The same might not be the case, however, with labs operated by other University departments. In those cases, the responsibility lies with the individual campus unit. In some areas of the campus, action on Y2K has been underway for a while. Administrative Information Systems and Services, the campus division that operates important services such as U of I Direct, has been analyzing its systems for years, Kesner said. Indeed, the urgency of Y2K is often more pronounced in areas that deal more heavily with data, and those areas tend to have the most progress and contingency plans already instituted.
Banks provide one example, because they are heavily dependent upon complex computer networks.
National City Bank, the parent company that recently acquired First of America Bank, including the Champaign-Urbana branches, will be prepared for the turn of the century, according to Colleen Geondeff, senior vice president and project director for year 2000 at National City. It's something that we've been working on and focused on since 1995. We began reviewing our proprietary applications at that time. Since then, we've expanded that to a project team that covers all aspects of the corporation. By doing that, we're converting them onto the systems that we're already making year 2000 ready and thereby not duplicating the expense of getting their applications ready.