626 Part IV • The Information Management System
were losing their jobs, and in Indianapolis, people
were struggling to keep their jobs. Body language
was everything. If you couldn’t see people, you
didn’t know what was going on. Videoconferencing
also helped us create the impression of a big group
working together toward a common goal.
—John Bennett, Project Manager for Data Center
RelocationDuring this time, the typical workday was 12 hours
long. Since weekends afforded some downtime for execut-
ing a move element, there were many weekends when IT
people couldn’t go home. A command center was set up in
the Indianapolis office every weekend to help monitor
move activities; full command centers were set up for the
three most critical weekend moves in mid-March, mid-
April, and mid-May.
On the weekends with very large numbers of move
elements, complicated moves, or very integrated
move elements, we created move control books that
listed everything that would be moving, implementa-
tion plans, vendor information, contingency plans,
risks, disaster-recovery plans, and the possible impact
to the business if a move failed. We manned the
PMO communications center with team members,
PMO members, vendors, and specific key contacts
related to the implementation.
—Cheri E. Dayton, Senior Manager, Guarantee
Systems DevelopmentWe took every opportunity for community building.
On those long weekends we set up games for them to
play. About once a week, we held informal lunch-
eons to recognize successes along the way. We had
an open budget on food: it was delivered around the
clock every day. You can’t take too good care of your
people, and you can’t communicate too much.
—Allan Horn, Vice President, Technology
OperationsThe movement of the Reston mainframe operations
for the loan-servicing application was studied the most.
Timings were made for truck hauls between Reston and
Indianapolis, including loading and unloading times. The
T-1 lines would allow the company to revert back to opera-
tions in Reston if a glitch in Indianapolis precluded
running the loan-servicing system from its new location.
The mainframe move was scheduled to take place over
a weekend in mid-May. A full command center was in place,
and about a dozen representatives from hardware and
software vendors were required to be on site for the weekend.
In addition, all vendors were required to have plans in place
to provide immediate access to other people and resources
should there be a problem with their equipment or software.
The team members were on location round the clock.The technical part of that weekend was challenging,
but it wasn’t the hardest part. The political and busi-
ness ramifications of that move were huge. The
mainframe is the lifeblood of the company. The call
centers use it every minute of every day. It was the
most critical part of the entire move.
—John Bennett, Project Manager for Data Center
RelocationYou have to tell yourself that you can be the first
ones to do it, that you’re not an average company and
can find a way to succeed. That can-do attitude is
critical to success.
—Hamed Omar, Senior Vice President,
Technology GroupBefore the mainframe switch was flipped, John
Bennett pulled the team together for a go/no-go decision at
2 a.m. Sunday morning.I got a lot of flack for having a meeting at that time
of morning: people wanted to know why it couldn’t
wait until 7 a.m. We couldn’t wait that long to know
if there was a problem. We had duplicated enough
tapes so that we could start installing manually in
Reston, and a corporate Learjet was waiting to fly
the other tapes back to Reston. We never used this
backup, but it was good to know it was there. We
had spent a lot of time working to make sure the
mainframe move went smoothly, and it went grand.
—John Bennett, Project Manager for Data Center
RelocationA month before the Reston data center move was
even completed [the IT consultant firm that lost the
contract] knew we would be successful. They told us
that they planned to come up with a “FastTrack”
method for mergers based on what they had learned
through the engagement.
—Greg Clancy, Chief Information OfficerThe Challenges Ahead
The new IT group at Sallie Mae would soon be tested dur-
ing peak lending season: not only would the transaction