PC WEEK quotes BMY CIO on Y2K!:
1998: D-Day for Y2K
Year 2000 leads CIO action list; lack of skilled pros is 2nd
As CIOs kick off 1998, there's one issue that is bound to have them showing up at the office early and going home late. Here's a clue: tick ... tick ... tick ...
"The year 2000 conversion is certainly the No. 1 bell ringer for most CIOs in 1998," said John Stevenson, CIO of the Worldwide Medicines group at Bristol-Myers Squibb Inc., in Princeton, N.J. "It's going to keep a lot of people awake nights."
Solving it will cause a profound ripple effect throughout most IT shops, robbing funds from new development projects, soaking up an already thin IT talent pool, and refocusing the spotlight on the value and role of IT in the enterprise.
Some CIOs already have a handle on the year 2000. For example, at Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association), in Washington, CIO Bill Kelvie expects year 2000 conversion testing to be completed by the end of this year. But according to Howard Rubin, an IT professor at Hunter College, in New York, only one in two organizations has established a high-level direction for tackling year 2000 conversions, and only one in eight has a full program in place. In California, Gov. Pete Wilson ordered state agencies to defer new projects until they start year 2000 projects. As a result, state CIO John Flynn axed $260 million in new projects for 1998.
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