Hello, Cheryl. I hope your parents' anniversary celebration was a great success. I have a couple interesting pieces of information to share regarding remediation of embedded systems on the factory floor. The first is that on 7-31-97, Glaxo Wellcome (the pharmaceutical manufacturer) entered into a supply agreement with Catalytica Pharmaceuticals, which Catalytica filed as a material contract exhibit to its Form 10-Q on August 15th. I quote, below, Sections 15.4(c)(i) and (ii):
"(i) Supplier will use reasonable efforts to ensure that there will be no failure or production of erroneous results as a result of the inability to receive, store, process or output date information regardless of the date or dates utilized, including without limitation related to the change of the century in any computer software, computer hardware, automation systems and devices owned, licensed or used by Supplier or any suppliers of Supplier (collectively, the "Computing Devices") that would result in either: (a) the inability of Supplier to manufacture and supply Products and supporting documentation and information under this Agreement, or (b) the failure of defined system interfaces and connections between Supplier and GWI systems (each, a "Failure").
(ii) Supplier will use reasonable efforts to perform within six (6) months after the Effective Time such additional testing and assessment of the Computing Devices not being replaced by Supplier necessary to determine whether any such Computing Devices may have a Failure as described in Section 15.4(c)(i), above. Supllier will also, within ninety (90) days after the Effective Time, prepare a preliminary written plan of action to ensure that the Computing Devices will not be the subject of a Failure (the "Millennium Compliance Plan"). To the extent reasonably necessary to ensure Supplier's compliance with Section 15.4(c)(i) above, Supplier will also, within six (6) months after the Effective Time, contact and use reasonable efforts to determine whether suppliers of goods or services to Supplier, including without limitation suppliers of computer software, computer hardware, automation systems and devices, will warrant that each of the Computing Devices owned, licensed or sued by such supplier will not be the subject of Failures. Supplier will inform GWI in writing of all such suppliers who will not make such warranties."
I'm afraid I obtained this through a Lexis/Nexis Eclipse search, rather than EDGAR, so I have no link to cite, but I think the information above should be enough to let people track it down for themselves, if they wish.
The second piece of information that I'd like to pass along is that Unisys is evidently doing some of the same factory floor remediation as TOPRO, but as a corrolary to the information systems remediation work it's doing, and is having the worked perfomed by small engineering firms that it subcontracts with for particular contracts. I view this information as confirmation of the validity, value and need for the services that TOPRO is offering in the Y2K arena, not as undercutting them in any way.
Last, thank you, Michal, for transforming the two links I cited in my post last week into functioning links. I'm glad you thought the information I contributed was worth the effort. I'd also like to thank you, Skipard, Tokyo Mex and Cheryl (of course) for all the helpful information that you all have gathered and posted, together with your insightful comments, on this thread, the Topro thread, and many of the other Year 2000 threads. I also hope you will pay no mind in the future to impolite or uninformed comments (it's hard to do, I know, but life is too short and there are too many of us who wholeheartedly appreciate your contributions). |
