BE BUG-FREE OR GET SQUASHED: Big companies may soon dump suppliers that aren't Y2K-ready BUSINESS WEEK - March 1, 1999
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Golden Plains and thousands of other small businesses are getting a dire ultimatum from the big corporations they sell to: Get ready for Y2K, or get lost ...
Multinationals such as General Motors (GM), McDonald's (MCD), Nike (NKE), and Deere (DE)are making the first quarter--or the second at the latest--the deadline for partners and vendors to prove they're bug-free. A recent survey by consultants Cap Gemini America
Thanks to federal legislation passed last fall allowing companies to share Y2K data to speed fixes, Sun (SUNW) and other tech companies, including Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell Computer (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HWP), IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), and Motorola (MOT), are teaming up to put pressure on the suppliers they judge to be least Y2K-ready. Their new High-Technology Consortium on Year 2000 and Beyond is building a private database of suppliers of everything from disk drives to computer-mouse housings. He says the group will offer technical help to laggard firms--partly to show good faith if the industry is challenged later in court. But ''if a vendor's not up to speed by April or May,'' Rabbat says, ''it's serious crunch time.''
WARNINGS. Other industries are following suit. Through the Automotive Industry Action Group, GM and other carmakers have set Mar. 31 deadlines for vendors to become Y2K-compliant. In March, members of the Grocery Manufacturers of America will meet with their counterparts from the Food Marketing Institute to launch similar efforts .... [MORE]
Cheryl
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