UA purchases software for 'Year 2000 Team'

Eric M. Jukelevics Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior software instructor Bryan Griffith (right) teaches a training session to departmental representatives for Y2K preparation yesterday at McClelland Hall.

The Center for Computing and Information Technology's "Year 2000 Team" is nearly finished adapting the university's major computer systems. The team is still responsible for making departmental computers century compatible, said Paul Christian, a support systems analyst.

"I'm very confident that central systems will be ready to do business in the year 2000," Christian said.

Two of the University of Arizona's three major computing systems are century compliant. The third and largest, expected to be finished in April, is about 70 percent complete.

Helping smaller systems to comply, university officials approved the 10,000-unit software contract with international company Platinum Technology Inc., Christian said. The Y2K program is normally $98, but it became available Monday on the Internet for faculty, staff and students on campus.

Platinum's program helps solve the dilemma by scanning for problems in all software and databases and telling its user how to correct the century incompatibility.

Since 1996, CCIT has been working to ensure that the UA can process four-digit dates when the millennium arrives.

The CCIT's Year-2000 Team has held presentations for 40 to 45 departments in the last year and a half, and has given regular updates to the administration, Christian said.

"We've seen a tremendous increase in interest this calendar year," he said. "Now all of a sudden, (Y2K) is next year."

Bryan Griffith, platinum's senior software instructor, began yesterday training departmental representatives who were either appointed or volunteered to attend.

Technical support representatives will have five more days of training, followed by one day of seminars directed toward future trainers at the UA and another day for various users of the program, said systems analyst Tom Kelley.

Personnel who attend the seminars will act as "points of contact" for their department heads and will assist their divisions to adapt their systems, Griffith said during the first training session.

Vincente Leon, an accountant and biochemistry representative, said he was chosen to help with the department's computer systems.

"If something goes wrong, I can give them support," he said.