Pioneer Foods has turned to USKO Software`s Systems Solutions and its OnMark 2000 Assess software product to alleviate the time-consuming challenge of checking data files across its various company networks for Y2K compliance.
The R3,5-billion-a-year milling, baking and agricultural foods operation, formed recently through the merger of SASKO and Bokomo, has invested close on R400 000 in OnMark 2000 to ensure that all IT systems not yet upgraded to SAP R/3 can be easily monitored and adapted in time for the new millennium.
The software is being distributed onto servers across group networks using Microsoft SMS, enabling users to download it onto their PCs to check their own application systems - in particular their Excel spreadsheets.
"While the upgrade of most of our commercial applications to SAP R/3 has resolved the bulk of our Y2K challenge, we recognise a potential problem in our Excel spreadsheet applications," comments Pioneer Group Y2K project representative and IT manager: Unix, Ian Ross.
He cites this as an area of typically high vulnerability, often overlooked by many organisations in resolving Y2K challenges.
"Commercial organisations need to recognise that the greatest Y2K threat is at the level of data input to, among others, spreadsheets and database programs. And in OnMark 2000 Assess, we have a product that delivers a particularly strong solution in terms of its ability to diagnose data problems in any data file in any application - from simple word-processing to complex databases," he says.
Ross adds that the local support for OnMark 2000, provided by USKO Software`s Systems Solutions Division and its authorised dealer, ULT, together with the product`s superior network functionality, leaves Pioneer Foods confident of addressing all Y2K issues well before the end of the year.
The software is being rolled out to some 1 300 users in the first phase of implementation, with a further 1 200 users being added during the first quarter of the year. OnMark 2000 Assess will also remain running in the background on all Pioneer Foods` PCs to continue monitoring compliance into and beyond 2000.
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