C.S.Y2K 27 - 29 Jan 1998: AS/400; job market; interesting links
_____________ Larry Shove; 1/29/1998
'FYI...
IBM CALLS EVERY CUSTOMER FOR Y2K READINESS If you haven't already received a phone call from IBM probing your Year 2000 strategy, you soon will. With a goal of contacting every single AS/400 customer worldwide by the end of this quarter, IBM is compiling an unprecedented picture of the AS/400 market's Year 2000 readiness. It's not a pretty picture.
"We're finding that the vast majority of AS/400 customers are aware of the Year 2000 issue -- they just haven't taken any action on it," reports Jim Kelly, head of Year 2000 for the Small and Medium Business Division. Kelly reports a variety of reasons for the delay, including confusion about what should be done and the higher priority of daily business pressures. "We're trying to clear away misinformation and misconceptions," he says, "and get them focused on a plan of action."
One hurdle in the AS/400 market's preparation for the new millennium is the number of users still on back releases of OS/400, some as far back as V2R1. That's some distance behind the releases IBM markets as Year 2000-ready: V3R2, V3R7, V4R1, and (soon) V4R2. IBM won't say how many customers are left behind, but most analysts agree that a significant portion of the AS/400 market still lags well behind current releases.
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Maybe a good time to buy IBM shares? '
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Jim Martin:
'FROM.....
************************************************************ Edupage, 27 January 1998. Edupage, a summary of news about information technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom, a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities seeking to transform education through the use of information technology. ************************************************************
IT WORKER DEFICIT WORSENS
The Information Technology Association of America says the gap between the number of vacant positions for computer programmers, systems analysts and computer scientists and engineers and the number of qualified workers has widened to a 10% shortfall -- 346,000 jobs are currently unfilled. "The problem has been getting much, much worse over the last year," says the CIO at CompUSA in Dallas. "It's harder to find people, and when you get them, they stay for much shorter periods." ITAA's president says companies must consider hiring graduates with other academic qualifications or certified skills in specific technologies. "The industry can't step back and say, 'we depend on our universities to solve the problem.' That's not working now, and it's not going to work in the future."
(Information Week 19 Jan 98) -- Jim Martin '
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Some interesting links found by Chris Anderson:
'AREA: Opinion TITLE: The Hidden Sides(s) of Y2k COMMENT: PC Magazine February 1998 URL: zdnet.com
AREA: Euro TITLE: Emu-Net URL: euro-emu.co.uk
AREA: Contingency Planning TITLE: Contingency Planning erols.com
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