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Company: Applera Corp., a $1.8-billion life sciences company (the parent of Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics) in Foster City, Calif.
Business: Creating kits and applications for testing of human DNA for forensic and disease identification purposes
CIO: Tama Olver
IT Project: Conversion from IBM Regatta to Linux server for a data center that is used for bioinformatics
Time frame: Six months
Completed: June 2005
Success factor: Oversight by a project management office (PMO) ensured an on-time migration despite initial staff resistance to having a nontechnical person -- a senior project manager -- in charge of the project.
Quote: "There was a fear that as we grew [and instituted mechanisms like a PMO], we would become bureaucratic. But in fact, it was a win-win all the way around. When things get rough and people are working at cross-purposes, the project manager gets people back on track," says Olver.
Lauren Horwitz, former managing editor, production, for CIO Decisions, is now managing editor for TechTarget's Data Center Media Group. Write to her at lhorwitz@techtarget.com.
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