by Liz Taylor
CUNY began to reprogram its "mission-critical" systems as far back as 1994. A brief catalog of the efforts can be found below, as can the compliance status of each system.
Student Information Management System (SIMS)
The system responsible for transcripts and other student information, SIMS, was running 4-digit date code by November of 1994 after a programming effort that took seven months to complete. A confluence of events helped CUNY begin the process as early as it did, including, "the gentle but constant nudging of Al Gerstein who began to bring it up at systems meetings in the mid 80's, " according to Shelley Reed, Deputy Director of Instructional Technology and Information Services.
When CUNY decided to take advantage of the economies of scale and standardize on the SIMS system, Reed appointed Gerstein (SIMS Programming Manager) and Cindy Aronofsky (SIMS Director) to head a five-member technical team that would work assiduously for nearly a year to get the new centralized system up and running.
"We knew it would be tough," said Gerstein, "but we also understood that in addition to centralizing, handling 4-digit date code would be necessary by the year 2000, so we were anxious to get moving on the reprogramming project."
Aronofsky points out that CUNY's decision to make SIMS the University-wide student system was instrumental in moving forward so quickly. "We wanted to restructure the database before the colleges joined the project to prevent them from having to do a major restructure soon after converting to SIMS," she said, "and this was the perfect opportunity to deal with the issue of compliance. We met with the campuses and asked them to list the features they would like included in their new system. Naturally, processing 4-digit date code was on the top of our list, and so we began."
The programming was difficult because SIMS had to accommodate several different campuses, each with its own unique input needs, yet the effort had to yield a consistency that would handle Year 2000 compliance across the board. The solution was the development of a modular system with redesigned input screens that could accommodate 4-digit date code and ensure compliance throughout the campuses.
Asked whetherthe system is foolproof, Gerstein and Aronofsky both agreed that while no system can be rendered completely foolproof, the SIMS system tested extremely well. It was designed to avoid the problem that non-compliant data could create because all of its input screens are 2000 compliant. "As far as the new millennium is concerned, we're not anticipating any problems," said Aronofsky.
The City University Personnel System (CUPS)
Another "mission-critical" system that has been 2000-compliant for some time is CUPS, the system responsible for personnel files, including pensions and benefits. Gail Bernstein, Director of CUPS, was in charge of this reprogramming task which, unlike SIMS, took almost three years to complete.
"Ours was an unbelievable undertaking," says Bernstein, "we were a completely centralized system before the work began, so we were not in a position to shut down operations for any length of time and concentrate solely on compliance reprogramming. We simply added it to our daily routine; consequently, it took much longer."
In addition, the CUPS Team decided to do an extremely comprehensive job by reprogramming every inch of its system as well as re-entering all of its data in four digits.
"We had thought about the Year 2000 problem for some time and decided to be this thorough because of the date- sensitive nature of CUPS information. Ours is the type of system that could easily falter if the reprogramming effort were less than complete." Bernstein recounts with a sigh the painstaking procedures and countless hours of reprogramming that had to be done, and admits that, "it could have been a nightmare, but having a fantastic team made all the difference. It was hard, but we did it."
Bernstein explains that the CUPS drive included becoming COBOL 2 compliant, as well. "COBOL 2 is the latest version of the COBOL Programming Language and we knew that many of our systems would eventually be operating on it so we decided to tackle it at the same time."
When CUPS moved to a production environment and actually tested the system, the Team held their breath during the several-day shut down period. "Thankfully," says Bernstein, "we have had very few problems and we're pleased that all of our hard work has paid off." CUPS, it appears, is well-prepared for the new millennium.
The Library Management System (LMS)
"The Library Management System, which is made up of a number of components or modules, became partially compliant with the recent rewriting of the Circulation Module by Ameritech Library Services," explains Marsha Ra (CUNY's Director of Library Services). "Now, all circulation transactions can differentiate between the 20th and 21st centuries."
Compliance of other LMS components is being handled with the release of new library software (LMS 6.4), which, according to Jim Martin, Manager of System Development at Ameritech, "provides a solution that requires no conversion programs and no file expansion."
This is achieved by adopting a "rule" for two-digit years which changes the date module to handle dates into the next century. The rule defines any two-digit year falling between "00" and "27" as a date in the 21st century (2000-2027), while a two-digit year falling between "28" and "99" is interpreted as a date in the 20th century (1928-1999). Of course, this presumes that the bulk of library users are interested primarily in dates that fall between the years of 1928 and 2027. In general, this is true, but for those whose needs require dates that fall outside of this range, several screens have been created which will, according to Martin, "allow the user to enter either a two- or a four-digit year, or to display a four-digit year where the distinction between centuries might be important."
"Basically, however, these changes will be transparent to the end user. The idea," says Martin, "was to make it as painless and transparent as possible to the end user. Very few screens were changed, and most dates will remain in the two-digit format unless it's important to make a distinction between centuries."
The University Accounting Office (UAO)
The group within the University that handles all of the financial dealings of the colleges, including such things as financial aid and student loans, is the University Accounting Office.
The UAO took a much more conservative approach to the Year 2000 problem. Tony Hladek, University Comptroller, explains: "We considered reprogramming but did not believe it was totally necessary because the UAO doesn't do the kind of date calculating that makes going to a four-digit year as important as it is for SIMS or CUPS. Our decision to remain with a two-digit year was made after very careful consideration of our business and the realization that our calculations are generally confined to a specific year. Four-digit reprogramming for UAO systems would have been an unnecessary expenditure of time and money."
"Another strong influence on our decision," continued Hladek, "was the fact that both the State of New York (for payroll information) and the City of New York (for accounting information) will soon be switching over to completely new systems. So, we felt that reprogramming now would not be the best use of our resources."
Ray Tam (Director of Systems) agreed but explained that the issue of Year 2000 compliance won't be at rest at the UAO until the INSITE system (the Fixed Asset Inventory System) is upgraded. "We won't experience many problems with the Financial Accounting System (FAS), the Financial Information System (FIS), or Student Financial Aid (SFA)," said Tam, "but where we might have some problems is with INSITE because these systems do require date calculations; we are currently focusing our efforts on it and have already developed systems to handle the century change. Our strategy now is to test these efforts externally with outside data to see what will occur when we enter year 2000 data into our system."
Hladek believes the UAO's efforts at compliance are sufficient and is confident that the Office will not experience major problems when the rollover date comes. "I'm not overly concerned at this point" says Hladek, "we've considered the potential risks and have determined that they are minimal. However, because we rely on others for data, we can't be sure that glitches will not occur."
CUNYVM and CUNYJES3 Year 2000 Test Systems
In the fall of 1998, CUNY will have both a VM and an MVS Year 2000 test environment on which departments will be able to test their own programs.
CUNY continues to address the Year 2000 problem but it is important to stress that each one of us can contribute to its solution by gathering as much information about it as possible, remembering to check individual system software and hardware for Y2K compliance, and continuing to test systems. More information will be made available to you through this newsletter and other CUNY resources in the coming months. We hope it is helpful.
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