In September 1992, a team was set up to develop phase I of the Multinational system using a classic prototyping approach (00239, 00367) with delivery in May 1993 (00414). This phase was to concentrate on underwriting and claims for UK, USA and Holland. Phase II was to include accounting functions (00232). Phase I of the Multinational system was developed using Sybase and Powerbuilder (00242) on PCs running Windows 3.1 and Novell networking (00273). On 18 September 1992 the prototyping workshops started (00091) and occurred once every week or fortnight (00268) in London and sometimes Essex (00980). Initially the workshops started by brainstorming (00256) but moved on to looking at the operation of each screen using Powerbuilder (00256, 00497).1992 Oct-Dec
During the development of Phase I (September 1992 - May 1993) a WAN was developed consisting of linked LANs in London, Essex (2), North of England, Holland, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (00806, 00279). Two email systems, compatible with local standards, were installed (00278).1993 Jan-Mar
At the end of 1992 and beginning of 1993 the underwriters were asked to test the system (00699, 00458) but this was not done thoroughly. The prototyping workshops finished in February 1993 apart from one or two sessions with Keith and David tying up loose ends (00264).In February 1993 problems were found with reinsurance and the database design. Reinsurance was rewritten taking 2-3 months to complete (00265). They spent three weeks sorting out the database indexes (00269) but recognised that some of the database needed to be reworked. The database problems were reported to the IT Steering Committee who accepted that phase I should be tested and made live knowing that some of it would have to be reworked in phase II (00767).
In April 1993 the network was installed in City of London (00260). During May 1993 Services were trained how to use the new system (00516). On 31 May 1993 the first part of phase I (quotes and clients) went live (00498, 00267). This included other software installed with Windows such as electronic mail. On 18 June 1993, the data was converted from the Q&A into phase I of the Multinational system. For the following two weeks the system was unavailable to Services whilst the system was being checked (00499). At the end of June 1993 (1st July according to Jenny) the rest of phase I was made live (00266, 00267, 00458).
Between July and September 1993, the majority of the time was spent on support of the live system (01041).1993 Oct-Dec
Between October and December 1993, Alan and Ned were working on enhancements to phase I (mainly reports) while phase II was being developed (00567).1994 Jan-Mar
In January 1994, there was a review workshop for version I in London to allow business people to raise issues about current and future releases (00460, 00411) and Gordan spent 3 days doing underwriter refresher training and a management review in the States (00343).
In November 1993 a post implementation review of phase I of the Multinational Project was published by Teddy (00413).
© Clare Tagg 2000