CCD Online Systems Inc. Challenges Companies and Organizations to Year 2000 Preparedness Test

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CCD Online Systems Inc. Challenges Companies and Organizations to Year 2000 Preparedness Test

Source: BUSINESS WIRE

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1999--

Leading Year 2000 Vendor Warns of Significant Unknown Y2K Errors and

Agrees to Contribute $50,000 for Y2K Compliance

In an effort to demonstrate that even the world's largest U.S. organizations are not yet ready for Year 2000, CCD Online Systems Inc. (CCD) announced that it is challenging several organizations that are industry leaders to verify their program code for Y2K statement errors free of charge.

As part of the unique program, CCD -- a worldwide provider of de facto industry-standard, Y2K-compliant software solutions -- will offer a donation of $50,000 for computer education to the local school or school district of each organization challenged if CCD fails to find at least 50 significant non-Y2K-compliant date statements per each 1 million lines of code inspected. The organizations are:

-- Internal Revenue Service -- Bell South Corp. -- United Way of America -- Pacific Gas and Electric Corp. -- Merck & Co. -- Salomon Smith Barney -- State Farm Insurance Co. -- [International Business

Machines Cor]p. -- Chase Manhattan Bank -- United Parcel Service -- [Ford Motor Co.] -- [Humana Inc.] -- [Time-Warner Inc.] -- Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

CCD selected these prominent and highly regarded organizations for the challenge because CCD believes they are among the best prepared organizations in the world for Y2K problems. The challenge aims to demonstrate that even organizations of this caliber are still at risk.

"Our goal in the final months before the new century date change is to help organizations identify and correct potentially fatal Y2K errors," said Jim McGovern, president and COO of CCD (see following resume). "Recent analyst findings and our own in-house reports show that most organizations have a false sense of security about the possibility of business interruptions due to Y2K-related outages.

"People have taken too much comfort in the fact that the `9/9/99 bug' proved relatively uneventful. Nonetheless, it is very clear to us that there will be significant problems on and after January 1, 2000. It is critical that this message be heeded. If Y2K errors are known to exist, the operational disruption can be managed.

"Our software solution should be used as an essential part of an organization's contingency planning activities; it should also be used so that senior management receives a truly independent assessment of their Y2K status while there is still time to modify, if necessary, the existing contingency plan. We want to ensure that organizations are ready."

Experts Say Most Companies Will Not Be Ready for Y2K

The Year 2000 Experts Poll(a), a recent study of chief information officers at approximately 1,000 global firms, reports that 81 percent of companies have not completed the remediation of their Y2K problem. The study also notes that 40 percent of the executives and managers involved in Y2K projects believe that between 1 and 10 percent of their "mission-critical" systems could fail.

"Despite diligent efforts on the part of Y2K project teams, and the staggering expenditure of time and money, an unacceptable number of errors still remain hidden in purportedly Y2K-compliant source code. To make matters worse, most Y2K teams are unaware of the presence of significant undetected errors," said McGovern. "Our company has yet to conduct a sample verification with our software product, Beyond 1999/Validate(TM), for a Fortune 1000 company whose code is 100 percent Y2K compliant."

In addition to the Year 2000 Experts Poll, Gartner Group, a leading industry authority on Y2K-compliance efforts, indicates in its recent Year 2000 World Status report(b) that failures in 2000 will be due to businesses running defective and inadequately tested code, among other problems. The report further estimates that 5 to 9 percent of defective lines of code will remain after remediation and testing have been completed.

Beyond 1999/Validate(TM) -- Protection Against Y2K Business Failures and Lawsuits

In addition to business failures caused by Y2K program errors, corporate executives must also be prepared to handle Y2K lawsuits. Y2K has received more early warnings and widespread public awareness than any other issue. As a result, if companies become embroiled in Y2K litigation, senior management should be aware that the "standard of managerial care" will be very high.

Thus, companies and their senior management need to be prepared to provide documentation that demonstrates they followed recognized industry standards to avoid these Y2K suits. "The use of our industry- standard software solution as a final management risk-reduction tool will enhance an organization's assertion that it used every reasonable means of averting a Y2K problem," said McGovern.

"Beyond 1999/Validate, CCD's automated IV&V tool, uncovers numerous remaining undetected date statement errors in COBOL and PL/I code even after senior management has been advised that the Y2K project is certified compliant," said McGovern.

Beyond 1999/Validate, which runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98 and NT desktop platforms, has a sophisticated analysis engine, which has found errors in virtually every case of previously remediated, validated and tested code, regardless of whether the client has used a manual approach, a software tool or both.

In tests with customers, Beyond 1999/Validate typically identifies significant non-Y2K date statements in previously corrected code that was thought to be compliant. Beyond 1999/Validate also provides complete audit trails, providing companies with the documentation demonstrating that it followed accepted or recognized "Business Practices."

The product has been used by some of the world's largest financial institutions, insurance, health care, telecommunications and aerospace companies, as well as several federal agencies.

