Ridgecrest, Calif., Chip-Repair Firm Grows Rapidly to Serve Y2K Clients
By Marc Benjamin, The Bakersfield Californian Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Jan. 3--RIDGECREST, Calif.--Upon entering the
offices of CTA Inc., visitors are asked to place their name on a sign-up sheet.
Once upon a time, the sheet was filled with names of Defense Department contractors seeking assistance on high-tech military projects.
Today, there is a conspicuous absence of those visitors. CTA Vice President Stuart Witt recognized the federal government's defense
cutbacks and the problems they caused in the defense industry, a problem that has seriously handicapped the Ridgecrest economy, as
well as other defense contractors. So, Witt, 46, a former Top Gun fighter pilot and fourth-generation Kern County resident, worked to
change the firm's direction.
Witt's engineering expertise and the available work force in the high-tech oriented Ridgecrest area have helped CTA move toward being
among the nation's leading authorities in fixing Year 2000 embedded-chip computer problems.
Embedded chips operate systems in large facilities such as elevators, keyless entry systems and bank vaults.
Research by the President's Council on Y2K showed that an estimated 50 million devices out of 25 billion embedded chips are not Y2K
compliant. "Clients asked us to take on Y2K projects in 1993," Witt said. "We are real proud of our successes. On the eastern side of
Kern County it is hard to find a company that is growing."
CTA is one of them. At its peak in April 1996, CTA (Computer Technology Associates) in Ridgecrest had 325 employees. But by last
December, the number had dwindled to 127. Today, with the help of its Y2K operations, the Ridgecrest office has 195 employees, growth
of more than 50 percent in a year. The annual revenue of the office reflects a similar increase, although Witt declined to disclose those
numbers. "What CTA is doing is such a bright spot for eastern Kern County because (Witt) is actually hiring and offsetting the
hemorrhaging," said Jon McQuiston, a Kern County supervisor who serves the Ridgecrest area. "CTA is moving into the private sector
with a niche that has been in Y2K. All of their growth has been private sector- and technology transfer-related."
CTA is based in Bethesda, Md., and many of the company's processes created for fixing "embedded chip" computers were developed by
Witt and his employees in Ridgecrest employing a six-step assessment and repair process used by the U.S. Navy.
About 30 percent of the Ridgecrest office's work is in fixing the Y2K problem.
The GartnerGroup, a Connecticut-based computer consulting firm that addressed the U.S. Senate on year 2000 issues earlier this year,
estimates the cost to recover from each failure could range from $20,000 to $3.5 million, depending on the complexity of the systems.
The prospect of embedded chip failure led state officials to seek the most highly qualified firm -- CTA.
"We went through a rigorous evaluation process and there are not a whole lot of Y2K embedded chip experts," said John Thomas Flynn,
chief information officer for the state of California.
"We felt with CTA that we found an organization with great credentials that had done successful work with other clients. They have done
terrific work and we have been real pleased."
CTA was the architect of a Web site called the California Embedded Systems Center for the state's Department of Information
Technology. The center is a library of embedded chip data that allows government agencies to
find out if the embedded chips operating their facilities are ready for the year
2000. "That was something our cities and counties can use and add to," said George Kostyrko, public information officer for the state
Department of Information Technology. "The greatest number of unknowns is in embedded chips."
Another CTA client is Wells Fargo Bank. "We have them involved in 3,000 facilities," said Steve Levine, vice president and manager of
corporate properties for Wells Fargo in San Francisco. "It includes everything from branches to cash vaults to data centers to
administrative high-rise facilities. They are looking at all of the buildings Wells Fargo utilizes to conduct its business."
Embedded chip technology is more of an engineering issue, which is why Wells Fargo selected CTA.
"There are other companies that supply year 2000 consulting services, but in its truest application, we are really looking at engineering
solutions and CTA has worked with this technology for 20 years," Levine said. "They had the processes and procedures that were far in
advance compared to what anybody else had."
The year 2000 work CTA is doing for Wells Fargo includes fixing and certifying building systems that range from electrical and fire to life
safety, Levine said. "We are relying solely on them to assist us to make sure all our buildings are Y2K compliant," he said.
There are 1,500 embedded systems in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey system that CTA is assessing. Lou Yannaco, year
2000 program manager for embedded systems for the agency that oversees John F. Kennedy and Newark international airports,
LaGuardia Airport and the World Trade Center, said the embedded systems have components in them that also need to be monitored.
"Any system may have multiple components and each component may have many micro-components," said Yannaco, who expects the
project to be completed by the middle of this year.
CTA's business is growing quickly, so the most important systems are the ones that need inspection while less critical systems can
wait, said Witt.
"If we take on a new engagement, we tell them we will specialize in their mission critical systems," he said.
"A lot of our clients have issued us contracts that go into the first few years
of 2000." The client list for fixing the Y2K problems with Ridgecrest office staff is also quite impressive. Among other clients are: the U.S.
Navy's Pacific Fleet; LaSalle Partners Property Management; and Los Angeles World Airports, which includes Los Angeles International,
Burbank and Ontario airports.
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