List of the Problems

Several machines have already started to exhibit millennium bug. The Unisys 2000, ironically named, uses a signed integer to represent the 8th bit of the year field, meaning that it failed on the first day of 1996. Several credit card systems have problems that cause cards entered with a year of 00 to be designated as invalid. Some insurance companies cannot sell 5-year annuities because their systems will not accept date entries past 1999.

Hardware system problems have not gotten a lot of attention in relation to the year 2000 problem, and there is little in the way of resources available to determine if any particular system will be vulnerable to the millennium problem at a hardware level.

There is another aspect of the year 2000 problem as well: Convincing IT managers that they need to act in advance. There is a prevailing theory that a "magic bullet" will appear to resolve the problems. All indicators do not point in this direction. This problem is compounded by the lack of professional resources available to deal with and repair the problem. Analysts estimate that resources should have been allocated in most mid to large-size companies by the end of 1996. This point has passed and still most companies have not acted (see figure).

Part of this is that it is difficult to justify spending large amounts of money just to remain in business. IBM estimates that they will need to modify over 50 Million lines of code at an estimated cost of $20 million. The end result of which is to make the software work the same on January 1st, 2000, as it did on December 31st, 1999.

The media is not helping matters, either. While almost everyone has heard about the year 2000 problem, few people realize the potential for disaster. The attention which the problem has received is minor accounts of interesting "horror stories," mainly centered around inconveniences and program failures.

The problem itself is deceptively simple: To the layman, it's only the date. How much of an impact could the difference between 99 and 2000 be? There has been no news coverage of a successful business going under because of improper planning and preparation. Those are the stories that scare managers into allocating the resources which are required to deal with the problem effectively. Unfortunately for most, those stories will not happen until it is too late.

References

Solutions to the Year 2000 Problem:

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