InformationWeek

April 19, 1999

Year 2000:
Worth Complaining About?

Bob Evans

f King Lear was the original Grouchy Old Man, I don't want to be the next. He had some fairly solid issues to grouse about--ungrateful children, scheming in-laws, unjust gods, and all--and I hardly have such crosses to bear. But in this column in recent weeks, I've snarled about our federal government in the form of the Justice Department's jihad with Microsoft, and last week I tweaked the IRS, that long-beloved outfit that's now mounting a feisty PR campaign to be seen as highly focused on customer service and responsiveness. To the agency's credit, it hasn't yet tried to get the taxpaying public to swallow the "customer intimacy" line, but hey--with an IT budget like the IRS's, who am I to say it won't soon be cozying up to its "clients" with a Web site that offers contests for most-creative deductions and some discussion groups and maybe even favorite recipes for bland meals to ingest late on April 14 while trying to complete a return?

So, through the lens of the year 2000 issue, let's take a look at some of the, uh, more encouraging achievements of the federal government. (To find more on these subjects plus a vast array of timely and deep content on the Y2K issue, check out these three Web sites, all of which are siblings of this magazine: www.techweb.com/wire/technews/year2000.html, www.informationweek.com/center/year2k.htm, and www.planetit.com/techcenters/Year_2000.)

News Item: The U.S. Senate wants to pass legislation to encourage IT vendors to work closely and openly with customers to limit Y2K lawsuits. A software-industry group called the Business Software Alliance says class-action suits are already being filed against software vendors and other businesses "at an alarming rate." Interestingly, many suits have been dismissed by the courts because Y2K-related harm has not yet occurred, says the industry group, yet vendors have had to spend millions to defend themselves.

And from the plaintiff-attorney side of the ledger comes this thought from lawyer Howard Nations: "A major problem of the proposed legislation is that it not only grants immunity to the irresponsible, but also abrogates the rights of the responsible business leaders who acted within the law." Who's right? Well, I laud the Senate for trying to take some stand on this potentially disastrous situation and for strongly encouraging the private sector to act in its own best self-interest. But, as much as I want to avoid the precedent of agreeing with the lawsuit-happy lawyers (and I want to avoid that at least as much as I want to avoid being the Next Grouchy Old Man), what about companies that will inevitably fall victim to sloppy or deceptive vendor claims or practices and consequently are materially damaged by faulty products or services? What redress do they have? Will these proposed laws leave them without any protection?

News Item: Four months ago, the Defense Department said 81% of its critical systems were compliant; two months later, they said the figure had changed to 72%. Said the congressman whose committee oversees the government's Y2K progress, "Either the department has a serious internal communications problem, or it's taken a very big step backward." Now, I'm trying not to whine or gripe, but I would sure as heck rather not have a Defense Department with "internal communications problems," even if it's spending $1 billion this year on Y2K compliance. But, to look on the bright side, that 72% is better than the Transportation Department's 61%. (Anybody out there live near a nuclear power plant? The Energy Department scored 85%.)

News Item: Three economists downplay the potential economic impact of the Y2K problem on the U.S. and global economy. Maureen Allyn, chief economist and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments, one of the largest mutual-fund companies in the United States, said, "I have to believe it won't be tremendously serious. I cannot believe any problems won't get solved in a couple of weeks into the new year." Wow! I'm a pretty optimistic person overall, but that is bright-side thinking of the highest order! From the ebullient to the merely rosy: Roger Kubarych, chief investment officer with financial firm Kaufman and Kubarych Advisors, is upbeat about our prospects because, he says, "Every company has put its best talent into working on it. They have cleaned up so much garbage that the system is a whole lot better. A lot of good has been done." And more rosy projections from Chase Manhattan Bank chief economist John Lipsky: "A lot of our [company's overall IT] spending has been in deadweight costs like Y2K and the euro conversion. The end of Y2K will be a boon for us. Our product spending will increase at an accelerated pace."

Cheer you up? Depress you further? Where does your company stand on the Y2K issue, and what is your biggest remaining challenge? Drop the not-so-grouchy guy a note at the address below.

Bob Evans
Editor-in-Chief
bevans@cmp.com