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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (1514)	5/1/1998 3:29:00 PM
From: Stewart V. Nelson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

CK <<<Please give me a specific example where companies have surveyed important vendors and customers and the early reports are encouraging.>>> Didn't have much time to look but a quick scan found these: Form 10-K for ARTS WAY MANUFACTURING CO INC filed on Feb 27 1998 For the Six-Month Period Ended November 30, 1997 Year 2000 Issues Many computer systems and software programs, including several used by the Company require modification and conversion to allow data code fields to accept dates beginning with the year 2000. Major system failures or erroneous calculations can result if computer systems are not year 2000 compliant. The Company is currently assessing its year 2000 issues, and is being advised by a substantial majority of its vendors and suppliers that certain of their products are year 2000 compliant or can be upgraded or will not be affected by the year 2000 problem. The Company's business could be materially adversely affected if the Company's computer-based systems are not year 2000 compliant in a timely manner, the Company incurs significant additional expenses pursuing year 2000 compliant products, the Company's vendors do not provide in a timely manner year 2000 compliant products, or the Company is subject to warranty or other claims by the Company's clients related to product failures caused by the year 2000 problem. CENTURY FINANCIAL CORP 3/2/98 12/31/97 33.3 07 Financial 0727 Regional bank Century's primary business activities are heavily dependent upon the use of sophisticated computer systems. As the millennium ("year 2000" or "Y2K") approaches, many computer systems worldwide do not have the capability of recognizing the year 2000 or years thereafter. To date, Century has received confirmations from its primary vendors that plans have been developed by them to address and correct the issues associated with the year 2000 problem Century has established a management committee to identify all of its functions potentially affected by the year 2000, and to ensure that re- programming of the affected systems will be completed by December 31, 1998, thus allowing adequate time for testing. Century does not anticipate that the year 2000 issue will pose any significant operational problems or will have any material impact on its results of operations. Not exactly S&P 500 companies but if I had time I know I could find some more. regards Stewart Nelson

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (1514)	5/1/1998 4:16:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

GAO: FEDERAL REGULATORY EFFORTS TO ENSURE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION SYSTEMS ARE YEAR 2000 COMPLIANT Excerpt This initial assessment was completed during November and December 1997. Among other things, it revealed that most institutions were aware of Year 2000 and taking actions to correct their systems. However, the three regulators we reviewed reported--based on the initial assessment--that in total, over 5,000 institutions were NOT adequately addressing the problem. For example, OTS designated about 170 thrifts as being at high risk due to poor performance in conducting awareness and assessment phase activities. Additionally, FDIC identified over 200 banks that were not adequately addressing Year 2000 risks and 500 banks that were very reliant on third-party servicers and software providers but had not followed up with them to determine their Year 2000 readiness. Furthermore, NCUA reported that it had formal agreements for corrective action with 4,862 credit unions deemed not to be making sufficient progress in at least one awareness or assessment phase activity. gao.gov GAO/T-AIMD-98-116, Mar. 24 (16 pages) House Committee on Banking and Financial Services _______________________________________________________________________ GAO: OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION'S EFFORTS TO ENSURE THRIFT SYSTEMS ARE YEAR 2000 COMPLIANT Excerpt If Year 2000 issues are not adequately addressed, key automated thrift systems affecting hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, transactions, and insured deposits are vulnerable to serious consequences -- from malfunction to failure. At a minimum, banks and their customers would be inconvenienced. More ominously, system failure could lead to thrift closings and serious disruptions for both the thrift industry and its customers. GAO also discusses OTS' progress in addressing Year 2000 issues affecting its own internal systems. gao.gov GAO/T-AIMD-98-102, Mar. 18 (20 pages). Subcommittee on Financial Services and Technology Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (1514)	5/4/1998 9:22:00 AM
From: David Eddy	Respond to of 9818

C.K. You cannot get a handle on costs until you do an inventory and assessment. Many Fortune 500 companies unbelievably still haven't completed this phase. Disclaimer: I spent 3 full years as a vendor in the mainframe software inventory space. I also spent the previous 5 years attempting to sell maintenance software tools. It's "common knowledge" that the inventory effort is only 1% of a full Y2K project. Soooooo... folks don't put a whole lot of effort into it. Fundamental problem is that since they've (we're talking 98% of the Fortune 1000) never kept an inventory of their software before, why should they do it now. Absolutely true story from one of my very last calls to a large financial services company: "Why would we need an inventory tool? We had a consultancy do an inventory 18 months ago. Why would we need to do another one?" Most of the "we've done our inventory" talk means that lists of systems have been sent around to people & questionnaires... extremely subjective "facts." Without an accurate inventory (remember there are literally tens of millions of pieces of software in such an inventory), it is impossible to make solid decisions about what to fix and in what sequence. - David