Year 2000 Business Continuity Plan Status Report

for December 1998

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee reports having concurred with the Recommendations embodied in the following report (January12,1999) from the Commissioner of Corporate Services:

Purpose:

The purpose of this report is to update the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee on the status of the Year 2000 Business Continuity Plan for the City of Toronto and to provide the following:

(1)Status report of each priority 1Year 2000 function;

(2)Status report on all ABC's and their state of readiness;

(3)Status report on expenditures; and

(4)Change requests.

Funding Sources:

No funding is requested at this time.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1)the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee receive this report for information; and

(2)the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee forward this report to Council for information.

Comments:

Background:

At its meeting of July 29, 30 and 31, 1998, Council directed the Program Office to report monthly to the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee on the progress of the Year 2000 plan. At its meeting of November 17, 1998, the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee adopted the Year 2000 Business Continuity Plan to remedy the 84 critical business functions of priority 1, in which $149.6 million was requested. The report was forwarded to Council at its meeting of November 25, 26 and 27, 1998, and was adopted.

Status report on priority 1 business functions:

You will find in Attachment 1 the updated status of each of the business functions as of the end of December 1998. Currently all projects are on schedule and on budget.

The Year 2000 problems in the embedded chips associated with critical process control systems have now been confirmed in the 4-6 percent range. This is lower than anticipated.

Currently opportunities for sharing solutions for systems such as maintenance management and work orders across operating departments are being investigated.

Year 2000 Project Communications :

A Year 2000 Project Office intranet site is available for sharing information with staff across the amalgamated City of Toronto. Staff have been notified of the location of the site (insideto.toronto.city.on.ca) via the city staff newsletter, Inside TO.

Year 2000 "Fact sheets" are being developed to respond to queries sent to the Year 2000 office regarding the City of Toronto's readiness for Year 2000. These packages cover topics such as Water Supply, Traffic Lights, etc Legal and the appropriate operating departments will review these packages before they are released. The internet site for Public access to information is complete but is awaiting approval from Legal and the Corporate Communications manager. The draft of a mail insert to be distributed to city residents, as per Council's request on November 25, 1998, is also ready for review and approval. A report outlining the costs and methods of distribution has been prepared for the Year 2000 Steering Committee.

Meetings have been held with the Toronto Emergency Management Committee which include members such as Toronto Hydro, Bell Canada, Consumers Gas, etc. All parties agreed that there is a need for pro-active consistent communication to the Public regarding Year 2000 readiness. The Corporate Communications manager will co-ordinate the communication to the public associated with the Year 2000 and will participate on the communication sub-committee for the Toronto Emergency Management Committee.

Benchmarking with Other Cities:

In December, the City of Toronto met with the Year 2000 Program Directors for the other cities in the GTA. It has been agreed that regular meetings will be held to facilitate the sharing of information and experiences. The next meeting is scheduled for the end of January 1999.

In December, the Project Director and the Executive Director of Information and Technology have been exchanging information with the City of New York on the Year 2000 programs for each City and to investigate opportunities for sharing information.

External Board Review:

An external review board was established by the Mayor's office, consisting of senior executives from Bell Canada, Rogers and the Royal Bank of Canada to work with the City's Year 2000 Program and to provide suggestions to the Year 2000 Steering Committee. The objective is to provide an opportunity for the City to leverage the knowledge and experience gained by private organizations of similar size and complexity on issues, strategies and solutions regarding the Year2000. The first meeting was held in December and was deemed valuable by all parties. The board members will be invited on a monthly basis to participate in the Year 2000 steering committee meeting to continue to information exchange.

Status report on the Agencies, Boards and Commissions:

Toronto Transit Commission (TTC):

TTC has completed the initiation and inventory phases. The initial assessment has been completed and many initial plans have been developed. Final assessment is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of February 1999. Remediation is underway, although the bulk of the work is expected to be completed in the January to April 1999 timeframe. The testing phase overlaps and runs from February to June 1999. The Implementation Phase is planned for completion by the end of September 1999. The post-implementation phase is currently scheduled for October 1999 to March 2000. During this phase, completed work will be reviewed, further testing will be conducted and work will continue on low priority issues as time permits. A qualified team will be available to address any issues arising after December 31, 1999.

