Re: Case History - Rapid remediation of AS/400 system using encapsulation

[Glenn Ericson <Glenn-Ericson@xxxxxxx>]

Harlan  et al.
It is  true the encapsulation technique  works. HOWEVER I  would  not  just
 say this  and have  folks  procrastinate thinking there is little or  no
work left to be done in the Y2K arena.  While one  arrives  quickly at the
testing  door step  there are  many  more items to be  done as the article
on the  web  mentions.  
This is no discredit to  the product or technique.  Rapid remediation are
the techniques key accelerated functions.  My concern  is  these  words
get overlooked and Y2K project  gets plugged ing- as an answer they  have
been in quest of.. Thus it  might be  viewed  by the less knowledgable  in
the  wrong  way.

So as not to commercialize  this posting, I would be happy to discuss the
PROs & CONs  of this style implementation off line  or  via  direct
communications against individual cases.


Glenn
___________________________________________________
Glenn Ericson,          Phoenix Consulting                      
P O Box 701164   East Elmhurst NY 11370-3164 USA                            
Phone 718 898 9805       Fax 718 446 1150
AS/400 & Year 2000- - Solutions Specialists
 © 1998 copyright,  all rights reserved
____________________________________________________


 
At 07:18 AM 10/14/98 -0500, Harlan Smith wrote:
>An interesting account of one company's rapid remediation using an 
>encapsulation approach.
>
>Their system is AS/400 based.
>
>http://www.infolive.ie/resources/daily_columns/daily_column_6.html
>
>[snip]
>
>Ireland's Leading IT Columnists
>
>     Tom Golden
>. . . . .
>
>Site Report: Murphy Brewery guards against Y2K droop
>Whatever vital services do become unavailable because of the impending Year 
>2000 problem, the Murphy Brewery will keep its essential supplies rolling 
>throughout the festive season next year, reports TOM GOLDEN. 
>  (ComputerScope - October 98)
>
>The Year 2000 doomsayers have predicted that all sorts of disasters will 
>occur on or around January1st 2000. We have heard ad nauseam of how 
>airlines plan to ground their planes and how insurance firms are not 
>covering companies that go out of business because of Year 2000 computer 
>problems as they see it is a foreseeable risk. It was a relief therefore to 
>discover that the Murphy Brewery in Cork will at least ensure that stressed 
>travellers and business people can get a pint during the perilous period 
>surrounding the millennium change over.
>
>Murphy Brewery completed a large chunk of its Year 2000 compliance 
>programme in the second half of last year when it converted its enterprise 
>resources planning (ERP) system -- SSA BPCS -- using a tool called MS4 from 
>Dublin firm Millennium Solutions. According to Declan Duggan, who managed 
>that project, the plan is to have everything in the company Year 2000-ready 
>well ahead of the deadline. This month the brewery is finishing up the 
>process of swapping out some of its older PCs and replacing them with 
>millennium-compliant systems, while the brewery's engineering department 
>still has some work to do on its manufacturing systems.
>
>'The brewery is owned by Heineken, which has had a Year 2000 programme in 
>existence for more than two years. That encompasses every aspect of the 
>brewery, from production and laboratory, to office automation and involves 
>all sorts of equipment from PLCs to PCs,' says Duggan.
>
>In terms of the overall Year 2000 project bringing the company's ERP system 
>up-to-date was one of the most formidable challenges the IT department 
>faced. The organisation uses SSA's Business Planning and Control System 
>(BPCS) -- running on an AS/400 Model 310 -- to support practically all of 
>its major business processes. Modules include inventory, general ledger, 
>purchasing, order entry and distribution, billing and accounts receivable, 
>a service module and more.
>
>As Duggan says he did not need to carryout any in-depth investigation to 
>know the system was not Year 2000-compliant. 'We run quite an old version 
>of the software -- 2.1.05. The system is heavily modified and because of 
>that we were not in a position to take any upgrades in recent years,' he 
>explains.
>
>Faced with the Herculean task of trawling through the suite of applications 
>and fixing everything so it could handle four-digit years the IT staff and 
>management at Murphy initially felt their only option would be to start 
>again from scratch by installing a new ERP system or the latest version of 
>BPCS. 'Our original thinking was SSA were not going to bail us out because 
>we were so heavily modified, so an upgrade would have meant the same as 
>going out to the market place and re-implementing or putting in a new ERP 
>system,' says Duggan. At a rough estimate the company believed it had up to 
>10 man years of work ahead of it.
>
>At the same time Murphy's business was going through a period of rapid 
>change and key IT personnel were already engaged in other important 
>projects. Just as the IT team was facing despair word came through on the 
>AS/400 grapevine that Waterford Crystal had completed the task of making 
>its BPCS system millennium compliant in less than four months.
>[more]
>
>Harlan
>Synergistic Mitigation & Contingency Preparation -- "Austere 
>Infrastructure"



Glenn
___________________________________________________
Glenn Ericson,          Phoenix Consulting                      
P O Box 701164   East Elmhurst NY 11370-3164 USA                            
Phone 718 898 9805       Fax 718 446 1150
AS/400 & Year 2000- - Solutions Specialists
 © 1998 copyright,  all rights reserved
____________________________________________________


 
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