ITAA's Year 2000 Outlook
April 16, 1999                         Volume 4, No. 14

Published by the Information Technology Association of
America, Arlington, VA

Bob Cohen, Editor bcohen@itaa.org

Read in over 80 countries around the world

ITAA's Year 2000 Outlook is published every Friday to
help all organizations deal more effectively with the
Year 2000 software conversion.  To create a
subscription to this free publication, please visit
ITAA on the web at https://www.itaa.org/transact/2ko
utlooksub.htm.  To cancel an existing subscription,
visit https://www.itaa.org/transact/2kremove.htm.

ITAA's Year 2000 Outlook is sponsored in part by CACI
International Inc., DMR Consulting Group Inc and
Y2Kplus.

In this issue:
· Y2K Bug Bites at Providers of Social Safety Net
· Congress Queries HHS on Prescription Extensions
· House Banking Chairman Warns of Y2K Scams
· FAA Test Praised; NASD Points to Testing Success
· Business to Business
· ITAA Y2K Information Center
· Sponsor Advertising

Y2K Bug Bites at Providers of Social Safety Net

"What's 'Y2K'?  Some new kind of new lottery game?"
That's the level of understanding among the nation's
neediest.  At least according to John Drew, Vice
President of Action for Boston Community Development,
Inc., otherwise known as ABCD.  Drew and his c
ounterparts in hundreds of Community Action Programs
(CAPs) around the country have the unenviable task of
making sure the Millennium bug doesn't chew a major
hole in America's social safety net.

Drew spoke at a Y2K seminar for CAP executives this
week in Atlanta, where participants pooled ideas on how
to keep their constituents' collective heads above
water.  That would be water roiled by Y2K service
disruptions, a widespread lack of individual
preparedness, bureaucratic process, funding shortages
and official neglect.

In Drew's world, the difference between people sinking
and swimming can be very small.  The ABCD executive
worries that Y2K may pose a serious threat to clients
struggling to eat, stay warm, get to work, and keep a
roof over head.

"Our mission drives right down to the street," Drew
says, adding that many of his constituents are just one
meal away from living in hunger.  In Boston-as well as
many urban and rural settings across the country-"Y2K"
could mean "no lunch today."

Not unless much about the current situation changes in
a hurry.

A $75 million community action agency, ABCD is large
and sophisticated by CAP standards.  The agency
provides an array of anti-poverty programs, everything
from child care vouchers, Headstart centers and food
stamps to job training, health services, energ y
assistance and welfare-to-work programs.  In the public
assistance arena, organizations like ABCD translate
high-minded programs into practical realities.

Drew believes that CAPs generally may be less well
prepared for the Year 2000 than other entities, public
or private, in part because they are 501(c)3
organizations and operate with very lean administrative
budgets.  He indicates that the Year 2000 poses three
significant challenges to organizations such as his:
assuring the readiness of constituents, converting
in-house information systems, and dealing with upstream
and downstream business partners.  Each represents its
own series of difficult hurdles to overcome.

The constituent piece is particularly tough.  ABCD
provides its services to a diverse customer base,
speaking as many as 40 different languages.  Convincing
this population, all living at or below the poverty
line today, to stock up on food, heating oil,
medications, blankets and other essentials in
anticipation of a problem several months--and a high
tech world--away is nothing less than formidable.  Drew
suggests putting Y2K into the context of the street:

"It's hard enough to get through day to day.  They
don't know if they are even going to be alive in
2000….These people don't believe the press or the
government….The culture is different.  They don't
understand or believe [it is a problem].  They do know
that [the Year 2000] hasn't happened yet."

It will, however, and, when it does, Drew calls the
consequences "imponderable."

Perhaps.  But Drew has also lived through New England
blizzard of 1978 and the east coast power blackout of
1965.  In both of those calamities, the National Guard
was on the street in a matter of days.  So now he is
ready to take a "Cassandra approach" to the situation,
finding ways to intercede for his constituents, while
refusing to minimize the date bug's potential for
turmoil.  "I'll believe it can't happen when it doesn't
happen," he says.  "As a fiduciary organization, we
have a responsibility to th ink along these lines."

Part of the thinking includes organizational readiness.
"Our doors must be open," he says.  So Drew and other
CAP executives shared readiness ideas at the Atlanta
seminar.  In the financial management realm, these
ideas included pre-printing payroll chec ks with
standard amounts several weeks in advance of the
rollover.  This will keep employees paid and
adjustments, if needed, can be made down the road.  If
local banks don't provide adequate readiness assurance,
some executives suggested that CAPs consid er dropping
direct deposit banking services for the "big week" and,
if necessary, revert to hand writing checks.

Other ideas included anticipating problems with
government systems and accumulating as much available
cash through lines of credit or government funding
sources as possible.  The Payment Management Systems
operated by the Departments of Health and Human S
ervices and the Housing and Urban Development form the
financial umbilical cord of the social services
community.  Any disruption to these critical systems
could bring an immediate shut down of community
assistance programs.

Other readiness suggestions aired at the seminar
included paying ahead for essential products and
services, like home heating oil.  Ending the billing
month early in December 1999 and encouraging key
suppliers to have their invoices in for payment by Dece
mber 20.  Anticipating increases in the cost of fuel
and other essentials.  Pre-paying leases and rents.
Negotiating critical purchases, prices and payment
terms well in advance of January 1. Planning for a
spike in the demand for constituent services a s local
and municipal governments hit by Y2K outages fail to
respond.

