Pardon my interjection here. I'd like to throw an issue at you. FYI, I'm currently long TAVA, but strictly as a momentum play. I doubt I'll be holding this stock this time next month. I don't fall in love with my stocks.
I'm doing Y2K evaluation and remediation for a small piece of a "major airline". I'd seriously like to know how to turn the evaluation and remediation of 250,000 lines of custom-written mixed-language code, JCL, several diverse data sources and other procedures into a simple maintenance issue. These systems interrelate and exchange data with many, many other systems that will also require remediation. In many, many cases, these systems are currently exchanging 2-byte years in the data.
There's just too much existing code and interrelated hardware and system dependencies that someone is going to have to look at, and there just aren't enough someones to go around. Plus, somebody has to write the "bridges" between the date-exchanging systems, since not all the systems will magically be upgraded instantaneously. We also have to keep the planes fueled up and full of peanuts and stale food, not to mention meeting the time-sensitive regulatory requirements of the FAA.
Warm bodies are very expensive nowadays, and we just can't seem to hire enough bodies that have smarts to do the job without all that annoying and time-consuming training and orientation. Remediation firms, such as ALYD and TAVA are really good at spotting possible Y2K "boo-boos" in the code and data, but they don't know the business process and "motivations" behind the systems. So, we outsource the "data mapping" process and some of the brain-dead remedation to specialty firms. That's how such firms are making a mint off of us. Our needs for outsourcing are increasing as we get further into the process.
That still leaves a bunch of code (like my 250,000 lines) that somebody is going to have to eyeball, not to mention the supporting databases and inter-system dependencies. We also have to test (and repair) the supposedly-remediated code that the specialty firms have sent back to us. Rarely is it 100% perfect. It's that final 1% that seems to take two-thirds of the effort. It's not a real brain-racking process, but it does take time and effort to make it happen.
Is there a simple solution that doesn't involve outsourcing?
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