_________________ British May Use Inmates to Fix Y2K __________________
Link: techweb.com
Ah, those Brits! What creative people! Not satisfied with suggesting that
unemployed people on welfare may be able to do the COBOL repair work, the
bureaucats now suggest that prison inmates offer talent.
I'm wondering: Will they be assigned to banks?
The point, of course, is that we're running out of people who can do this work.
Put another way, we can throw more money at the problem, but this will not
increase the supply of qualified mainframe programmers. It will only increase
their salaries. This is the great example of what economists call an inelastic
supply curve.
It's desperation time.
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European IT systems and services group ICL is considering using British
prison inmates to fix computers that will be affected by the year 2000 date
change, it said on Thursday.
An ICL representative confirmed that there are discussions underway with the
British prison service about using computer-qualified British prisoners to help
tackle the year 2000 problem in the U.K. Meetings between ICL and prison
officials are scheduled to take place next week. . . .
ICL has shown how resourceful companies can be when looking for skilled IT
engineers, said a consultant who specializes in year 2000 issues. "While the
idea may seem ludicrous, it actually reflects the fact that in the future we're all
going to be utterly desperate for resources," said Karl Feilder, chief executive officer of London-based year 2000 consultants Greenwich MeanTime.
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note* ConSyGen, Inc. Announces Year 2000 Partner In Europe
biz.yahoo.com
>> PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 22, 1997--ConSyGen Inc. (NASDAQ BB:CSGI - news) announced today that it has signed a Teaming Agreement with Chase Technology plc under which Chase Technology will utilize ConSyGen's fully-automated Year 2000 software conversion services for its clients throughout Europe. Chase Technology is based in London, England, and has offices and subsidiary companies in a number of European Locations. <<
>> Ron Bishop, ConSyGen's President and CEO, stated: ''We are pleased to be able to expand into an entirely new geographic area with the ConSyGen 2000 automated toolset, and we are impressed with both Chase's knowledge of the market in Europe and its ability to generate a range of major Year 2000 correction projects. We are already in discussions with several Chase offices in Europe relating to several large, high-visibility clients. We believe that these discussions should lead to new business in the region.'' << |
