculty, staff, and students which addresses specific issues of how individuals can tell if their system will be affected, "how software packages used on campus implemented Y2K compliance", "what actions should I take during the change over?", and "how do I reset my system clock?", etc.

Interdependencies:

(First meeting attendees: Henry Holloway, Wono Lee, Neal Plotkin, Rich Steiner, William Stringer, Gloria Thiele, Beth Warner. Second meeting attendees: Richard Steiner, Teri Adams, Beth Warner, Bill Manspeaker, Henry Holloway, Gloria Thiele)

• Initially recommended preparation of a summary report of the assessment interdependency information, distribute to all Y2K Unit Reps, and make it available on our Web site. Final recommendation is to distribute the information to Y2K Unit Reps only because the information is too detailed and, in some cases, could be confusing. Also, there is less need to share interdependency assessment because it does not contain "what does it mean if something is not fixed" information. The work group thought that any additional effort should be focused toward the unit's action plans.
• Recommended that the central providers (Plant, Purchasing, ITD, campus LAN and Network Administrators) provide frequent and informative communication including specific "to dos" required for the units, and prioritization and timing of solutions (time lines, resolution dates, back-up or alternatives, etc.).
• Recommended that the central providers increase their communication efforts and include:
  • Restatement of responsibilities for centrally-managed units, Schools, Colleges & Units, and individuals;
  • Generalizations/guidelines for most commonly used hardware and software and hardware testing helps;
  • Provide "Look what we found!" information sharing. (This will save duplication of effort.)
• d. Recommendations for Unit's Y2K Action Plans:
  • An action plan be created for each mission-critical ("big issue") interdependency by each unit affected.
  • Action plans should include problem resolution target/completion dates.
  • Unit Reps inform the Y2K Committee when their unit's action plan is completed.
• Recommended effective communication between affected units and stakeholders.
• fecommended progress on solving "interdependency" issues be reported to the Committee to Review Y2K Issues at least quarterly.

Vendor Information:

The Work Group's first meeting was held September 2, 1998 and Purchasing (Phil Abruzzi) has asked for and received an alphabetical listing of all vendor information received to-date via Assessment Summaries. A second meeting is being scheduled to finalize next steps and recommendations. Initial analysis indicates that it may be a considerable task to figure which vendor to contact and more specifically who to contact within each vendor organization to get the right certification. Staffing resource will be an issue.