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To: tech who wrote (2059)	1/7/1998 4:39:00 AM
From: tech	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3391

One Medium-Size Success; Many Barely Started Projects Link: datamation.com A medium-size insurance company with 3.5 million lines of code says that it is almost 2000-compliant. It began its repair project in 1995. Meanwhile, most large companies have barely begun. This story was in DATAMATION (Dec). * * * * * * * Paul Petry, left, and Vincent Lioce of Boston Mutual are ready to face the new millennium head-on. . . . Lioce, vice president of information systems and services at Canton, Mass.-based Boston Mutual Life Insurance, is at the helm of a major Y2K conversion project that is slated to wrap up,"with some minor exceptions," by the end of 1997. . . . But as of the third quarter of 1997, only 57% of large U.S. companies had completed their Y2K assessments, secured the requisite funding, and begun some code conversion, according to data from the META Group, the Stamford, Conn., consulting firm. A whopping 41% had not finished with their Year 2000 plans or were waiting to finalize funding. "An awful lot of folks are still in denial," says Matt Hotle, research director at the Gartner Group, also in Stamford. In fact, only 2% of large U.S. companies are in the enviable position of being done with the effort, according to META numbers. Most, like Boston Mutual, are in the financial services industry. . . . And his mind has never been far from the sleeping problem waiting to explode in his systems on 1/1/00, if not sooner. "We have known about this for a long, long, long time," says Lioce, a trim, silver-haired man with a no-nonsense air. It is precisely his long-term involvement and intimate understanding of the company's systems that gave Boston Mutual the edge in dealing with the century change. Another important factor was that Lioce was quickly able to enlist meaningful support and financial commitment from Paul Petry, the company's president and chief operating officer. . . . The project is proceeding, with about 75% of the fixed code tested and back in production. As companies are discovering, the bulk of the effort is in testing. But this did not come as a surprise to Lioce, who had dedicated several people full time to acceptance and millennium testing. . . . Lioce is aware that he is the envy of all who have not had the foresight to deal with Y2K by now. But will he have to reopen the project in 1998 or beyond? "Companies may think they are done, but they may find out later they're not. There are so many variables," says Mike Egan, program director for enterprise datacenter strategies at the META Group. While Boston Mutual rates an A-, most companies still rate a disappointing Daverage in their current Y2K conversion progress. Though many companies have improved slightly in their progress toward Year 2000, they still have a long way to go, says Mike Egan, program director for enterprise datacenter strategies for META Group, the Stamford, Conn., consulting firm. Egan tracks company Y2K performance. He found that where companies had a D average based on five assessment categories in the second quarter 1997, they merited only a tiny increase to a Daverage in the third quarter. This isn't exactly a major leap forward. And 70% of the companies still are behind schedule, he says. . . .

To: tech who wrote (2059)	1/7/1998 4:42:00 AM
From: tech	Respond to of 3391

New Zealand's Police Computer Starts Acting Up Link: year2000.co.nz New Zealand has discovered that Year 2000 prpblems begin long before 2000. The criminal justice system of New Zealand now has a problem: the nation's computerized system is acting up. It does not recognize 2000. This story appeared in the BUSINESS HERALD (Jan. 5). * * * * * * * * The Millennium Bug has hit the law enforcement computer that stores the confidential files of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. In what experts fear could be a portent of the chaos to come, the Wanganui computer [the national police computer system] is failing to recognise the year 2000 when police try to set court dates for people arrested for traffic offences. The glitch has been around since the New Year and is believed to be the first instance of the bug in New Zealand. . . . The computer stores information on criminal records, vehicles, drivers' licences, stolen property and other personal material. It is used by police, Justice staff and the Land Transport Safety Authority. . . . United MP Peter Dunne, who has surveyed 150 firms, utilities and councils on their work transforming computer systems for the millennium, said the Wanganui glitch should warn everyone to prepare. . . . Judith Johnstone, the information officer for the Ministry of Justice, said all law enforcement agencies would have new computer systems by then [2000]. Some files would stay on the Wanganui system, which was being phased out, and all the systems should be immune to the Millennium Bug by September 1999.

To: tech who wrote (2059)	1/7/1998 4:48:00 AM
From: tech	Respond to of 3391

5% Bank Failure Rate Could Topple the Economy Link: guide-p.infoseek.com If as few as 5% of the world's banks go under as a result of y2k, it will create a disaster. So concludes THE GUARDIAN, the leftist British newspaper. * * * * * * * Financial services companies say they are confident that on January 1, 2000, their systems will not fail and their customers' money will be safe. But would we really expect them to say anything else? There is growing concern that human error in underestimating the time needed to fix the bug will prove very costly. This prompted Tony Blair to announce this week that he is to head a Downing Street task force to awaken British business to the dangers of the millennium bug -- so alarmed is he by reports that more than half them have yet to take action to prevent computer breakdowns and that the ensuing chaos could plunge the country into recession. . . . But what really frightens the experts is the global interdependency of the banking system. PA Consulting has calculated that if just 5 per cent of bank systems around the world were to go down on January 1, 2000, this would cause a global crisis. Analysts are most concerned by Asian organisations which are lagging well behind in tackling the problem. Federal Reserve officials in the US said recently that they were "terribly worried" that regional economic issues would distract Asian banks from tackling the Y2K problem, putting the whole world banking system in jeopardy. . . . Similarly, PA Consulting estimates that a global banking crisis could also be precipitated if just 5 per cent of customers withdrew their deposits. . . . Most are well advanced in sorting out their in-house bugs, although only a handful have revealed the huge costs of making their computer Y2K-compliant. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and NatWest are spending pounds 500 million to solve their problems while Abbey National says it will cost the bank pounds 50 million. Even the smaller building societies have clubbed together to fix the bug. --------------------------------------------------------------------- note* ConSyGen has alliance partners in both Europe and ASIA.