(UPI Focus) Insurance cos asked to disclose Y2K readiness NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (UPI) - Superintendent of Insurance Neil D. Levin has directed insurance companies to make public their Y2K readiness plans. This is the first time that mutual insurers and other nonpublic companies will be disclosing this information to policyholders. Levin says the "disclosure will be in the form of a supplement to the companies annual financial statements that are filed with the department. This supplement, modeled on the Securities and Exchange Commission's guidelines for publicly traded companies, will be due April 1." Insurers are expected to disclose their state of readiness, how much it is costing to address Y2K issues, the risks associated with their Y2K issues and their contingency plans. Superintendent Levin said, "Consumers are concerned about the status of their insurer's preparations for the Year 2000 and how they might be impacted. We have been monitoring insurers Y2K compliance efforts and their contingency plans but having the information provided in a public format makes it easy for policyholders to review." -- Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --

-- Deborah (y2k@y2k.com), February 09, 1999

Answers

USAA SELECTS BEYOND 1999/VALIDATE FOR MULTI-LANGUAGE Y2K CODE VALIDATION ANNOUNCED BY CCD ONLINE SYSTEMS, INC.

44 Million Lines of Code Validated with CCDs Software

ARCADIA, Calif. (Dec. 8, 1998) - CCD Online Systems, Inc., a worldwide provider of Year 2000 (Y2K) remediation and validation software tools and services, today announced it won the contract to provide Year 2000 code validation software to United Services Automobile Association (USAA).

Under the agreement, USAA will employ CCDs Beyond 1999/Validate, a software tool for reviewing already remediated code. Beyond 1999/Validate addresses the pressing demand for Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) of Year 2000 compliance by an organizations customers, business partners and vendors, as a condition of continuing business relationships. An essential step in Best Practices methodology, IV&V demonstrates due diligence in achieving Y2K compliance.

Using Beyond 1999/Validate and CCDs consulting services, USAA will verify Year 2000 compliance of 44 million lines of code in its mainframe enterprise applications, written in a mix of COBOL, PL/1 and FOCUS. The code has already been through a remediation process designed to correct all non-compliant Y2K date statements. Beyond 1999/Validate will provide a fast, accurate and cost-effective means of finding remaining date issues in the already remediated code. (more) We conducted a thorough and comprehensive competitive analysis in our selection process for an IV&V tool that would best meet our needs, commented George McCall, Senior Vice President in charge of the Year 2000 enterprise initiative at USAA. After careful review of vendor offerings we selected Beyond 1999/Validate for this important step in our Year 2000 remediation project.

The multi-language capability of CCDs Beyond 1999/Validate allows USAA to employ one tool for all its enterprise applications, explained Jim McGovern, President and COO of CCD Online Systems, Inc. It was a key criterion in its selection of our product and services. We are proud to be able to help USAA achieve its goal of protecting its business and its three million customers at this critical time.

Beyond 1999/Validate is Thorough, Accurate with Multi-language Capability Beyond 1999/Validate finds remaining date statements in COBOL, PL/I, FOCUS and RPG code after the primary remediation project has been completed. The software, which runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and NT desktop platforms, has a sophisticated analysis engine which finds errors in virtually every case of previously renovated 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 between 100 and 200 date statements per million lines of previously remediated code that was thought to be compliant. This error rate represents a major business risk and a liability issue for directors and officers, who may face legal consequences for failure to perform due diligence.

Beyond 1999/Validate is already being used in the U.S. and around the world by organizations including some of the largest telecommunications, insurance, banking and consulting companies, as well as government agencies. In IV&V projects, CCD consultants are able to use Beyond 1999/Validate to check 100,000 lines of remediated code per person day and identify all non-compliant statements.

(more) About USAA USAA has been serving present and former members of the U.S. military and their families for more than 76 years as one of America's leading insurance and financial services companies. The association, well known for its exceptional customer service, offers its worldwide members and associate members a full range of insurance, banking and investment products and services designed to help them meet their financial security needs. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with offices throughout the United States and Europe, USAA owns or manages assets of more than $50 billion.

About CCD Online Systems CCD Online Systems, Inc., was founded in 1981 by David Lee, a leading authority on mainframe systems and author of six best selling books on enterprise-wide business computing. CCD began helping customers prepare for the Year 2000 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 Y2K compliance. The company's Beyond 1999 toolset, which includes Beyond 1999/Validate and Beyond 1999/Y2K, has been used to remediate and validate more than 200 million lines of code. The company also offers factory services and on-site consulting services for customers that do not have sufficient in-house technical resources.

CCD Online Systems has headquarters in Arcadia, California, near Los Angeles, and has U.S. offices in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Montgomery, Alabama. The company has international offices in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, as well as a Year 2000 factory in Montreal, Canada. More information on products and services is available at www.ccdonline.com.

Just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it's not happening. That only indicates you know nothing by sitting in front of your PC.

Troll Maria

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), February 09, 1999.

Well, Troll Maria, until you posted it, I didn't know about it. Now, having read it, I know about it. Of course, thats why I sit in front of my PC, to learn about stuff like this. (Is this what they call circular reasoning???)

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), February 09, 1999.

Jack, I guess I believe very little I see on the web. My info comes from real world knowledge. I knew about USAA doing Y2K remediation back in 1990 along with the rest of the insurance industry. I posted that fact on another thread and just got flamed for it. It seems that most don't want to know about any other news but the bad news that gets published on the web. It's that kind of closed mindedness that gets to me. Keep on looking.

Troll Maria

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), February 09, 1999.

Validation is excellent!! It does not, however, replace end to end integrated testing, because there are lots of programs out there that do nothing at all with the date, but do use a data segment containing a date, and must therefor be remediated to make sure that the programmer is obtaining the correct bytes in the segment. the redefines will hide the fact that the segment is x bytes longer, and the data may no longer line up with the programmer's expectations.

Chuck, who has NOT lost sight of teh fact that they are READY to VALIDATE, which is GREAT NEWS in FEBRUARY!!!

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 09, 1999.

Italics off

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), February 10, 1999.