Millennium Bug May Prove Fatal Without Immediate Change in Y2k Strategy

NEW JERSEY (BUSINESS WIRE) - An eleventh-hour change in Y2K strategy is urgently needed for some companies, say Y2K experts. Tamara Orbegozo, CEO of Year 2000 Specialists, states, "When you step back and see the missed deadlines and the amount of work still to be done before January 1st, For example, PSE&G, the largest power utility in New Jersey, had only 15% of their systems repaired as of the end of December, and it took them a year to do that. At this rate, their systems won't be compliant until 2004. A change in approach is absolutely necessary for companies, governments, and it becomes immediately evident that a radical change in strategy is necessary. agencies finding themselves in this position."

Orbegozo goes on to say that many companies are in denial. "They can't believe that with all the time invested, the manpower expended, and the finances consumed, that they are not going to be ready by January 1st. Despite mounting evidence of impending failure, they are holding fast to their original course of action."

Full steam ahead! - Andy

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 12, 1999

Answers

Dam Andy, I thought I was the only guy who stayed up this late through the week to read this forum!

-- Eggbert (jhrfjh@fd.com), February 12, 1999.

Nah Eggbert - I'm bored - I'm starting three 12 hour night shifts tomorrow so this is my "afternoon" :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 12, 1999.

Some worthwhile reading. Harlan describes some of these same problems.

Harlan Smith updates his Y2K expectations

*snip*

OK, I think I'm ready to input to http://www.russkelly.com/experts.html and http://www.russkelly.com/statements.html#Smith

Regarding your request for a new ranking from me (Ranking of problem ranges from 0 for absolutely no concern, to 10 for a belief that the problem is so serious that major worldwide social, economic, and technological disruptions will occur.) ...

I am now more concerned about the outcome of Y2K than I was in December. Therefore, I change my rating from 8.0 to 8.2 for reasons I will explain......

*endsnip*

For those of you unfamiliar wth Mr. Smith , he is a very serious player.

BTW, Andy - I really enjoy your posts. Thanks. I am only a lowly Access/VB guy, not worthy to share a cubical with you. (But then, this is my third career ;-) )

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), February 12, 1999.

Hey Lewis,

Thanks for the links...BTW my rabbit hutch is so small that there wouldn't be room for you!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 12, 1999.

Thanks Lewis.

I especially focused on Harlan's comments after reading all the others. -- Diane

... "I am particularly disappointed by the ineffectiveness of the grass roots "community preparation" groups. They should be leveraging their effort by thoroughly educating themselves on what business and government organizations should be doing and then personally sitting down with these groups and educating them on what public expectations are for their efforts. A guide for determining what they should be doing can be found at www.wam.umd.edu/~atlee/y2k/hsmith-eval- plan.html." ...

"A case in point is the solution offered on Westergaard by a community preparation expert to the problem that school districts are lagging badly with their remediation efforts. His solution was to revert to "home schooling". Never mind that most parents are not capable of executing an adequate home schooling program nor do families with two working parents have the time to do home schooling. The good possibility of "outsourcing" to meet the computational needs of school systems that the UK is proposing to save small businesses was not even considered."

"Rapid evolution of computing resources makes the possibility of "outsourcing" as a global stopgap fix more and more feasible. For example, IBM has announced immense hardware and software performance increases in its latest AS/400e Internet Accessible mid-range computers http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/ news0,4153,388831,00.html. An intense effort structured around such hardware/software entities and remote access via Internet could satisfy the computing needs of huge numbers of school districts and small businesses within the 10 months remaining and likely would put them on a route to a long term cost-effective substitute for their currently-used inefficient individual systems."

"Community preparation groups seem to be too obsessed with pushing us back to an agrarian age and too little concerned with picking the best solutions to problems from a large number of alternatives. In following these obsessions they leave no remaining time or energy to check up on a host of other issues that may even be more critical, such as the above-mentioned high impact items -- our very lengthy oil supply chains and the integrity and safety of chemical plants and hazardous waste sites."

"The increase in concern from a ranking of 8.0 to 8.2 is fully justified, based on how poorly informed and poorly led our general population and available resources seem to be. We need comprehensive information (not propaganda) and thoughtful active leadership (not mindless muddling). We desperately need to turn the heat up on risk assessment, innovation and thoughtful consideration of alternatives. It is time to get out of this rut that leads nowhere but over the edge of the cliff."

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 15, 1999.

Thanks Andy. Do you have a link for your article of Business wire? I trust you, but I need original sources to print them and pass them around.

Thank you too Lewis.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 16, 1999.

I'm afraid not Chris, I got the source from a csy2k discussion a few days ago, I would try a search on Dogpile - it's a very good search engine, gives you hits from a lot of sub-engines :)

Good luck!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 16, 1999.