Federal and state agency interfaces are the third part
of the Y2K community assistance continuity puzzle.
Many CAPs get as much as 90 percent of their program
funding from federal agencies, with states acting as
intermediaries.  The CAP executives seem t o think it's
a system that does not work particularly well now, let
alone if plagued by future Y2K disruptions.  Federal
dollars included in the President's October budget are
not available to groups like ABCD until the following
February or March.  As a result, resources are always
stretched and no provision is made for extraordinary
costs like Y2K system repairs.

Nor is that likely to change.  "Y2K awareness on the
part of funders is scary," Drew says, pointing out that
he thinks the regional offices of the federal
government are not as mobilized on Year 2000 as their
inside the Beltway counterparts.  Meanwhile, t he
Commonwealth of Massachusetts has published a Y2K
readiness plan for the state-a plan which Drew says
fails to include community assistance organizations.
Rather, the state asks its CAP contractors to sign a
form attesting to their intent to be Y2K re ady.

"What are you going to do?  Not sign?"  Drew asks.
Meanwhile, Drew says that ABCD has discovered an
application system with Y2K problems that will cost
$50,000 to replace.  "Who will pay?" he asks.  Not the
state.  "They say take it out of your administr ative
fee."

Luckily, ABCD is big enough to juggle the additional
cost.  For some smaller CAPs and their clients, the
Year 2000 may mean that their luck has run out.

Congress Queries HHS on Prescription Extensions

In a recent letter to Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Representatives
Stephen Horn (R-CA), Constance Morella (R-MD) and Bob
Barr (R-GA) asked the Department for its reaction to a
state bill allowing patients temporarily to obtain an
extra supply of "certain life-sustaining drugs such as
seizure and heart medications" in preparation for the
Year 2000 date change.

The letter cited a bill introduced in the Georgia State
Legislature by Representative George Grindley, Georgia
House Bill 271, which would allow patients to
temporarily obtain a 90-day supply of medications from
December 31, 1999 through March 31, 2000.  Currently,
most health insurers limit prescription refills to 30
days.

The three members of the Committee on Government
Reform's subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology queried HHS as to its
position on the issue.  According to an HHS
spokesperson, the Department has not yet responded to
the letter.


Others are not waiting to call the idea bad medicine.
Drug companies are not enthusiastic about the bill, and
generally not supportive of measures to extend
prescription supplies.  According to Mark Grayson, a
spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, such legislation is not
necessary, and in fact could hurt the public health.
"Drug companies are ready for Y2K and we are working
with downstream suppliers to ensure that people do not
need to stockpile prescriptions.  If pe ople in one
area were to start stockpiling, it could cause
shortages in other areas," Grayson said.

PhRMA also noted that the Georgia Bill is "dead."
Representative Grindley was not available for comment.

House Banking Chairman Warns of Y2K Scams

House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach (R-Iowa)
warned in a hearing this week that Y2K may be a way
into the confidence of unsuspecting investors.  Leach
indicated that scam artists are using the date bug as
the bug-a-boo needed to get people investin g in bogus
gold, silver and start-up company stocks and deals.

Leach also coached banks to prepare for a drop-off in
public confidence and questioned why financial
institution regulators have a rosier view of bank
readiness than third party assessors.  He noted that
agency inspectors general also have questions about the
thoroughness and accuracy of bank examinations.

FAA Test Praised; NASD Points to Testing Success

An industry group has praised the early results of Y2K
system testing conducted by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).  Testing at the FAA's Denver Air
Route Traffic Control Center and Terminal Radar
Approach Control Center simulated the century d ate
rollover and encountered no problems, according to the
Aviation Millennium Project.  "The FAA test should
reassure the public that the air traffic control system
will be ready for the new century," said project
spokesman Thomas Browne.  The group is co mposed of
trade associations representing the aviation industry
in the U.S. and Canada.

Also this week, the National Association of Securities
Dealers (NASD) said that an industry-wide test of its
Nasdaq stock exchange systems and connections with
broker-dealers, order-entry firms, and underwriters
came off without a hitch.  The test simulat ed 170,000
transactions in nine securities areas, including
equities, bonds and mutual funds.  NASD launched its
code conversion program in 1996.

Business to Business

Next Millennium Consulting, Silver Spring, MD, has
introduced Benchmark2000, an online, interactive
web-based Y2K risk management and analysis tool.

CCD Online Systems Inc., Los Angeles, CA, has released
Beyond 1999/Validate 5.0, an updated version of their
automated IV&V auditing tool.

SolutionSoft Systems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA, has
entered into a distribution agreement with SourceOne,
Inc.

ITAA Y2K Information Center

Solution Providers Directory
http://www.itaa.org/script/2000vend.cfm

ITAA*2000 Certification Program
http://www.itaa.org/2000cert.htm

Outlook Archive
http://www.itaa.org/script/get2klet.cfm

Legislative and Litigation Table
http://www.itaa.org/year2000/legis.htm
Calendar
http://www.itaa.org/y2kcal.htm

Vendor/User Status Questionnaires
http://www.itaa.org/questmain1.htm

Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR)
http://www.itaa.org/year2000/adr.htm

Statement of Intention to Use ADR
http://www.itaa.org/year2000/soi.htm,

Y2K Mediators Seminar
http://www.technologymediation.com/Y2K_seminar.htm


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Information Technology Association of America, 1616 N.
Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1300