23 June, 1999

MELBOURNE - A Y2K-driven software upgrade at a key Mobil Oil distribution centre collapsed the same day it was installed in late May, temporarily halting the fulfilment of deliveries.

The outage, according to a ComputerWorld source, left the petroleum goods manufacturer unable to process or distribute Australia-wide orders for at least a week ...

http://www2.idg.com.au/CWT1997.nsf/09e1552169f2a5dcca2564610027fd24/85ba098f1533fe794a256798001b2cc5?OpenDocument

Sorry I was unable to cut & paste entire article. Perhaps someone else can figure out how to do it.

Thanks,

Cheryl

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), June 23, 1999

Answers

Link

(hope that worked.. my first time trying to put in a link)

Mobil's Y2K revamp runs out of gas Year 2000 MELBOURNE - A Y2K-driven software upgrade at a key Mobil Oil distribution centre collapsed the same day it was installed in late May, temporarily halting the fulfilment of deliveries. The outage, according to a ComputerWorld source, left the petroleum goods manufacturer unable to process or distribute Australia-wide orders for at least a week. The source alleged Mobil Oil embarked on a year 2000 software upgrade at its Yarraville, Victoria, distribution and packaging plant in the last week of May. The centre, which disperses packaged lubricant products to all Australian states and petroleum goods throughout Victoria, was left isolated after the warehouse systems upgrade turned sour. Samantha Potts, Mobil Oil's external relations manager, confirmed that a "Y2K-driven" systems revamp had failed at the company's Yarraville plant almost a month ago, but denied the outage had resulted in a week-long business freeze. "The production process was only slowed down for two days. The day we put it in, we started developing problems. Overnight, we decided to pull it out again. The second day we pulled it out and by the third day we were back to the old software. It was definitely a two-day issue, and deliveries were still going out the gate," Potts claimed. "There were some operational issues with the new software. So for two days, we were running it and we found that it was impacting the production process. As it stands now, we've reverted to the old system. There were some functionality issues with the new software, but that's being fixed and will be installed by the end of the month." The project was a "complete systems rebuild", according to Potts, which saw the company's IT operations move across from a VAX platform to Windows NT 4.0. The software involved in Mobil Oil's recent downtime was a Sybase database and Cognos' PowerHouse configuration application The company again tried to install the software last weekend. This time, it was successfully deployed and is now "working fine", Potts said.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 23, 1999.

forgive me... I'm learning - same post below.. with spaces (I hope)

Link

23 June, 1999

Mobil's Y2K revamp runs out of gas

MELBOURNE - A Y2K-driven software upgrade at a key Mobil Oil distribution centre collapsed the same day it was installed in late May, temporarily halting the fulfilment of deliveries. The outage, according to a ComputerWorld source, left the petroleum goods manufacturer unable to process or distribute Australia-wide orders for at least a week.

The source alleged Mobil Oil embarked on a year 2000 software upgrade at its Yarraville, Victoria, distribution and packaging plant in the last week of May. The centre, which disperses packaged lubricant products to all Australian states and petroleum goods throughout Victoria, was left isolated after the warehouse systems upgrade turned sour. Samantha Potts, Mobil Oil's external relations manager, confirmed that a "Y2K-driven" systems revamp had failed at the company's Yarraville plant almost a month ago, but denied the outage had resulted in a week-long business freeze.

"The production process was only slowed down for two days. The day we put it in, we started developing problems. Overnight, we decided to pull it out again. The second day we pulled it out and by the third day we were back to the old software. It was definitely a two-day issue, and deliveries were still going out the gate," Potts claimed.

"There were some operational issues with the new software. So for two days, we were running it and we found that it was impacting the production process. As it stands now, we've reverted to the old system. There were some functionality issues with the new software, but that's being fixed and will be installed by the end of the month."

The project was a "complete systems rebuild", according to Potts, which saw the company's IT operations move across from a VAX platform to Windows NT 4.0.

The software involved in Mobil Oil's recent downtime was a Sybase database and Cognos' PowerHouse configuration application

The company again tried to install the software last weekend. This time, it was successfully deployed and is now "working fine", Potts said.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 23, 1999.

Cool.. I managed to post it okay.

But did you notice the contradictory statements from Potts. First he says it WILL BE installed by the end of the month (future tense). Then he says it WAS installed LAST WEEKEND and is now working fine. Oh well, if he says its fine, then it must be.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 23, 1999.

Linda:

Forgive me, but I found no contradictory statements. The software was originally installed in late May (as stated in paragraph 1 of Cheryl's newsbrief). This IS late June (a month later.)

Anita

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), June 23, 1999.

Linda:

I rather doubt this was a contradictory statement by Potts. The article seems a bit disjointed (journalists don't understand computer systems very well). Which leaves me wondering what broke how badly (we have conflicting statements), what was installed (conflicting statements), when the second installation took place (conflicting statements), etc. The reporter seems quite confused.

Oh well, it's all OK now unless it isn't, right?

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), June 23, 1999.

The contradiction is not so much in the dates - by the end of the month, vs. last weekend - but in saying it WILL BE done vs. it WAS done. Probably just reflects two different discussions with the reporter, and he just didn't catch it when he cut and pasted it all together.

It's all fine... fine... right?

(And I'm just happy I figured out how to put in links... small pleasures.) Linda

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 23, 1999.

Good job with the link, Linda. I really appreciate someone who takes the time to learn a new skill. Ummmm...... new skills of all kinds just might come in handy soon. Let us know if you have learned the fine "art" of home canning! Be well!

-- Gail (fialkow@erols.com), June 24, 1999.

Hmm... I noticed that Mobil ran a large ad in today's New York Times, in favor of new laws to limit Y2K litigation because [paraphrase] "we need to focus on making sure everything is fixed in the time we have left, without distractions."

-- M.C. Hicks (mhicks@greenwich.com), June 24, 1999.