InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
November 22, 1999
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How To Repel The Aliens
Y2K was a relatively easy enemy to tame, but a far more daunting group of aliens await--lawyers, judges, and politicians
We can't declare a total victory, but there's little doubt, especially on the business systems side, that we've turned the Y2K mountain into a molehill on most fronts. Because Y2K was an enemy of our own creation, and because we created it out of technologies we knew, we also understood how to deal with it.
Not so with the other alien invasion. This one is not of our creation, though our acts and omissions did invite these beings into our world. These aliens can't be defeated. We must learn to live with them, or risk subjugation.
On Nov. 5, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his findings of fact that Microsoft was indeed a monopoly. Anyone who purchased a PC operating system this past decade could have told you that. Judge Jackson, however, went on to say that Microsoft had abused its monopoly power, and this has become the focus of the antitrust case.
The fate of the software juggernaut is no longer in the hands of techies, users, or vendors. No, the future of Microsoft will be decided by aliens to things high-tech--lawyers and judges--and we must play by their rules.
Another strain of aliens--politicians--entered our high-tech world when IT vendors went to war against their own customers, the users. The first salvo from the legislators was the attempt to shift the costs of Y2K to customers via the Y2K Act. Next, the proposed Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act revisions to the Uniform Commercial Code (www.2BGuide.com), coming soon to a state legislature near you, will further erode customer rights while protecting poor software-quality practices. Somehow, biting the hand that feeds them doesn't seem like the best strategy for a healthy high-tech marketplace for vendors or their customers.
If an alien invasion of lawyers, judges, and legislators weren't bad enough, high-tech giants Unisys, GTE, and Xerox filed claims against their insurance companies to recover Y2K costs under centuries-old sue-and-labor clauses. Whether or not these claims have merit, insurers are the consummate litigators and lobbyists. They're not exactly the best choice of new enemy at a time when problems spawned by high tech may cause an avalanche of claims under property, business-interruption, liability, and other insurance coverages.
The ways of lawyers, legislators, insurers, and judges are alien to us. But we had better learn their ways if we're going to live successfully among them. Here are some tips about how they operate:
By the way, breaking up Microsoft into separate companies would be a win-win for everyone. An operating system company focused on quality, a stable platform, and interoperability strengthens its hold on the desktop. A stable platform means application companies (including Microsoft) will sell more goods to users who now fear of instability every time they install anything new. And techies get to spend less time patching and more time doing great new things.
Defeating alien invaders requires new ways of doing things. Y2K gave us the guidelines, so let's stick with the program.
Leon A. Kappelman is associate director of the Center for Quality and Productivity at the University of North Texas, and co-chair of the Society for Information Management's Year 2000 Working Group. Reach him at kapp@unt.edu.
ealing with Y2K has been a lot like responding to an alien invasion. Traditional rivalries between countries, within industries, and among trade associations were set aside to thwart the common enemy. Cooperation and communication increased in heretofore unseen ways among government agencies and company divisions, as well as across political boundaries. Inside the enterprise, techies, users, managers, lawyers, auditors, customers, and suppliers joined together, learned about each other and how they were inextricably interdependent, and came to realize that they were all reliant upon a technological infrastructure threatened by an alien bug.
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