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New data system
for UH students
finally taking hold

The $4.7 million project,
18 months behind schedule, will
facilitate information processing

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii is finally about to get its $4.7 million student information system that was supposed to arrive about a year and a half ago in time to help swat the Millennium Bug.

Officials of Buzzeo Inc., the Arizona-based software firm contracted in June 1997 to provide the system, are in town this week to set up and test the project's first component, a Web-based management program for student financial aid, said David Lassner, UH director of information technology services.

Buzzeo, which has already received the full $4.7 million payment, is also meeting with university officials to discuss what parts of the system it will deliver next, Lassner said yesterday.

The company is supposed to provide a Web-based platform to manage information for admissions, registration, class scheduling and transcripts for all of UH's 10 campuses and its five education centers.

"We need a new student information system," Lassner said in a previous interview. The university's current system is split into four separate systems and much of it is dated, Lassner said. "Some of it is from the '80s."

The contract also gave the university a 3 percent equity stake in Buzzeo, creating a further impetus to see the company succeed.

The university, however, had expected the new system to be up in time to handle the change of date on Jan. 1, 2000. Older software programs with internal calendars that noted the date with just the last two digits of the year were expected to malfunction after the switchover from "99" to "00". Many computer experts were expecting the so-called Millennium Bug to cause serious problems worldwide.

But Buzzeo, faced with financial difficulties and the closing of its Hawaii office, could not follow through on the UH contract in time. Consequently, the university had to fix its own software in time to head off the year-2000 bug, Lassner said.

Buzzeo, formed in March 1993 in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, is led by Chairman and CEO Eugene Buzzeo, a systems consultant and software developer. He could not be reached for comment.

Lassner defended the project as a complex undertaking, involving an all-encompassing system for an educational institution carrying 44,600 students on separate campuses. "I think we always felt it was a long shot, even under the best of circumstances," Lassner said about the original timetable.

When the delay became apparent, UH decided that replacing Buzzeo would not work, Lassner said. The university originally picked Buzzeo because the company was the only builder of information systems based on Java, a computer language now commonly used on the Internet.

At the time the contract was awarded, Buzzeo had high hopes for Hawaii. Using the investment from the university's equity stake, the company planned to build a $10 million regional technology center in its offices at 1601 Kapiolani Blvd., and hire 30 employees.

Problems began shortly after the university contract was awarded, however, when Buzzeo failed to secure venture capital, said John Morton, provost of Kapiolani Community College.

In July 1998, Buzzeo laid off seven of its eight Hawaii employees, shut down its Kapiolani office, and shifted operations back to Arizona.

"I think they ran out of money," said Joe Blanco, Gov. Ben Cayetano's executive assistant and technology adviser, who formerly served on the University's Board of Regents when the board approved Buzzeo's contract.

In 1999, the company secured new financing from three private sources, which is why it is delivering the system now, Morton said. Buzzeo currently has 120 employees, headquartered in Scottsdale, with a three-person office in New Jersey. It also has contracts with other universities.

Over the next two to three months, Buzzeo will have students test UH's new financial aid management component, which should be released by May.

Morton noted there is no firm date for delivery and testing of the entire system.

If Buzzeo ultimately fails to provide the system, the contract allows the university to take over any computer code that was developed, Morton said.

The university wants to avoid that, however, and is now putting its own resources into developing the massive system along with Buzzeo, Morton said. "We're working real close with them to help them succeed."

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University of Hawaii