December 13, 1999

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The Brighter Side Of The Y2K Problem
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Lessons Learned from Y2K Not Just Another New Year's Eve...

But that began to change when the Y2K problem started to gain attention several years ago. "Y2K has brought IT, senior management, and the corporate board together. For many, it's the first time," says Burke, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Americas leader for business-project services.

That's what happened at Carondelet Information Center, network manager Boris Kogan says.

The center is a division of Carondelet Health Care System, which operates 17 hospitals nationwide from Marina Del Rey, Calif. "The CEO and corporate level are more intuitive of the work we do," he says. "We've always had good communication, but they now realize the importance of computers--the importance to the organization and how they work. Compliance has brought recognition and more understanding."

The health-care company established a separate budget of $3 million when it launched Y2K-remediation efforts in mid-1997. The project list included upgrading 75% of its 1,000 PCs, all the office applications, and the E-mail application. IT's annual $1.5 million budget wasn't negatively affected, according to Kogan.

Having the necessary funds and company support were important for achieving compliance, Kogan says. "We have a very supportive and educated organization that had a clear understanding of what needed to be done and provided the resources."

While Kogan had used outside consultants on a limited basis for past projects, the Y2K project required the help of about six temporary staffers. Managing a larger group of contract personnel proved enlightening, he says.

"We learned some lessons in people management, how to make the situation more productive," Kogan says. "Outsourcing involves time with management, and there's all kinds of people issues that crop up." The end result, he says, is that he and his staff are more comfortable with outsourcing, and more likely to consider it for future projects.

Overall, Kogan says, Y2K has proved educational for the entire department. "We learned a lot about planning and managing large projects, and this was a huge, huge project. We were very thorough and don't expect any problems."

There was one unforeseen issue, however, despite all the heavy-duty planning. "The technical lesson we learned the hard way was that in upgrading applications, we also had to make sure it didn't take a toll on the network," he says. Fortunately for Carondelet, the company was able to complete its work and avoid any long-term network-performance problems. "We don't want a scenario where we're Y2K compliant but everything is running slower," Kogan says.

Carondelet is in the testing phase of the Y2K work, which Kogan expects to continue into March. By then, the network manager says, he and his staff should be able to start working on projects that were placed on hold.

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Photo of Kogan by Edward Carreon

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