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COMPUTING

From...

Users finding Y2K PC flaws needles in haystacks

December 22, 1998
Web posted at: 9:40 AM EST

by David Orenstein

(IDG) -- Finding year 2000 problems on desktop PCs is a taxing, time-consuming job, but users are confident they don't have many to find.

"The number of applications with actual flaws [is] very small," said Doug Bowman, who's managing the end-user application effort at Barclays Global Investment NA in San Francisco. The bad news, he said, is that finding those flaws is still crucial and very time-consuming.

"You just don't know if you've gotten everything," said Tom Farrington, who's leading Amoco Corp.'s year 2000 efforts. The company is about 95% done fixing its desktop operating systems software and about 90% of the way through its office and custom-built applications. Still, small pockets among tens of thousands of independent computers can elude an inventory and the compliance status of products can be hard to nail down.

Despite the hand-wringing going on in the data center, most users surveyed by Computerworld last week said they don't expect fixing desktop PCs and software to be tough work. Of 102 companies with more than 100 employees, 73% said year 2000 problems on the desktop will be minor, and 68% said they will be easy to find and fix. But more than half the companies have roped 20% or more of their information technology staff into the effort, and only one-third are reinforcing them with consultants

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Desktop PCs don't house the millions of lines of mission-critical code that mainframes do, but many essential end-user reports and spreadsheets lurk in every corner of a company. And the systems that host them often aren't under IT's constant supervision and control.

At Barclays, for example, the desktop workload includes about 45,000 user-created spreadsheets and databases in the U.S. and Canada. Overseas divisions of the company bring Barclays' total to 130,000 potentially problematic desktop files.

Most of the software that CNF Transportation Inc. has inventoried requires patches and upgrades to become compliant, said David L. Phelan, a spokesman for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based freight carrier. CNF is in the process of administering those patches in numerous locations worldwide.

Bowman's quest to find a few sharp needles in a haystack is typical of many companies' experiences. What's uncommon is that Bowman is a consultant at DMR Consulting Group Inc. in Edison, N.J. Most firms aren't hiring consultants to address their desktop environments, no matter how big the task.

"It's done so less than for the large systems," said Andrew Bochman, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston. "I think it's a 'not-as-big-a-deal' perception." Outside consultants and services aren't necessarily much help on the desktop because end-user applications are highly customized and require business expertise, according to Gartner Group Inc. analyst Jim Duggan.

In a mainframe environment, outsiders can fix millions of lines of code once they're up to speed on an application, but there are many more individual applications on desktops, each with a learning curve.

The Home Depot Inc. in Atlanta has used little outside help on year 2000 because it didn't think outsiders would have specific expertise, said Ron Kerr, senior manager of information systems. "There is a ramp-up time savings because we know the systems," he said.

Kerr said the hardware retailer has addressed all of its corporate desktops, where Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite is being upgraded to the more compliant '97 version. Now Home Depot is turning its focus toward the PCs in its 735 stores. Most of those will be easier to fix because they run simpler and fewer applications. Necessary BIOS upgrades or patches can be administered from a central site at headquarters.

Bowman, however, maintains that problems are usually apparent and that DMR consultants will talk directly with a user whenever nuances need to be understood. CNF used contractors because it wanted to retain its IT staff to provide the normal level of service.

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