The Year 2000 Convincing The CEO
by Jennifer McNeill, President of Cipher Systems Ltd.

As I sit across the desk from the CEO of this billion dollar organization, I try to restrain myself from committing an act that will have me either thrown out of the building, or arrested. Strangling a person was not acceptable the last time I checked. The person in question is well educated and well respected. He has spent 30 years proving himself in many departments and organizations. He is generally well known for making good business decisions. He is explaining to me why he doesn't really have a Year 2000 problem and that, although his organization has more than 25 million lines of legacy code currently in production, there is no urgency to start the project until 1998. He tells me there are many applications that are being rewritten in those 25 million lines of code. But his IT staff says that only 10 million lines are now being rewritten and the other 15 million can't be replaced with packaged applications or re-engineering. There are other problems, too.

Make Time for Year 2000 (The Challenge)
by Hasan Naqvi, Managing Partner of CM Inc.

Over one-third of Canadian enterprises are under-prepared for the Year 2000 systems disaster, according to a survey conducted by the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC). CM Inc., a member of ITAC, has taken a common-sense approach to helping customers resolve the Year 2000 problem.

Year 2000 - An Opportunity for Improvement
by Khattar Maalouf, Manager Stretegic and Technology Services, KPMG

Over the next couple of years, an average-sized organization may spend millions of dollars to enable it information systems to handle dates in year 2000 and beyond. Can such high costs be justified? What are the benefits? This article highlights some of the opportunities that may not only resolve the Year 2000 problem, but also move the information technology environment well into the 21st century.

Year 2000 Warranties in Software Conversion
by Lindsay Gorrell, LLB,P.Eng., Fraser & Beatty

The impact of the Year 2000 problem will be widespread and potentially very damaging for many sectors of the economy. On January 1, 2000, many companies in the business, finance and banking sectors will be unable to perform computer-related tasks involving date calculations,such as printing or depositing cheques,calculating interest, purchasing/selling stock, processing employee benefit claims, communicating internally or externally over data communication networks (including the Internet and intranets), making airline reservations and producing financial statements. Many companies in the communications sector will be unable to operate ground or satellite telecommunications and broadcast networks. Some of the world’s largest computer industry research companies have estimated the worldwide cost of fixing the Year 2000 problem to be in the $600 to $700 billion range.

Gaining Future Value From Your Year 2000 Efforts
by Glen Drodge, Principal, KPMG and Roger Guinn, Executive Director, KPMG

Many organizations will soon have to make major information technology investments to address the Year 2000 issue. If your organization is one of these, this provides a good opportunity for your organization to examine its current business processes before making this investment. You may find that a thorough examination of your business processes will provide significant opportunity for cost savings to your organization. In turn, these savings could be used to finance the investment costs for the Year 2000 efforts. In the end your organization receives considerable value as a by-product of the Year 2000 need.