Helping Companies Feel Confident about the Year 2000	Industry Pharmaceutical

Comprehensive Vendor Compliance Database delivers critical information to manage the effects of the Year 2000 on organizations’ computer systems

The potential damage of the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer bug has become front-page news in the most mainstream media outlets. Everyone knows about the nature of the threat and its possible effects on the smallest elements of our daily lives. Businesses recognize the danger they invite if they don’t address the Y2K issue in their information systems.

Financial institutions and pharmaceutical companies have been among the leaders in the race to rectify the Y2K glitch. With pressure coming from federal regulators and the looming risk of legal repercussions for failing to comply, these industries took steps early to get their information systems in shape for the next millennium.

What some organizations don’t realize, however, is that they depend on other companies’ products every day. If one of these third-party vendors hasn’t achieved Y2K readiness, the customer’s business can be negatively impacted – regardless of any proactive steps it has taken to fix code in-house.

Seeing the Big Y2K Picture
CoreTech Consulting Group understands how businesses use technology and how their interactions with other companies’ products can call up unforeseen Y2K problems. To combat this hidden threat, CoreTech has compiled a comprehensive database of hardware and software vendors that indicates which have achieved compliance and possible contingency plans for those who haven’t.

This ambitious project was launched on behalf of one of the largest research-based, global pharmaceutical companies ("the Company"). Its products are available in more than 150 countries.

The Company deals with a vast number of outside companies and vendors to fulfill its business mission. It would simply be unacceptable to let a Y2K problem impede its ability to answer that need. In fact, the company would have legal liability for such a failure. For example, the Company produces life-sustaining drugs and heart medications for patients around the world, and an information systems problem must not prevent the successful production and delivery of these items.

Therefore, the Company wanted to be absolutely sure that all of the software and hardware vendors whose products it uses were certified compliant as well. "With more than 2,000 products in use, this represented a huge research project," said a client spokesperson. "We weren’t equipped to take on a task of this scope ourselves. That was when we turned to CoreTech for help."

While this isn’t a typical engagement for CoreTech — a company whose IT professionals have expertise with the most sophisticated, cutting-edge technology systems and solutions — they had a strong relationship with the Company and readily accommodated the request. Moreover, CoreTech saw that the creation of a centralized repository of vendors’ Y2K status would be of untold value to the IT user market as a whole.

"We viewed this project as something that directly supported our core goal of helping companies manage the effects of technology on their people and processes," said Richard Gengenbach, New York Branch Manager, CoreTech Consulting Group. "It gave us an opportunity to work with a valued client partner of ours and also develop a product with a life of its own."

Turning Data Into Knowledge
At the Company, CoreTech consultants took an inventory of all of the company’s IT assets (i.e., hardware, applications, operating systems, service providers, database software, embedded software, interfaces, etc.) and put those products’ vendors through a detailed process to determine their compliance status. Vendors received a risk rating based on their compliance status measured against their business impact on the Company’s successful operations. For example, a product might pose a high business risk depending on the Company’s usage volume, business dependence, replacement plans or retirement plans for the product. A vendor could be considered high-risk depending on its compliance status, compliance schedule, test plans and reputation.

For maximum benefit, this vast store of information needed to be put into a user-friendly format that could be accessed by the appropriate parties within the Company. The data was put onto a restricted Y2K web site available via intranet to employees in the company’s more than 300 locations worldwide.

"We were really pleased with how the information was organized and presented to us," said the Company spokesperson. "CoreTech has made it very easy for our people to find the answers they need."

At the intranet site, users can search by vendor or product to confirm that they are utilizing products that have been deemed "certified" by the Company for Y2K compliance. The site provides a mechanism for reporting products that should be added to or removed from the database. The web-based system also makes it easy to execute updates.

Today, CoreTech is continuing to build upon its Y2K Vendor Compliance Database in order to help other companies identify vulnerabilities due to Y2K issues. Unique projects like this are just another way CoreTech goes beyond what’s typically expected from a consulting firm to deliver more value to customers.

CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. excels in making new technologies work for companies, maximizing business benefit while minimizing disruption and risk. More information about CoreTech may be obtained by calling 800-220-3337 or via the World Wide Web at:

http://www.CoreTech.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. CORETECH MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Microsoft and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

3/99

   [ About CoreTech ] [ Services ] [ News & Events ] [ Employment ]
[ Home ] [ Search ] [ Contact]

© 1999 CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.