Microsoft Corp. early next year plans to
                   deliver a set of tools and methodologies to
                   help customers deal with year 2000 issues.

                   The tools will come from both Microsoft
                   and some of its 50 Y2K partners and
                   address six key computing areas: hardware,
                   operating systems, applications,
                   documents, custom code and data
                   interfaces, according to Don Jones, product
                   manager, Year 2000, at Microsoft in
                   Redmond, Wash.

                   The tools will be provided on a
                   subscription basis via e-mail or CD, said
                   Jones. Microsoft has not decided whether
                   to charge for the tools, but if the company
                   does, said Jones, it will be a nominal fee
                   to cover the program's costs.

                   "We don't view Y2K as a revenue generator
                   whatsoever," said Jones.

                   Microsoft (MSFT) is planning to unveil the
                   next phase in its Y2K strategy within the
                   next week or two -- right around the time
                   it is slated to ship its Systems
                   Management Server 2.0 product,
                   code-named Opal. While the new tools and
                   methodologies will be a nice complement
                   to SMS 2.0, they don't require the new
                   version of Microsoft's systems
                   management product, Jones said.

                   "Lots of our customers are already using
                   the existing version of SMS to do
                   client-desktop inventory, to ship out Y2K
                   patches and to create licenses to lock
                   down the desktop," he noted. "[SMS] 2.0 will
                   just give you more functionality to implement Y2K solutions."

                   In January, Microsoft will embark on a seminar series, conducted by
                   Microsoft or a partner. The half-day to day-long seminars will be
                   held worldwide, said Jones, and probably run through the first or
                   second quarter of the year.

                   In mid-November, Microsoft launched a toll free number
                   (888-msft-y2k) designed to provide Y2K assistance to companies
                   without access to the Web. On Microsoft's Y2K Web site, launched in
                   April, the company publishes patches and fixes and endorses products
                   from about 50 partners, including mainframe maker Amdahl Corp. and
                   Digital Equipment Corp.

                   Jones said the software maker has tested about 1,300 of its own
                   products and certified about 85 percent of them compliant or
                   "compliant with minor issues." (Compliant with minor issues, in
                   Microsoft jargon, means a Y2K-induced bug will not affect the "core
                   functionality" of a product.) By the end of this calendar year, Jones
                   said that Microsoft expected to have tested an additional 300 of its
                   products, service packs and patches for Y2K compliance.

                   Jones characterized Microsoft's forthcoming addition of software
                   and blueprints as "an evolution, rather than a change" in its Y2K
                   strategy.

                   "We're planning on telling customers and partners how they might
                   want to think about the Y2K challenge and address it based on risk,"
                   Jones explained.