It's into the home stretch for Y2K compliance

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December 3, 1999 Source: Ziff-Davis Publishing

It's into the home stretch for Y2K compliance

PC Week via NewsEdge Corporation : Don't panic, but there are just 29 days left to become Y2K compliant -- and the upcoming holidays could whittle that down even further.

Year 2000 compliance is generally not an issue now for large enterprises, but many small and midsize businesses are still working on it, even at this late date.

"Some companies are in an absolute rush mode," said Larry Leffler, president of Innovative Computer Concepts Inc., a technology services provider in San Diego that helps small and medium-size businesses become Y2K compliant.

Leffler's company is helping one client, a bank, update its 13-year-old financial software. "It's a short-term fix so they're up and running on January 1, but this software is not the way for this company to go in the future," he said.

In other words, short-term Y2K Band-Aids aren't necessarily good or practical for how companies conduct business in the long term, and Leffler said this has been a source of confusion within companies throughout the fourth quarter.

Why wait until now?

Replacing or updating older, customized software and confusion about future business direction are just two reasons why companies have either delayed or had a difficult time becoming Y2K compliant. But the biggest reasons, say Y2K solution providers, are budget and lack of education.

"Quite a few businesses have chosen to ignore Y2K compliance because of the cost to upgrade or replace existing hardware and software," said Rick Bassett, president of Bassett Computer Systems Inc. in North Haven, Conn.

Media scare tactics and "a lot of misunderstanding" also contribute to dismissing the importance of Y2K compliance, according to Bobbi Enseki, president of Sociable Technology Inc., a designer and builder of network systems in Brady, Texas.

"A lack of understanding breeds a certain amount of distrust," Enseki said. "People may be stockpiling food and other resources because they don't trust what they read in the media. People tend to be skeptical of what is considered to be accepted fact, so they take the necessary precautions, tend to be pragmatic and don't take anything as a given."

Companies that employ more than one Y2K consultant face yet another obstacle to becoming compliant because they're getting varying opinions on how to do it, Leffler added.

So what steps can small and midsize businesses take to become Y2K compliant? They can start by checking whether compliance services are covered in PC service agreements, researching their hardware and software vendors' Web sites, and contacting the stores where they bought their hardware and software.

Businesses also can buy software designed to check for compliance or hire a Y2K solutions company to become compliant.

In addition to individual vendor Web sites, more Y2K compliance literature is available at www.zdnet.com/enterprise/zdy2k.

Now get cracking.

-- Brooklyn (MSIS@cyberdude.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

Yes.

By all means. It could, indeed, be time to start.

Let's not let things go until the last minute.

-- mushroom (mushroom_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.


28 days.

Y2K CANNOT BE FIXED!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), December 03, 1999.

Looks like "and a year for testing" is down to "and a week for testing" for some.

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.


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