Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Forecross Corporation : Y/2000 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ruyi who wrote (1089)	6/5/1998 2:40:00 AM
From: AD	Respond to of 1654

It is high high for companies to get their act together says Peter De Jaeger... I shortened it down to get to the meat of the article. interesting for all Y2K vendors. Year 2000 Bankers Conference Editorial Coverage American Banker and The Strategic Research Institute presented this conference for Bankers dealing with the year 2000 problem. American Banker is the leading information provider to the financial services industry and produces the magazine American Banker and other publications for financial institutions. The Strategic Research Institute is a provider of conferences in the areas of finance, health care, information technology, manufacturing, sales, natural resources, and media/entertainment. American Banker is at americanbanker.com and the Strategic Institute is at srinstitute.com. The conference organizers were expecting at least 150 attendees from banks and financial institutions around the country. They actually had more. The attendees were a mix of people from the industry. One of the organizers told me that she was impressed that there was a good mix of people, from CEOs and CIOs down to loan officers and support staff. The most numerous group were members of the legal profession, with about fifty lawyers in the audience. There were five venders in attendance: Accler8 Technology Corporation, Arter and Hadden LLP attorneys, McCabe Visual 2000 and Vendor Verification Inc. ------------ Opening Keynote by Peter de Jager Peter de Jager gave the keynote address opening the conference. He began by noting that Bill Gates had said two years ago that Microsoft products didn't have any year 2000 problems but that now he is admitting that Windows 95 and Windows NT both have problems, and that Microsoft has opened a web site of solutions (see microsoft.com. The web site, following a hallowed tradition of almost all large IT projects, is late. Peter describes programmers as the most optimistic people in the world, who always believe that this next fix will be the last necessary and everything will finally work. He reported that the Denver airport has 100 non-compliant systems, including 40 that are mission critical. He went on to report that only 5% of Japanese companies are doing anything, and pointed out two reasons that exacerbate the year 2000 problem over there. Total consensus is usually needed to initiate any project and there is an extreme hesitation when delivering bad news to management. Some companies in this country have the same problem. Peter also pointed out that most of Europe wasn't even scheduling Y2K work until 1999. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Questions A short question and answer period followed. One person inquired about Peter's opinion of the state of the global economy and Y2K. Peter replied that it was his opinion that a global recession was unavoidable because we were still discussing the issue instead of fixing it. When asked what he was sharing with the rest of the world, Peter answered that there was good news and bad news. The good news is that the US leads the world in fixing the problem. The bad news is that the US leads the world in fixing the problem and our present level of compliance is nothing to brag about to anybody. The last question was on contingency planning. Peter said that the best practice for contingency planning is to have a contingency, a plan B" for every single critical system including basic infrastructure. He ended by telling the participants of this conference, all from a highly regulated part of the economy, that the regulators were on the move and they wanted answers to their questions about banks' year 2000 plans. He said they were telephoning now, but this would soon be replaced by visits. "They will sit across from you and stare and ask how you are coming along and they will watch your response closely. What are you going to tell them?" Peter ended by asking for anyone to send him some good news if they had any. He said he didn't want to get the reputation of being a gloom and doomer, but that he really had not received any reassuring news yet. Its Not Just an IT Problem Anymore In November of last year I asked all the banks in the Portland, Oregon area if they were asking their business customers about their year 2000 exposure and efforts at fixing the problem. At that time, only the Bank of America was asking its customers about their year 2000 plans. All the loan officers I talked to told me they thought IT was taking care of the problem and they didn't need to get involved. Now they will be involved -- even though they are only required to assess "substantial" customers. This should have a quantum effect on raising of the consciousness of the business community in the next few months. The Gartner Group estimates 3% to 5% of US businesses will be fatally impacted by the year 2000 problem. H. Rubin, the Hunter College economist, estimates that 2 out of 3 large U.S. companies did not have a plan to deal with Y2K as of December of 1997. These numbers, and the Produce Palace lawsuit, prompted the change in regulations. Some of the factors that will impact loans are: declining demand for products that are seen as Y2K non-compliant or potentially defective, delays in production or delivery of products, and delays or mistakes in billings and payments from customers.