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To: Douglas Rushkoff who wrote (6790)	12/3/1997 12:57:00 PM
From: John Hanzl	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 31646

Douglas... I have said it before, and I'll say it again, don't loose sight of what Topro does for a living. It is a 'Systems Integrator'! So - a scenario may go like this... A concerned manufacturer liscences PlantY2KOne CD for each site, creates database (Topro's) and evaluates scope of problem using Method Y2KOne, Inventory Y2KOne, Compliance Y2KOne, Manage Y2KOne, and Search Y2KOne. At this point the client will have a firm grasp of the extent of the problem, and Topro will have a firm grasp of the client! If the problem can be remediated then the process will move into the Millenium Y2KOne phase, if the problem is so convoluted that the whole system needs to be scrapped, then so be it. Guess who knows the most about the miriad of systems that comprise the clients plant(s)? I'll tell you - Topro! And who do you bet gets the contract, or at least liscences the knowledge-base to another SI? You guessed it - Topro. A win - win situation... I'll leave it to you to add $$$ to the various phases, just keep in mind that the remediation solution is probably the WORST case for Topro! And that is huge $$$ right there! From my vantage point - it is all good! Of course, IMHO John

To: Douglas Rushkoff who wrote (6790)	12/3/1997 1:08:00 PM
From: jan m.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31646

Doug-- Large factories would have to spend millions of dollars to replace their equipment, and even if that were the case-- Topro's core business is systems integration. Wouldn't they need their services in either scenario? Jan

To: Douglas Rushkoff who wrote (6790)	12/3/1997 1:34:00 PM
From: Gerald Underwood	Respond to of 31646

Douglas, My view is that it really depends on which aspect you feel is going to be more lucretive, either a tools or a service standpoint. I use the following excerpt from the conference call to illustrate my point. Q: OK. One final question and this is more strategic in thinking, are you going to go out and try to really maximize the opportunity and grow the business as quickly as you can and take advantage of all these new burgeoning relationships, or are you going to try to manage that growth? Which one are you going to try to pursue in the next 6-9 months as you develop this business? A: JJ - Our strategy is to get the tools out as broadly as possible and have everybody using our tool sets, because obviously the incremental cost of pressing CDs is peanuts. From the services side, we said before, the reality is there's an opportunity to increase our staff by 3 fold - we don't want to do that. There are all kinds of problems associated with that - other than maybe through an acquisition vehicle - of making a large incremental step. Just on a straight recruiting base right now we're looking at adding probably 150 people over the next 6-9 months and holding at that level and operating instead of supplying the actual worker bees in some of these cases, operating as program or project managers, using other smaller SIs to come in under subcontract or on a referral basis to actually do some of the remediation work. And we're going to try to be selective and commit most of our resources to the accounts that we know we want to stay in beyond year 2000. With TPRO's limited manpower resources, their strategy seems to be quite realistic. This says to me that they are depending chiefly on alliance resources for the massive service end of the business. The tools accompanied by organizational leadership in my opinion is where the real profit for TPRO lies. The assessement will have to be accomplished whether or not companies decide to completely replace their systems or repair them. They will need the organizational abilities,ie:tools and compliance database created by TOPRO to determine which route they want to take. And I might add, considering the time compression involved coupled with the possible enormous expenditures , it seems a very reasonable price to pay. Best Wishes, Gerry

To: Douglas Rushkoff who wrote (6790)	12/3/1997 3:32:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 31646

REPLACE OR REMEDIATE: Laymen's explanation. There are many, many of what I call, "hi-tech boxes" thoughout a factory floor, on assembly lines. Each "box" performs a very limited and specialized function. Each "box" has instructions embedded within. You don't buy them off the shelf from ONLY one vendor. You buy them from different vendors. In most every instance, they've been *customized* for a specific application. YOUR ENGINEER works with your VENDOR'S ENGINEER to customize each "box" .... To make it work uniquely for YOUR system. There's spec sheets that go back and forth on this. Whether you Remediate OR Replace: - You have to know WHERE you currently have WHAT. - Then you need to know what instructions are BURNED onto that chip. The ONLY way to know this is to pull the "specs". *This is INVENTORY & ASSESSMENT - Why it's so important:* - Figuring out WHERE embedded systems are - WHAT they do - HOW they do it (engineering specs) - How critical the function is, when you're looking at triage. You can't fix the problem, until you know WHAT/WHERE You need the CD to do inventory and make a plan. NO plan will be straight replacement throughout a whole plant. It will be a combination of remediation/replacement. Everyone is doing triage. Critical systems addressed first. Secondary systems addressed later. I'm focusing on the revenue potential of the CD & proprietary database. TPRO will never have enough engineers to fix the immediate Y2K problem everywhere. The problem's too massive. *Every engineer they hire will have plenty of work to keep them busy.* Cheryl