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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Stocks: An Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paul e thomas who wrote (8627)	1/1/1998 10:16:00 AM
From: William H. Ferguson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13949

Hello Paul and all and Happy New Year to everyone. The Vanguard Mutual Fund company via its Brokerage Division, in its house organ titled, "Trade Winds," just received, briefly addresses their own, in-house Y2k problem. J.H. Gately, Managing Director of Vanguard's Individual Investor Group is the author of the piece. He does not think it's a non-problem issue. He says there are about 8000 programs in Vanguard's mainframe systems with upwards of 11 million lines of code. The company operates more than 6000 desktop, server and mid range computer systems. He notes that the potential error could disrupt critical calculations concerning bond interest payments, stock trade stellements and retirement benefits. The cure for the potential Y2k problem was begun under Carol Dow sometime in 1996. Her team includes more than 100 seasoned Vanguard "professionsals" including software engineers, programmers, quality assurance specialist and compliance testers. Where necessary they are using the expertise of leading consultants in information technology (un-named.) The project is scheduled for completion in mid-1998 well ahead of the immovable deadline of December 31, 1999. To date 90% of the code that needed change has already been fixed or is now being modified. By mid 1998 all outside computer systems that exchange information with Vanguard systems should supply and accept data that explicitly state years in the new century. Where necessary, contingency plans will be in place. Is it possible that most privately owned companies of any size are also addressing the problem unknown to most of us? I'm long IMRS. William