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In accord with
campus Year 2000 definition of Contingency Plan the following alternative
plans have been created for the theoretical possibility that a mission
critical item were to fail because of a Year 2000 problem. These
plans are not an indication of expected failure, but are theoretical
in nature due to the importance of mission critical items.
AVCF
- Financial Affairs/Treasurer's Office Y2K Contingency Plan (Jan.
15, 1999)
If, despite
our best efforts at remediation beforehand, a mission critical inventory
item, supplier or service provider is unavailable for longer than
one week after January 1, 2000, the following alternative plans
explain how our department will accomplish our mission critical
functions.
Hardware
The oldest mission-critical
PCs we have are Pentium 120s. This doesn't include a 386 that we
already know will either be replaced prior to 1/1/2000 or have its
functions rolled into another workstation which will be compliant.
In the event that BIOS upgrades are not available for these machines,
the basic plan will be to replace motherboards and, when necessary,
CPUs. Not all of our 60 workstations are mission critical, so a
rotating schedule based on priority would be followed, as allowed
by the budget. We estimate that 10 motherboard/CPU combinations
at approx. $250 each would cover critical functions at the start
of the year. The others could be upgraded as money became available.
Impact: $2500.
Should our NT
servers fail, the short-term solution would be to migrate to usage
of the Computing Services "Kronos" NetWare server as had
been previously planned. This would have no major budget impact.
In the longer run, as budget became available we would either purchase
the parts necessary to rebuild functional NT servers, or purchase
new ones if repair was not a viable option.
Implicit in
the above discussion is the assumption that those who use PCs that
are neither upgradeable nor mission critical would share time on
functional PCs in order to complete their work.
Software
- Adobe Exchange
Suite: Should the version we have (3.01) not be functional, we
will purchase a new version. If there is no new version available,
then this becomes non-critical since it is only mission critical
if we assume that other information providers are using the PDF
standard. Impact: $50.
- Brio Technology:
Since this is only one of a number of ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity)
programs capable of accessing the Data Warehouse, the contingency
plan is to seek out and utilize whichever ODBC software is Y2K
compliant. Not knowing what this will be makes it difficult to
estimate a monetary impact. The most likely scenario, though,
is that MS Office 97 (upgraded) or Office 2000 containing Access
will be compliant. We already own Office 97 and if necessary (see
item #6 below) will purchase 2000, so the dollar impact is estimated
below (#6).
- WS-FTP and
War FTP Server: These are marginally mission critical. If either
of these freeware programs is not compliant, we will seek out
replacements from a web-based catalogue such as the TUCOWS (The
Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software) site.
- QWS Plus:
As the primary means of connecting to our campus mainframe systems,
including accounting, travel, payroll, personnel, etc., this 3270
software is vital. Since QWS and all of its predecessors were
chosen by the Computing Services workstation team, we will look
to them for guidance on any replacement that might be necessary.
Since pricing also comes through CS, it is difficult to forecast
any budget impact. Prices would fluctuate wildly if we went out
on our own versus CS buying a block of site licenses and forwarding
a per seat cost to us as is traditionally done. All we can do
here is protect some modest amount of funds against a possible
increase in the per license cost, assuming a new type of software:
$10 per seat X 60 = $600.
- Windows 95a
and 95b: We already plan, unless the budget does not allow, to
move from all Win 95/98 platforms to Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
before 1/1/2000. MS has released service packs (which we must
verify) that supposedly take care of OS-related Y2K issues. Assuming
this is true, the approx. $2100 cost for the competitive
upgrade will occur before this contingency plan comes into effect.
If the migration to NT does not occur, we would be looking at
upgrades from 95a and/or 95b to 98 assuming that patches to the
95 products were not available. Worst case scenario: 54 upgrades
from 95 to 98 at $2045 total.
- Office 95:
Two possibilities occur here. One is that Office 2000 is released
and Y2K patches aren't available for either Office 95 or Office
97, in which case we need to upgrade all 57 copies we have of
both. Since Y2K patches are currently appearing on the MS web
site, this is not likely to occur. We believe the most likely
scenario requiring extra budget is an upgrade to Office 97 for
our 33 Office 95 users. That is the contingency for which we will
be prepared. Impact: $1155.
- E-mail: For
simplicity, we lump these together. Unless all e-mail packages
fail, we will simply migrate the non-compliant packages to a compliant
one. Many of these are freeware. Although we have some users currently
using commercial packages such as Outlook 97/98 and Eudora Pro
4.0, most people use either Eudora Light or Outlook Express. It
is our belief that either the MSIE package (containing Outlook
Express) or Netscape Communicator, which are both available for
free to us, will provide a viable mail package if the commercial
packages fail.
- MeetingMaker:
The campus already plans an upgrade to a compliant version. This
move is scheduled for Spring 1999, which means any budget impact
will occur in the current fiscal year, thus removing any need
for budget contingency planning for FY 2000.
- Tera Term
Pro: As with QWS (#4), this comes packaged as part of the CS network
install. The same logic follows here. Since we currently don't
pay site license fees for this Telnet software, we will assume
that another freeware Telnet client that is compliant can be found
if Tera Term fails.
