Maricopa Community College
District Office
Y2K Desktop/Server Plan

Introduction
The District Office (DSSC) Year 2000 (Y2K) desktop compliance is very important. District Office (DSSC) ITS is addressing both hardware/software inventory and Y2K compliance. The DSSC ITS team has identified the following areas towards meeting these goals.

Awareness
The District Office staff have researched, reviewed and investigated Y2K issues extensively. District Office Y2K desktop team identified Y2K desktop considerations in four major areas, which are:

      1. Hardware
      2. Operating Systems
      3. Application Software
      4. Data Files
There is a large volume of information available from each hardware and software vendor's web pages on these subjects. In addition, there are many vendors who deal with both inventory and Y2K compliance issues. DSSC ITS is providing a list of potential vendors currently being researched for a DSSC solution. Please refer to the attached for this listing and associated URL's for more information concerning these products.

The District Office Y2K desktop research is being conducted using demos and/or trial versions of the vendor products described in the attached vendor/product list. At this time, a limited number of vendor presentations are being considered by DSSC ITS.

Inventory
As in all the literature on Y2K, having a good inventory of the products being used by your institution is critical to the success of Y2K project planning. For this reason, District Office Y2K desktop team is investigating available methods to obtain this critical inventory. Alternatives considered to collect this inventory include:

    1. Using software to automatically collect the inventory of District

      2. Office desktop systems information such as bios, O/S version, Apps..
    2. Manually collect information by visiting each desktop
    3. Other?
The inventory will include those desktop systems in use at the District Office, which are also on the District Office supported list. The following information on hardware, software and data detail some of the District Office Y2K desktop plans and considerations.

Hardware
DSSC ITS is concerned with two main hardware platforms which include:

      1. PC
      2. Apple
The first goal is to identify each hardware model in use, then further determining its level of Y2K compliance. From this inventory, a list will be created for each platform and model in use. The list will also include the Y2K compliance status for each item listed and the recommended solution for those not currently in compliance.

Software
DSSC ITS has determined to limit the definition of Y2K Desktop readiness to the District Office's list of supported software. The supported software Operating Systems and Applications versions are listed as follows:

        Operating Systems
                PC
                WIN NT
                Windows 95 (limited to machines being used for special projects)
                Windows 3.1
                DOS 5.0 and higher

                APPLE
                MAC O/S Version 6.x and higher

        Applications (lowest version supported)

                PC
                Aldus PageMaker 6.0 and above
                After Dark
                Dr. Solomon WinGuard for NT (version date no longer than 6 months old)
                Netscape Navigator 3.0 and above
                Microsoft Office 97 Product Suite
                        Microsoft Excell 4.0 and above
                        Microsoft Word 6.0 and above
                        Microsoft Powerpoint 4.0 and above
                        Microsoft Access

                MAC
                Aldus PageMaker 4.0 and above
                Dr. Solomon
                FileMaker Pro 2.0 and above
                Win QVTnet
                Versaterm
                Microsoft Office 97 Product Suite
                        Microsoft Excel 4.0 and above
                        Microsoft Word 4.0 and above
                        Microsoft Access
 

Other Software on District Office Employees Desktops
Employees will be advised that the above software products and versions are the only supported products. Also, that the above list includes versions required for Y2K readiness, as defined by District Office Y2K desktop team.

Data
At this time DSSC ITS is recommending that each department take ownership in resolving data issues. Y2K data issues will not be analyzed or addressed by the District Office Y2K team. The team will advise District Office departments and employees of possible Y2K data issues. This includes spreadsheet and database files such as Excel/Lotus Spreadsheets and Access/FileMaker Pro Databases and any other data files stored on employee desktops or servers.

Home Units
At this time DSSC ITS is recommending that each department take ownership in resolving issues surrounding MCCCD distributed machines to home environments.

Possible issues: Old/Outdated Desktops, Old/Outdated Operating Systems and Applications, etc.

Next Steps (under consideration and planning)
As a result of the processes described above, DSSC ITS will work with a limited list of supported Operating Systems and Applications to allow quick access to potential problem areas. The pilot group of desktop systems selected will be representative of the types of desktop systems discovered during the inventory process. Therefore the current plan is to test one machine per operating system loaded with all currently supported applications as our initial pilot to further our discovery and validate our proposed solutions.

The biggest challenge is not the determination of which desktop systems and components are Y2K compliant. This information is readily available in many forms. The large task is to inventory each desktop to determine which version of hardware/software they contain while determining the necessary upgrades. This challenge highlights the immediate need for automated desktop systems remote

support for this project. This functionality of client service is part of the District Office strategic plan. District ITS has purchased Novell's Zenworks/Check 2000 with 3000 client licenses. This automation of the inventory and potential remote correction of desktop systems is essential to the success of this project. The maintenance of desktops remotely is also critical for upcoming plans for PeopleSoft HR and SA systems where desktop clients are a requirement. Where there are clients, there are upgrades, and the District Office recognizes the requirement of this automation.

One outstanding issue, is the current use of Apple desktops within the District Office. The Novell Zenworks product does not serve Apple systems. The District Office staff are researching for automated methods to serve the few Apple desktop systems. The eventual migration from Apple within the District Office may reduce the numbers of Apple desktop systems such that the few remaining could be served manually.

Staffing
The District Office employees working on the Y2K desktop issues include the following. Additional persons in each of the District Office departments are also working with their representatives.

Norm Dye Project Leader
Abraham Garcia Technical Support
Keli Jones Project support
District Office Departmental Liaisons
Vendor support (to be defined)

Timelines
All District Office Desktop systems will be Y2K ready on or before Dec. 1999. Detailed timelines will be available once we complete our inventory and pilot Y2K correction step.

Potential Budget Impacts
Y2K funds have been requested for District-Wide solution(s) during the recent budget approval process. Note however that should this request be approved the dollars allocated may be small.