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To: John Mansfield who wrote (18865)	6/21/1998 6:38:00 PM
From: Steve Woas	Respond to of 31646

Boy who had best-selling Rubik Cube book grows up to solve Y2K embedded systems problem: sunday-times.co.uk Works like electronic X-Ray.

To: John Mansfield who wrote (18865)	6/21/1998 7:11:00 PM
From: RAVEL	Respond to of 31646

TAVA and KEANE...would this be one of those instances where TAVA and Keane pair up for a job??? Could be. RAVEL Seton, Keane pair up to head off Y2K problems 20:01:12, 19 June 1998 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wide variety of electronic devices makes beating the Year 2000 bug in a health care facility a unique challenge Austin Business Journal, 06/19/98 The Seton Healthcare Network has hired Keane Inc., a Boston-based information technology company, to help the hospital system beat the Year 2000 bug. As high technology increasingly makes inroads into the health care environment, hospitals face the risk that computer refusal to recognize the double zeros in the new century could put human lives at risk. The Keane team is studying and fixing equipment in the laboratory, radiology and biomedical areas, as well as internal auditing and finance. Bryant Sikorski, director of business development for Keane's Austin branch, says local employees are working hand-in-hand with Seton to seek out the computer chips that may be buried in literally hundreds of medical devices and important machines, such as elevators or ventilation systems. Seton executives say they realized the problem couldn't be ignored, but they were overwhelmed by the size of the task. "The magnitude was so great. We had to get a full-time person" to help out, says David Tucker, chief information officer at Seton. So Tucker turned to Keane, a company that helped him with a Y2K project when Tucker worked at Hermann Hospital in Houston. Although Keane works with a number of businesses throughout much of Texas, Sikorski says the Seton project is a little different. Rather than beginning with Y2K compliance on its mainframes, the hospital called Keane in to help only with its embedded systems. "The mainframe has been typically the item that has received the greatest level of awareness, and it's kind of like the most easily understood," Sikorski says. "It therefore by default just got to be the platform that got looked at first." Y2K compliance in mainframes is relatively straightforward because "the mainframe is usually provided by a vendor, who not only provides the hardware but the software," he says. With embedded systems in a hospital, the work becomes more complex. It could involve desktop computers from several different manufacturers and medical devices from hundreds of vendors - everything from X-ray machines to biological monitors and intravenous drips. Keane has developed its own project management philosophies and practices to help clients like Seton manage such large tasks. The project involves Keane's proprietary Resolve 2000 methodology - a three-phase process consisting of inventory assessment, development of a strategic conversion plan, and conversion and testing. Sikorski says the approach is helping Seton to catalog possible Y2K exposures and mitigate the risks. Keane is working with Seton's vendors to find out whether devices are Y2K-compliant and how much work needs to be done with each batch of equipment. Tucker says Seton's biggest concern is its biomedical equipment. Next in priority are personal computers and software, as well as the heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems. While Tucker hopes the Y2K project is finished by next June, Sikorski says a completion date is hard to predict. "You really don't know what you're going to run into, because there are so many different devices," Sikorski says. "Essentially, we and the client are going to be there for as long as it takes to get it done." That open-ended approach is another unique feature of the Keane-Seton partnership. "With a mainframe, everything is in a box and you know how many lines of code there are," Sikorski says. "Here, you're kind of going on a journey and trying to find out, where does the Year 2000 exposure lurk?" Although he can't say now just where all the potential dangers are for Seton, Sikorski's not worried about a computer-chip doomsday at the end of the millennium. "I just can't imagine any hospital not addressing the issues," he says. "I just see too much due care and concern and conscientiousness and responsibility on behalf of these types of clients of ours." "Seton is a great example of clients that are taking a very aggressive, responsible approach," he says. "They're spending a lot of time and dollars out of their pockets to address this issue."

To: John Mansfield who wrote (18865)	6/22/1998 2:34:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 31646

Federal reference article This is the famous FORTUNE article (link already posted some time ago). It is interesting to see that again and again references are made to this article by leaders in industry and government (just think of the referencing during the CSIS conference). b.t.w. think of the strike going on at GM..., compare this to the problems mentioned below at suppliers... John pathfinder.com _____ Some quotes: 'Unfounded gloom and doom? Not if you listen to Ralph J. Szygenda, chief information officer at General Motors, whose staff is now feverishly correcting what he calls "catastrophic problems" in every GM plant. ....' 'Tava Technologies of Englewood, Colo., has one of the few software tools for automatically finding year 2000 errors in manufacturing's embedded systems. Among other things, Tava's program can read the "ladder logic" directing programmable logic controllers (PLCs). These simple, computerlike devices issue commands to factory equipment in the manner of a drill sergeant. Thousands of PLCs dot factory floors, and all have to be checked' 'So for a long time manufacturing companies snoozed, including GM. When he arrived at the automotive giant a year and a half ago to take over the CIO job, recalls Ralph Szygenda, he was amazed "that most people assumed that the factory floor didn't have year 2000 problems." ' '. Supplemented by squads of GM technicians and programmers, these experts fanned out through GM's 117 facilities in 35 countries. What they found shocked even the factory-wise Szygenda. ' '"At each one of our factories there are catastrophic problems," says the blunt-talking executive. "Amazingly enough, machines on the factory floor are far more sensitive to incorrect dates than we ever anticipated. When we tested robotic devices for transition into the year 2000, for example, they just froze and stopped operating." ' 'Attacking the year 2000 problem has exposed another major area of vulnerability for GM: its 100,000 suppliers worldwide. Will all be compliant? ' 'He sketches the grim possibilities: "Let's say that a key sole-source supplier of brake valves shuts down as a result of a year 2000 problem. As a result, on day two, two plants that produce master brake cylinders and clutch master cylinders have to stop production because they don't have those valves. On day three, as motor vehicle assembly plants begin to run out of parts, production falls to about one-third of usual volume. By day four, all assembly plants shut down. '