I was having a very heated argument with a polly in a chat room and he mentioned that he worked for Unisys.

So I checked the Unisys site and the very first Y2K announcement on their Home Page reads, "YEAR200 - When the clock strikes midnight on Janury 1, millions of systems won't be ready."

http://www.unisys.com

Gee!

-- Cant Say (NoWay@Chicken.Com), October 20, 1999

Answers

That's a pretty good find there "can't say"...I love the answer to the very last question...

snip

Q: With the deadline looming, what are the most pressing year 2000 issues?

A: Planning for disruptions that may occur from external events beyond the organization's control should be top priority. In addition, management should focus on preserving the organization's reputation and assuring customers and partners that the organization is prepared for the new millennium.

end snip

Don't try to fix it, just focus on convincing everyone that you're ok!

-- Don Wegner (donfmwyo@earthlink.net), October 20, 1999.

Education for interested parties

Unisys Y2K Web Site

 Y2K Endgame: Business Continuity Planning

When the clock strikes midnight January 1, millions of systems won't be ready. If even one of those systems is yours--or one of your partners'--you'll need a plan in place ...

With the new millennium only months away, most organizations have their year 2000 projects well under way, and many are already engaged in final testing of renovated systems. But that doesn't mean every system affected by the year 2000 will have been identified and made ready.

In fact, an estimated 8 million systems will not be fixed in time. And it's very likely one of those systems will belong to your organization- -or to a key supplier, partner or customer. That could have a serious impact on your ability to conduct business.

The solution, say experts, is to invest in business continuity planning. Susan Thomas, director of Unisys year 2000 services, answers commonly asked questions about business continuity planning and preparing for the Y2K end game.

Q: Just what is business continuity planning?

A: Business continuity planning is the process an organization undertakes to protect its critical business operations in the event of an unexpected failure or business disruption. Within the context of year 2000, organizations have to plan for a full range of threats that may disrupt normal operations.

Q: Business continuity planning is required in the financial services industry. Why should other organizations consider it?

A: Although organizations are racing to ensure year 2000 compliance of their technology, they remain vulnerable to disruption due to year 2000 problems. Some things simply will be overlooked or not completed on time. And the risk of failure is not limited to the organization's internal IT systems: Most organizations depend on information, supplies and services from external partners.

Because there are many facets of year 2000 beyond an organization's control, it's most likely a year 2000 disruption will be caused by an external source rather than an internal one. If there's a single weak link in the chain of critical dependencies, even the most successful year 2000 program will fail to protect against major disruption of business operations.

Q: What's the difference between business continuity planning and disaster recovery?

A: Business continuity for year 2000 is quite different from planning for a natural disaster such as a tornado or fire. In a disaster scenario, the focus of the recovery is on moving operations and IT services to an alternate location that replicates the environment. An example would be moving to an offsite or backup data center.

With a year 2000-caused impact, the recovery scenario requires some alternate course of action or corrective measure. For example, if a network device fails because of year 2000, you can't switch to a backup device from the same provider, because it will be susceptible to the same malfunction. You need to find alternate hardware or some other means of working around the failure.

Q: What are the keys to successful business continuity planning?

A: The process begins with a business-impact assessment that examines business processes and ranks their criticality to the business. The next step is to map the dependent technologies, suppliers, interfaces and functions that support those business processes.

Risk assessment determines the likelihood of potential failures and calculates the financial, health and safety consequences in the event a disruption occurs. This information is used to establish priorities and set a course for risk mitigation and management. Then you can construct contingency plans, response plans and recovery plans for each critical area of risk.

Q: With the deadline looming, what are the most pressing year 2000 issues?

A: Planning for disruptions that may occur from external events beyond the organization's control should be top priority. In addition, management should focus on preserving the organization's reputation and assuring customers and partners that the organization is prepared for the new millennium.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), October 20, 1999.

Did I read somewhere that Unisys is the operating brains of the Post Office?

-- April (Alwzapril@home.com), October 20, 1999.