Y2K efforts yield long-term benefit
for Delta Dental Insurance Company
January
7, 2000
$30 million project strengthens
company against future catastrophes
Alpharetta, Ga. - Thirty million
dollars may seem like a lot to spend fixing the
Y2K bug. But this contingency planning has yielded
another benefit as well: disaster preparedness.
At 12:01 am on January 1, employees
of Delta Dental Insurance Company and its marketing
affiliates kept a close eye on computer systems
to ensure continuity of service to more than 862,000
enrollees and 17,000 dentists across the South and
Southeast.
More than $30 million was spent
on joint Y2K efforts by parent company Delta Dental
Plan of California. In addition to reprogramming
millions of lines of computer code to keep its claims
processing, customer service, eligibility and billing
systems working, the company installed a crisis
management and communications structure capable
of supporting a full or partial business recovery
even if the worst-case scenario had unfolded.
"The Y2K preparations we made
here in our Georgia processing center have left
us in a better position to continue service in the
event of a natural disaster such as hurricane, fire
or flood," said Robert Elliott, president of
Delta Dental Insurance Company. "We have hundreds
of thousands of people who depend on us for access
to dental care and payment of their claims. Our
systems need to be able to verify who they are and
what they or their dentists should be paid."
Long before New Year's Day, Delta
began its contingency planning effort by updating
employee phone trees, establishing crisis command
centers and issuing regular updates to key personnel
regarding the Y2K readiness of their facilities,
data systems, applications and security.
These preparations were undertaken
despite the companies' certification of Y2K compliance
more than six months earlier, with independent verification
and oversight of the effort from KPMG Peat Marwick.
Like other companies that depend on complex information
systems, Delta says it will remain vigilant against
Y2K for a few weeks as more complex algorithms contained
in Delta's data systems are used to produce reports
and analyses.
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