LARGE Corporation 1/3 way through fix.

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I work for a LARGE corporation that employes a LARGE number of employees. Here is some information I was able to find out.

(1) They started upgrading to new systems a couple of years ago to build their wigets not because of Y2K but because their system were antiquated and needed to be changed. This is an enoumous and expensive job (millions of dollars), lots of coordinating with various departments, top people assigned to projects. Just happened these systems are Y2K compliant...but....because of enormous amounts of money being spent, stock going down, financial considerations, further changes are now put on hold, people being transferred back to old jobs. A person I talked to said some people are still in deniel, one of the arguements to keep this program going full steam ahead was Y2K compliance.

I know a computer specialist on one of the Y2K teams, who stated because of these systems changes they didn't know at what point to convert their code because they didn't want to convert code if new sytems were up and running. Guess they now know were they need to start.

(2) Saw inventory list of all equipment, software, hardware; hundreds of pages. Assessment done. Found out where they were at. I would say 1/3 is fixed (verified by either testing or vendor certification. By the way, project started 6 months ago. 1/3 unknown. 1/3 not fixed. When project started said would be done by end 1998.

One of company's biggest concerns is about thousands of vendors....

Heard company can be self sufficient for two weeks..backup power, etc.

-- nameless (name.less@wonderland.com), December 17, 1998

Answers

Two weeks using backup power? Impressive. Most military bases can't say that much.

Think though, as you indicated, how long they can go without venders. Without accurate payroll, accounting, inventory management, tax payments, and billing software 100% effective and 100% credible. There would be no way to track that much money going throught he company by hand if people start doubting the system, or doubting that thay would get paid.

Please keep us up to date on progress. Your company will predict the progress of probably half the economy.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 17, 1998.


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