Toronto Hydro:

Toronto Hydro had planned to complete their Inventory and Analysis phase of the Year 2000 program by the end of October. Of the seven groupings that they have used to identify various parts of the Company (Corporate Services, Telecommunications, Facilities, Customer and Energy Services, Meter, Electrical Distribution, and Systems Infrastructure), two were completed on time. Two others were completed in November, two more in December, and the last is anticipated in January, 1999.

While they would have preferred that all reports were completed within the scheduled timeline, none of the areas requires a change in the target date for readiness of critical elements, June 30, 1999. In most cases, work on the next steps has been already proceeding, while the inventory and assessment were being completed. The next steps involve completing the detailed planning for remediation and testing, and carrying out those plans.

There have been no major new issues arising from their inventory and assessment activities.

Inventory reports and classifications ('A' items are those that significantly impact on Hydro's Year2000 goals: safety, power delivery, and critical business processes) have been provided to the responsible Executive Committee member for confirmation of completeness and categorization. Future work to ensure Hydro that all 'A' items are addressed by June 30, 1999, will be based on the confirmed inventories and classifications. Items classified as 'B' or 'C' will be left for handling through the normal course of business, and will not be monitored for remediation by the their Year2000 Project office.

A Testing Policy has been proposed and approved. All 'A' items will require the responsible Hydro Executive Committee member to approve the acceptance of test results, or exemption from further testing.

Many of their customers, both large and small, have called to inquire about their Year 2000 readiness. Hydro has begun to provide them with an approved Year 2000 Statement.

After discussion with the Electrical Distribution division, Hydro has now agreed to begin initial work on contingency plans immediately. The expected completion date continues to be June 30, 1999. They will seek input, both on the scenarios chosen for planning, and on the plans that have been formulated to address those scenarios, through their contacts on the CEA Year 2000 Working Group and within Ontario Hydro.

Toronto Hydro is in frequent communication with Ontario Hydro, and continues to receive assurances that Toronto Hydro's progress is satisfactory. They have jointly inspected nine of the transformer stations feeding Toronto, as a representative sample of the various ages and technologies in their system.

Status report on City expenditures :

Attached you will find a status report on the $149.6 million allocated to the Year 2000 project to remedy all critical 1 business functions. As of December 31, 1998, $4.8 million had been committed/spent. The majority of these expenditures were for resources, desktop computers, test servers, mainframe conversion services and network equipment required to support the priority 1 business functions.

Change requests:

Payroll and Benefits:

The existing Banner Payroll system will be upgraded to a Year 2000-ready version. This requires the implementation of a Year 2000-ready server that corresponds to the City of Toronto standards. Definition of contingency planning alternatives for the Cyborg payroll system (which runs the payroll for the former Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and City of Scarborough) is required in the event that the conversion to SAP in 1999 is not successful. An amount of $57,200.00 is requested primarily for staffing and will be taken out of the contingency funds.

Integrated Disability Management and Claims Processing:

The original submission for this business case identified funds for the Disability Management and Employee Assistance. Funds are required for the Workers Compensation Board Claims Management portion of this business case. WCB Claims Management is an integral part of the Integrated Disability and Claims Management process.

The Human Resources Division is requesting additional funds in the amount of $383,838.75 for this added functionality. These funds will be drawn from the Project Contingency Fund.

The Year 2000 Steering Committee has approved the above change requests as well as the funding from the contingency funds.

Conclusion:

The City of Toronto's readiness is moving forward as scheduled and monthly updates will be provided.

Contact:

Lana Viinamae, Director Year 2000.

(A copy of the attachment to the foregoing report, entitled "Status of Business Cases for Year 2000 Priority 1 Project as of December 31, 1998," was forwarded to all Members of Council with the January 26, 1999, agenda of the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee, and a copy thereof is also on file in the office of the City Clerk.)