| Amount invested: |
$500M |
| Organization: |
Large utility |
| Original Plans: |
To replace all mainframe systems with a client/server based
Unix/NT solution to improve customer service and enable more rapid
applications development to exploit market opportunities in this rapidly
changing market. It was also considered that the Year2000 conversion of the
legacy applications would be simply 'money wasted'. To ensure success this
utility entered into an outsourcing contract to handle everything from the
operation of the mainframes to the implementation of the new systems. |
| Unanticipated problems: |
Shortly after the project began the outsourcer
insisted on a renegotiation of the contract terms which put more of an
onus on the utility to support the new systems locally. The suggestion
being that so little support would be needed that local personnel could
undertake the required tasks as part of their normal daily routine. However,
over time it became apparent that the support requirements of the new
system were more than triple those of the mainframe with the mixed
Unix/NT environment causing many problems. At around the same time the mainframe
capacity needed to be enhanced as conversion was well behind schedule, but
again the outsourcer insisted that this required yet another renegotiation
of the contract. These two changes combined to give a new total cost of
well over twice the original mainframe costs compared to the 25% reduction
that had been expected. The final problem was that rather than experiencing
more rapid implementation of new applications, the poor management software
and limited development tools had resulted in the average new application
taking twice as long as on the mainframe. |
| Project Status: |
There is no confidence that the new systems will all be
operational before the Year 2000, so many of the legacy applications will
need converting anyway and the mainframe will require further investment.
Consequently many of the planned client/server Unix applications have been
abandoned and the legacy applications will be converted for the Year 2000
and also enhanced to become client/server systems interfacing with NT. |
