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Text: Y2K Assistance for Small Business Expanded (NIST to offer around-the-clock help) (470)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced December 1 that it will provide around-the-clock technological support for small businesses coping with Y2K problems during the New Year's period.

NIST is currently offering technical assistance and problem-solving advice to small businesses 12 hours a day. The 24-hour-a-day service will begin December 29 and last through January 7, 2000.

Following is the text of the NIST press release:

(begin text)

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

NIST-MEP Help Center Will Offer Around-the-Clock Y2K Help to Small Businesses

Dec. 1, 1999

The Y2K Help Center for Small Business will be open 24 hours a day starting on Dec. 30, 1999, through Jan. 7, 2000, to offer free Y2K assistance to small businesses during the year 2000 date change.

The Y2K Help Center can be reached at (800)Y2K-7557 (925-7557) or y2khelp@nist.gov. Until Dec. 29, the Y2K Help Center's hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. The Y2K Help Center is managed by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a program of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A wide variety of free information and tools to help small business owners plan for or recover from a Y2K problem are available by calling the center or by downloading from the center's web site at www.y2khelp.nist.gov.

One of the tools on the web site is free software, called the Rapid Response Management Tool, to help a small business that does experience a Y2K problem control damage and quickly initiate a recovery process. An accompanying sourcebook contains information on Y2K problems and fixes for hardware, software and embedded systems that are commonly used in small businesses and manufacturing facilities.

NIST's MEP is a nationwide network of manufacturing extension centers providing a wide array of business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to manufacturing and business advisers whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits and enhanced global competitiveness.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST strengthens the U.S. economy and improves the quality of life by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards through four partnerships: the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Measurement and Standards Laboratories, the Advanced Technology Program, and the Baldrige National Quality Program.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 03, 1999

Answers

"starting on Dec. 30, 1999"

Bizness: "I think we're screwed!"

NIST: "Er, yup. Too bad."

Leaving it little late...

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), December 03, 1999.