Y2K Remediation Brings Long-Term Dividends

(Business, government improve technology systems) (1560)

By Charlene Porter

Department of State Washington File Staff Writer

Looming over New York's Pennsylvania Station, London's Piccadilly Circus, on Paris's Eiffel Tower, and on China's Great Wall, giant digital clocks spin through the seconds, minutes and hours, counting the time remaining until the dawn of the next millennium. With virtually the same speed, government officials, analysts and fatalists issue reports and predictions on how the global information infrastructure will withstand the calendar change.

The effort to ensure that computers will function properly as the year rolls over from 1999 to 2000 has brought about the most extensive assessment of the global information infrastructure ever conducted. While the effort began with an urgency to prevent a possible crash of information systems in the final months of the countdown, organizations in various sectors of government and industry are now reporting that their work has brought an unexpected dividend. They know more than they ever knew before about how their computers systems work, what they do, how they interrelate and how they might malfunction.

U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, reporting in July on Y2K readiness in the Department of Defense (DOD), said, "We may some day look back on Y2K as a blessing -- a blessing that forced America to face realities of a rapidly changing information-based world."

The Department of Defense, like most organizations in government and business, entered the computer age one step at a time, introducing new technologies in different functional areas at different times. Systems were introduced first in accounting, for instance, then supply procurement, then personnel record-keeping -- with little awareness at each step of how one system might relate to the other.

Like "a thousand blooming roses" is how this transition into the computer age is described by Bill Curtis, the director of the Y2K Office for the Department of Defense. Now, he reports, Y2K remediation has led DOD, the largest organization in the United States, to the best assessment and inventory of its entire information technology (IT) structure that it has ever had.

"The Y2K process had led us to develop much more sophisticated accounting of interfaces between separate systems," Curtis said in an interview. Not solely an effort to prevent a turn-of-the-century failure in computer systems, the DOD official said Y2K remediation has led to a "great jumping off point for the next century."

Protecting itself from information system invasion by hackers or terrorists is just one example where this new found knowledge will be an asset, Curtis said. If a saboteur now attempts to invade DOD computers with a virus, he said, "the exercise of becoming familiar with our system has helped us to understand where to look, what we're looking for, the signature of a virus as contrasted with a systemic problem."

Advancing the field of IT security is also part of the Y2K dividend noted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Michael A. Vatis, director of the (FBI's) National Infrastructure Protection Center, recently testified to the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, "We should utilize Y2K as an exercise from which to draw lessons for what further work we need to do to prepare ourselves for the more long-lasting challenges posed by critical infrastructure protection."

In both government and business, Y2K remediation has led to an acceleration of plans to update and replace IT systems. In a September report on the Y2K effort in the U.S. government, the Office of Management and Budget calculated that 33 mission critical computer systems had been replaced through the course of remediation conducted within the largest 24 government agencies. Another 21 systems have been retired out of the more than 6,300 tested for Y2K compliance.

A similar report comes from the manufacturing sector. Y2K remediation led many businesses to recognize the benefit of replacing equipment that could not meet Year 2000 standards with cutting-edge technology. It became an opportunity to "clear out the clutter and bring on more modern systems," according to David Peyton, the director of technology policy at the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

Y2K dividends are being accrued in hardware, in corporate knowledge and in the development of new business strategies, according to the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, which has been advocating remediation and compliance across a wide range of government agencies and industrial sectors, including finance, transportation, utilities, health care and manufacturing.

In recent months, Council Chair John A. Koskinen has underscored the positive aspect of the Y2K challenge. Koskinen reports that many industries are completing their first full inventory of IT systems, just as reported by DOD. As a result, he said, they've also come to new discoveries about how they can better use technology and increase their efficiency with the use of technology.

This increased efficiency is going to lead to better customer service in the securities industry, according to a spokesperson for the Securities Industry Association (SIA) in New York City. Margaret Draper said in an interview that securities companies "will become more efficient, fast moving and responsive" as a result of the IT inventory conducted in the Y2K remediation process.

At the same time that Y2K awareness mounted over the last several years, the securities industry was influenced by the rapid growth of information technology businesses and the expansion of electronic commerce. Draper said these factors combined have created a much higher awareness of the critical nature of IT operations at the highest corporate levels.

But Y2K remediation was the factor that lent urgency to corporate recognition that information technology systems need high-level attention. Although many firms had the foresight early in the 1990s, SIA spokesperson Draper said potential Y2K problems pushed securities firm leaders to the realization that "if you don't do this, you'll be out of business by January 1, 2000."

One of the hallmarks of the Y2K challenge is its pervasive nature. Information systems have become such an increasingly critical tool in all aspects of commerce that no link in the chain can be overlooked if problems are to be averted. This is another positive outcome of Y2K remediation discovered by manufacturers, according to NAM spokesperson David Peyton.

Industries making a thorough effort to protect themselves from Y2K problems have examined the supply and distribution chains that guide the flow of raw materials to manufacturers and products to markets. Conducting a review of the computer and inventory systems that link suppliers to manufacturers to wholesalers to retailers has led to a more complete understanding and integration of these systems than ever before.

In the pharmaceutical industry, this review has "created a new vision of how drugs get to the patient," according to Mark Grayson, spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PHARMA).

Prior to the Y2K remediation process, Grayson said in an interview that the various firms in the pharmaceutical industry never had a compelling need to understand the operations of information systems of their other partners in the distribution chain. But in the process of achieving Y2K compliance, he said companies had a responsibility to insure that their links to other firms would be compatible. "All this creates a better drug distribution system overall," explained the PHARMA spokesperson.

This review has won the pharmaceutical industry the highest marks of any other component in the health care industry. The U.S. Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem issued a comprehensive report on Y2K readiness on September 22, the 100th day before the millennium change. In it, health care is identified as one sector that remains "highly exposed to Y2K risk." Regarding pharmaceuticals, however, the report said "the industry has taken an active role to ensure that drug re-supply will occur regardless of Y2K-related problems elsewhere." (http://www.senate.gov/~y2k/documents/100dayrpt/)

While some government and business organizations are already beginning to calculate their Y2K dividends, other less tangible, but perhaps no less significant benefits, are the subject of some speculation among the many commentators and analysts who've turned their attentions to the Y2K dilemma.

The widespread attention and the doomsday predictions that have accompanied the Y2K technological problem have prompted many towns and community groups across the country to launch grass-roots efforts to examine readiness. They are advising homeowners and consumers about what they need to do to insure that their homes, their appliances and their business affairs will survive whatever may come as the century turns. Some commentators see the birth of these groups as a new revival of community spirit and neighborhood bonding that has eroded in some U.S. communities over the last several decades.

This Y2K community bonding also has an international dimension. The International Y2K Cooperation Center (IYCC), organized by the United Nations, is working to boost global readiness and remediation through a wide network of experts who are providing advice and guidance on remediation. Director Bruce W. McConnell posted an article on the IYCC Website 100 days before the millennium change saying "Y2K has led to the creation of unprecedented networks of people around the world who understand how their systems and interests are interconnected....The global Y2K team will be in place during and after the date change, ready to share information, mutual assistance and support."

The International Y2K Cooperation Center can be found on the Worldwide Web at http://www.iy2kcc.org/