"Perhaps the most important tool that SSA has purchased (for Y2K) is Beyond 1999/Validate from CCD Online Systems Inc.," said Kathy Adams, former Y2K project manager for the Social Security Administration, and chairperson for the entire Federal government's Y2K Inter-agency Council. "Software does not remain static in 1999 once it is remediated and certified. Beyond 1999/Validate allows us to examine all the pieces of certified software to pick out those we suspect might have been contaminated by reintroduced date defects."(c)

Beyond 1999/Validate is currently available as an easy-to-use tool for in-house staff members or by a certified CCD consultant who will perform the work off-site in CCD's facility in Canada.

The CCD Challenge

CCD is challenging select organizations to have at least 200,000 lines of their COBOL or PL/I program code verified for Y2K statement errors by CCD free of charge. If CCD fails to find at least 50 errors per 1 million lines of code, CCD will donate $50,000 to the organization's choice of a local school or school district for computer education. This challenge will remain in effect through Dec. 30, 1999.

To find out more information about the CCD Challenge and to arrange an assessment, companies may call 800/328-6755.

About CCD Online Systems

CCD Online Systems was founded in 1981 by David Lee, a leading authority on mainframe systems and author of five best-selling books on enterprisewide business computing. CCD began helping customers prepare for the Y2K date change by providing comprehensive tools and services for legacy systems.

Today the company offers advanced technology for enhancing and validating the successful completion of large-scale maintenance projects. The company's Y2K toolset includes Beyond 1999/Validate, Beyond 1999/Y2K(TM) and RiskCheck(TM). The company also offers factory services and on-site consulting services for customers who require additional technical resources.

CCD Online Systems has headquarters in Arcadia, Calif., near Los Angeles, and has U.S. offices in New York City; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Denver; San Francisco; Philadelphia; and Salt Lake City. The company has international offices in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Toronto, as well as a factory services facility in Montreal, Canada. More information on products and services is available at www.ccdonline.com.

(a) Year 2000 Experts Poll, CIO Magazine, Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and Dr. Ed Yardini's Year 2000 Center, Sept. 30, 1999.

(b) Year 2000 World Status, 2Q99: The Final Countdown, Gartner Group, Aug. 17, 1999.

(c) Brian Robinson, "Y2K Fixes Put to the Test," Federal Computer Week, Jan. 11, 1999, pp. 29-30.

Note to Editors: Beyond 1999/Validate, Beyond 1999/Y2K and RiskCheck are trademarks or registered trademarks of CCD Online Systems Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Statements made herein are subject to the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act (Public Law 105-271, 112 Stat. 2386). In the case of a dispute, this Act may reduce your legal rights regarding the use of any such statements, unless otherwise specified by contract or tariff. CCD Online Systems Inc. reserves the right to change or modify any information contained herein without notice.

McGovern has extensive and varied experiences in both government and private industry, as a business executive of high technology companies, as a senior government official, as a corporate finance attorney and as a military fighter pilot. McGovern earned a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy and Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law School.

McGovern joined CCD Online Systems as president and COO on Jan. 1, 1998. CCD is located in Arcadia. The company provides software products and services related to the design, implementation, test and documentation of mainframe application software.

Among its other products and services, CCD provides customized solutions for Year 2000 and software maintenance products to some of the largest domestic and international health care, telecommunications, financial services, insurance and aerospace companies and federal agencies in the world.

CCD has offices in five locations in the United States, a professional services center in Montreal and international sales offices in Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany.

For the previous seven years, McGovern was president of Teledyne Brown Engineering ("TBE"), a high technology systems integration company. TBE has a broad portfolio of systems integration, systems engineering, software applications and manufacturing businesses with approximately 3,500 professionals located in 17 sites in the United States, Europe and Asia. TBE's customers included a full range of both domestic and foreign government, medical, environmental, utility and other industrial entities.

From 1986 to 1989, McGovern was under secretary and acting secretary of the United States Air Force with direct responsibility for all worldwide activities of its 1 million civilian and military personnel and its nearly $100 billion budget.

Prior to that, McGovern was general counsel and staff director of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

Prior to that, McGovern was an attorney practicing corporate finance at a large Washington, D.C. law firm.

McGovern also was an active duty Navy and later Marine reserve fighter pilot and has accumulated more than 2,000 hours in supersonic aircraft and nearly 250 aircraft carrier landings.

Publication date: Nov 02, 1999 ) 1999, NewsReal, Inc.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus54&counting.down), November 07, 1999

Answers

"Despite diligent efforts on the part of Y2K project teams, and the staggering expenditure of time and money, an unacceptable number of errors still remain hidden in purportedly Y2K-compliant source code. To make matters worse, most Y2K teams are unaware of the presence of significant undetected errors," said McGovern. "Our company has yet to conduct a sample verification with our software product, Beyond 1999/Validate(TM), for a Fortune 1000 company whose code is 100 percent Y2K compliant."

-- lurker (worrying@somewhere.nex), November 08, 1999.


formatting off

-- mr fixit (x@x.x), November 08, 1999.

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