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

To: Josef Svejk who wrote (9925)	3/8/1998 7:50:00 PM
From: gerald tseng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13949

Josef: Forty's volume and chart looks "scary", while FORSF's looks like break out, so I would think FORSF will be better play for FORTY. It's clear if you look at the following chart that FORSF is the strongest among Formula group. irnet.com

To: Josef Svejk who wrote (9925)	3/10/1998 6:20:00 PM
From: BM	Respond to of 13949

New Canadian federal government Y2K contract awards Biggest winner appears to be Cognicase since two of the winners (DMR and EDS) use Cognicase's tool while SHL is now outsourcing all of its Y2K conversion work to Cognicase. In the meanwhile, PWGSC (the agency which manages the government's contracts and financial books) has confided its Y2K work to CGI Group. SEVEN COMPANIES WIN CONTRACTS WITH GUARANTEES TOTALLING $100 MILLION TO RENDER COMPUTERS YEAR 2000 COMPLIANT OTTAWA, March 10 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada has awarded contracts totalling $100 million to seven companies in Ottawa to provide Year 2000 conversion services to federal departments and agencies on an as-and-when-requested basis. The companies will supply a full range of services to render computer systems capable of handling all dates and date-related issues for the Year 2000 and beyond. The contracts run until the end of June 2000, with an option to extend each contract for two additional nine-month periods. The announcement was made today by the Honourable Alfonso Gagliano, Minister of Public Works and Government Services. Funding for these contracts was provided for in the February 1998 federal budget and is therefore built into the existing fiscal framework. ''This is an excellent example of government and industry cooperating to address what is a critical challenge facing the Government,'' said Mr. Gagliano. ''These companies will ensure that federal departments and agencies have access to the qualified resources they need to make their systems Year 2000 compliant.'' Mr. Gagliano added that approximately 670 jobs are expected to be created or maintained for the duration of these contracts. The companies will provide a variety of services involved in rendering the Government's mission critical systems Year 2000 compliant. These systems support mission critical business functions performed by the Government that directly impact the health, safety, security and economic well-being of Canadians. The contracts include providing departments and agencies with the following services to support their Year 2000 projects: access to the computer hardware and software necessary to complete their Year 2000 system development and testing; conversion of mission critical software so that it accurately processes dates in the Year 2000 and beyond; and access to informatics professional services. The need for Year 2000 conversion services is expected to generate unprecedented demand for the technical resources and computing facilities that these companies possess. For this reason, the companies are being given a number of incentives. They are guaranteed to receive a total minimum business volume of $100 million. In return, the federal government will have ready access to the resources necessary to repair its mission critical systems. The seven companies are: CGI Group Inc. Computer Sciences Canada Inc. DMR Consulting Group Inc. EDS Canada IBM Canada Ltd. Science Applications International Corporation SHL Systemhouse Inc. March 1998 BACKGROUNDER YEAR 2000 PROCUREMENT THE YEAR 2000 CHALLENGE Within various departments and agencies of the Canadian federal government, information systems are in use which, in many cases, do not properly support dates for the Year 2000 and beyond. Many of these systems are an integral part of the government's most critical lines of business and impact the delivery of health, safety, security and economic services to Canadians. The collective cost of Year 2000 conversion for all federal government systems is estimated to be approximately $1 billion, with an estimated $500 million to be contracted out to the private sector. To date, contracts valued at approximately $150 million have been issued, indicating that there remains a significant amount of work to be done. One of the most serious concerns of government was the ability of government to secure sufficient technical resources to repair its mission critical systems. THE YEAR 2000 SOLUTION Following consultations with government and industry last September at the Year 2000 Procurement Workshop, an innovative approach to streamline the procurement of services to repair the government's mission critical systems was developed. Following this workshop, PWGSC continued to work with industry and government departments to collectively create a competitive Request For Proposal that would enable the government to put this new approach into practice. As a result of the competitive procurement process for mission critical systems repair, seven companies have been awarded contracts to provide federal departments and agencies with facilities for testing and development, code conversion services, and informatics professional services. The names of the companies are as follows: CGI Group Inc. Computer Sciences Canada Inc. DMR Consulting Group Inc. EDS Canada IBM Canada Ltd. Science Applications International Corporation SHL Systemhouse Inc. These contracts incorporate a number of innovative features which will ensure that the federal government has ready access to the private sector resources necessary to repair its mission critical systems. First, to encourage the contractors to assign their resources to the government's Year 2000 projects, they have been guaranteed a total of $100 million over the life of the contracts. Second, given the anticipated market demand for Year 2000 resources and the associated escalation of salaries demanded by skilled resources, the contracts have an allowance for a price adjustment, which may be requested by the firms at six month intervals. To aid government departments and agencies in resolving their Year 2000 problems, PWGSC has established a dedicated Year 2000 Procurement Office that provides a single point of contact for the procurement of all Year 2000 hardware, software and services requirements, for both mission critical and non-mission critical systems. This office will ensure that Year 2000 procurements are actioned on a priority basis. A fact sheet has been sent to federal government departments and agencies identifying the types of procurement tools available and resource contacts for these tools. This news release is also available on our Internet site pwgsc.gc.ca.