Year 2000 (Y2K): Assessment Service

In October this year we launched our Revelation Year 2000 Scan Software product, SCANY2K. This has now been run at many sites internationally and has assisted in the detection of code that requires checking for Year 2000 problems. The SCANY2K software has considerably reduced the time that would otherwise be necessary to complete an effective Year 2000 assessment.

Many applications, irrespective of programming language, are expected to experience failures in some way in 1999, particularly financial systems which may have a need to 'look ahead' one year. These failures range from the the very minor to the very serious. Unless checked beforehand, there is no way of knowing the severity of the problems until they occur.

We are finding that many sites still have outstanding Year 2000 assessment work. Either their Advanced Revelation programmers are too busy with other work or they do not have in-house resources and are unable to source skilled programmers to do the work. Still others firmly believe that there are no Year 2000 issues associated with PICK-based languages as PICK handles dates 'intelligently'. It is encouraging to note that a number of internet sites that previously stated this view are now advising that all applications need checking for Year 2000 problems.

Many applications, irrespective of programming language, are expected to experience failures in some way in 1999, particularly financial and accounting systems which may have a need to 'look ahead' one year. The nature of these failures could be minor or critical. If not checked beforehand, there is no way of knowing until they occur.

Our company has a business incentive in encouraging you to do any outstanding assessments as we are now concentrating solely on Year 2000 related work, but it is also in your best interest to ensure that your computer systems remain viable.

If you have doubts that your company needs to perform Year 2000 assessment, please review the information available at our web site, URL:

http://www.ts.co.nz/~finsol/scan.htm

We have recently been in contact with several Advanced Revelation programmers who can offer their skills, with our guidance, in performing an on-line assessment service. We will be adding information relating to this service to our web site over the next few weeks.

We can offer a range of assessments to suit your needs. A preliminary assessment, priced at $US500 for a (currently) two-day turn around service, will provide a quick assessment of an application's likelihood of Year 2000 problems and give an indication of whether there are any obstacles to achieving a straightforward assessment and remediation - ie. missing items, different versions of source code, 'odd' naming conventions, 2 digit year values that will affecting system design etc. A preliminary assessment will assist you in deciding whether a full assessment is justified and, if so, it will give an indication of the urgency in doing this.

A full assessment will involve ensuring that all available current source code is identified, every code line relating to dates is checked for Year 2000 compliance by a skilled Advanced Revelation programmer and a comprehensive report of findings and exceptions produced. We will also recommend which areas of the application should be tested and what they should be tested for. If required, we are able to perform a source code to live object code match and also identify which versions of available source are current. If interfacing to other systems is an issue, we can also report on all points of interface where dates are exchanged.

We do not offer a remediation and testing service as this is best done on site by programmers familiar with the application environment, change control and release procedures. We have found that, in most cases, remediation is straight-forward once the problems have been detected.

Please contact me if you are interested further in either our on-line assessment service or in purchasing or trialling the SCANY2K product. I recommend that this be done sooner rather than later as we expect to be very busy in the new year.

Jocelyn Amon

Financial Solutions Limited

Nelson, New Zealand

64-3-548 4442

http://www.ts.co.nz/~finsol

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