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To: John Mansfield who wrote (19020)	6/24/1998 2:13:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 31646

'Conectiv has fixed its customer information system and is replacing its energy control and distribution systems. The fact that elevators are even on the year 2000 radar screen marks major progress. Before March, the utility lacked plans for dealing with virtually all systems and equipment developed and maintained outside its own IT group. Systems for generating and distributing electrical power and gas weren't even on the agenda. "Early on, most people perceived year 2000 as mostly a software problem that affected PCs and maybe the customer information system and just assumed that somebody in IT would take care of it," said gas engineering manager Phil Phillips, a recently appointed year 2000 coordinator. OPENED DOORS But as managers read more newspaper stories and were asked to complete more surveys, it sunk in that IT staff couldn't even be aware of some of the highly specialized equipment different departments use daily. A prime example is a plastic fusion machine used to lay gas pipe. "It just doesn't occur to someone [outside the gas delivery business] that a machine like that has a time and date stamp," Phillips said. "That's why it was important to pick year 2000 coordinators who are familiar with the business line. I certainly wasn't picked for my IT knowledge," he said. Phillips said if it weren't for Arena's team, which circulated risk assessment surveys and kept waving year 2000 flags, the issue might still be an IT-only initiative. "Every project... needs somebody who sees the big picture and all of the threads, and [Arena] serves in that role pretty well," Phillips said. As for senior management, there is a noticeable reduction in hand-wringing, according to Aveyard. Even though "it's not a revenue-producing or exciting project, there's a relief that someone is on top of the year 2000 and working on it," Aveyard said. Still, compared with other utilities, Conectiv is definitely lagging, largely because of its early focus on only the systems developed in-house by the company's IT group. Brad Holcombe, managing partner at Andersen Consulting's utilities practice, said that like Conectiv, plenty of utilities have adopted a triage approach to year 2000 problems. - Julia King ..... computerworld.com