- EdConnect
for Windows: The U.S. Dept. of Education supplies this software,
and no real alternatives exist. For a discussion regarding these
external suppliers, see the section titled, "Suppliers and
Service Providers."
- SCT Banner
- Loans Mgmt. System (LMS): This is a mainframe-installed product
currently administered by Computing Services' personnel. I only
include it since our office is the sole user, and we obviously
have a stake in its compliance. Currently, a Y2K compliant version
(as certified by the manufacturer, the largest supplier of software
in the Education sector) is scheduled to be installed far in advance
of 1/1/2000.
Embedded
Chip Devices
- Fax machines:
As long as we have one central machine functioning, sharing can
occur for some time until the budget allows full replacement.
In the event that none of our machines function, we will purchase
one to be centrally placed. Impact: $500.
- Copiers:
Since we do not own these, but lease them from Printing Services,
we will rely upon PS to provide a solution. If replacement of
departmentally leased machines is not a viable option for them,
we will rely on a centrally located machine to be shared. Possible
examples are the equipment on the 4th floor, or even
the main Printing and satellite Copying Services offices. If none
of these work, we as an entire campus will have a problem. Other
solutions include use of outside printers such as Kinko's which
will have to be negotiated by Business Affairs.
- Credit Card
processing machines: We need to confirm with the bank, but these
machines have already had a Y2K upgrade applied to allow them
to handle the first cards that appeared with 2000 expiration dates.
If the vendor/bank cannot supply machines capable of taking credit
card student payments, we would have to accept only check or cash
txns. That of course would be a small worry compared to the economic
impact the entire nation would suffer if these machines go down.
- Printers:
Our assumption here is that we need only one or two networked
printers to meet mission critical printing needs. Assuming that
none of our printers will function, we will purchase one or two
new Hewlett Packard mid-grade networked printers. Another consideration
is the three MICR printers used for creation of checks. These
are old enough that a lack of an upgrade is a possibility. They
also keep track of date-related audit information. If they fail,
we could possibly look at the less secure (temporary) use of one
of the newly purchased network printers with a magnetic ink cartridge,
or we could purchase replacements. Prices vary, but a conservative
estimate would be $3500 ea. We currently have three. In the short
run, we would probably have to get by with one or two. Total Impact:
$9000.
- Inventory
scanners: These machines have no date-related functionality (although
I need to verify this). They are supposed to be verified as Y2K
ok. If for some reason this isn't true, we would temporarily revert
to the old, manual inventory process or skip the inventory for
one year.
- Security
camera and alarm system: More information needs to be gathered
before an intelligent plan for these products can be created.
Personal
Applications
- dBase applications:
The four applications written in old dBase are almost certainly
not compliant. We are currently considering the following options:
- Check Reimbursement:
write a Visual Basic replacement, use a commercial product such
as Quicken, or roll this check printing in with our other MICR
checks. Only the second would have a direct budget impact for
the purchase of a new PC, a new printer, and the software: $2000.
- Check recon,
Endowment manager, Investment manager: these are custom applications
for which there is no viable commercial alternative. We will
have to internally write VB replacements, or update them to
another platform which supports Y2K. In any case, there will
be no budget impact.
- Research
accounting invoice database: If the CS staff cannot provide an
update to a MS Access platform that is Y2K compliant, the short
term solution would be to return to manual paper processing as
was previously used.
- COLD/FYI:
We simply offer a clone copy of this software which is managed
and written by CS. If they cannot provide a compliant version,
we along with the rest of the campus will look to them for a replacement
method of accessing invoices and other accounting reports.
- IVR: This
is much more vital to the Registrar's office in terms of student
registration. If the system cannot be made to function, we will
piggy-back on whatever solution the Registrar decides to use.
For our part (student payments), we could simply do without: accept
only in-person, mailed, or drop box payments.
Suppliers
& Service Providers
Since our external
suppliers can be grouped under three categories (government, banking,
and credit bureau) it is clear that options will be limited. For
example, the Dept. of Education provides drawdown of funds used
in Student Loans. If the Federal government cannot supply these
funds, we will have no long-term replacement (nor will every other
institution of higher education in the country). For approximately
two to four weeks, we have sufficient reserves to continue; after
that we would have to stop writing checks. This includes all checks
to external vendors, etc. If our bank and the credit agencies cannot
supply the systems, means and information to conduct business, we
like every other business and institution will have few options.
Again, as far as funds go we are ok for somewhere between two weeks
and a month. After that, it's shutdown.
Summary
If the worst
case scenario occurs and we need to cover the monetary costs for
all contingency plans listed above, the total estimated impact for
a short-term continuation of our core business is aproximately $18000.
Again, this just allows core functions to continue in the early
months of 2000. There would be considerable sharing of resources
(inconvenience) and a mid- to long-term need for full replacement
in order to allow ultimate effectiveness and efficiency to return
to the office.
(The relevant
campus definitions are for Mission
Critical and Contingency
Plan.)
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