Gallatin Attorney Has Dire Y2K Prediction

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/montana/story.html?s=v/rs/19991103/mt/index_1.html#8

Quote:

"Lambert says his request for help two years ago has yet to generate a solution. He says he'll use the computer "until it quits," and then he's out of ideas."

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), November 03, 1999

Answers

Entire article from link:

Gallatin Attorney Has Dire Y2K Prediction - (BOZEMAN) -- A Gallatin County computer program that handles restitution payments for merchants who've been victimized by check fraud is likely to fail on January first. That's according to County Attorney Marty Lambert. The program records any bad check fees collected, which amount to about 30-thousand dollars a year. Lambert says his request for help two years ago has yet to generate a solution. He says he'll use the computer "until it quits," and then he's out of ideas. Commissioner Bill Murdock says the bad check program isn't a "mission-critical system," but he says it is important and will be a priority once other issues are resolved.

This does not seem so terrible - except for those people directly impacted by the apparent likely failure of the software (a relatively small number). Certainly, manual workarounds could quickly be implemented, couldn't they? I would think that 'off the shelf' software exists that could be adapted to this application. Maybe the application needs to merge this data with other department accounting information?

So while it may be 'dire' for Lambert, it does not have widespread implications. But it certainly does beg the question "If everyone is as ready as they say they are, then what are the 'other issues' remaining to be resolved before this situation can be addressed"?

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), November 03, 1999.

This brief article is a reminder that some systems won't be fixed before January because they aren't considered to be "mission critical":

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/montana/story.html?s= v/rs/19991103/mt/index_1.html#8

[snip]

Gallatin Attorney Has Dire Y2K Prediction - (BOZEMAN) -- A Gallatin County computer program that handles restitution payments for merchants who've been victimized by check fraud is likely to fail on January first. That's according to County Attorney Marty Lambert. The program records any bad check fees collected, which amount to about 30-thousand dollars a year. Lambert says his request for help two years ago has yet to generate a solution. He says he'll use the computer "until it quits," and then he's out of ideas. Commissioner Bill Murdock says the bad check program isn't a "mission-critical system," but he says it is important and will be a priority once other issues are resolved.

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 03, 1999.

Arnie,

Looks as if you and I were both posting at the same time!

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 03, 1999.

There seams to be alot of this type of rational of late. Mission- critical defined as only incoming accounts. All other out going accounts as last fix. Gee-wiz, I kinda like that idear. Let me see, next year if Visa, Mastercard and all the rest are successful in getting to me, my bills threw a non-compliant Postal system, I will just simply repley that my computer is down, and please be assured that Im working on it, as soon as I get my system back up I will gladly send out your check. If by some chance, I loose your bill in the next 30 days, because of my in-ability to manually file the same, please feel free to make another attempt to reaching me via the PO., with any luck my computer will be running by then, and that assumes I havent lost any of your data, in which case I would have to request some hard copy verification from you, that my or my-not be acceptable to our computer verification system. Rest assure you are important to me, and together we shall over-come these challenges...---...

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), November 03, 1999.

I live in Gallatin County, MT. Here's the scoop:

The county commissioners are firmly head-in-the-sand DGI's. Their big shock came earlier this year when a) the entire county IT staff left for higher paying private sector jobs and b) they found out that the county treasurer realy realy wasn't kidding when he said that the county's custom property tax system was Y2K DOA.

They've been scrambling to get that system replaced, as it is no kidding mission critical to producing the cash for commissioner's paychecks. The tax statements are 'only' 2-3 weeks late, and likely the Nov 30 deadline for us taxpayers to pay up will be slipped by many.

Meanwhile, our local state university has replaced it's financial software, and is causing extreme ire among local vendors because the U can't pay it's bills anywhere near on time.

The state government replaced its main financial system with a peoplesoft system that is still strongly hosed. Payroll is a nightmare for every department, and hidden training costs are now being laid out for legislators.

That's my report from my little corner of the Big Sky.

-- brady (brady@docuscribe.com), November 03, 1999.

In the world of "death by a thousand cuts", we call that a cut.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), November 04, 1999.

"Delays in processing" could severe personal financial arteries. I recently paid off a large "Discover Card" bill in full. Had a certified mail receipt sign to document date of receipt. It took them a month to deposit it due to a "backlog of payments." In the meantime, they kept charging me interest. Now they refuse to remove this large interest charge caused by their inefficiency. Multiply this by many such providers next year. We need emergency legislation NOW to protect the consumer.

-- anon (anon@anon.calm), November 04, 1999.