Getting more information

By now you're well into your Y2K strategy. Yeah, right. Why bother doing it now when there's many months left to worry about the problem? Despite all the warnings and advice, this is going to be the attitude many VARs take. So, when the panic does hit, where can you go for more information? In this column I look at the resources you have available to you: human, on-line, and paper-based. When the panic hits, this is where to go to get help, or at least get steered into the right direction.

First, there are a plethora of consultants making a fortune being Y2K experts. Before you sign on with any of them, make sure you are getting what you want. Check out references, experience, past practice, and shop around. While the market is tight for real knowledge, there are many consultants who will do Y2K stuff on the side. Some know their stuff, most don't. Be sure of your commitments, expectations, and deliverables before you start throwing money away with no forward progress.

Second, visit the local bookstore. My local Chapters had over a dozen books all dedicated to the Y2K problem. Most of them had similar contents and advice (after all, there's only so much to say about the issue), but one of these books would be a good starting place and reference for you during this period. Choose whichever is the most readable and informative for you. Look for a book that has really useful advice: many are full of generic lists of things you should do, but no indication of how to get them done. There will be many more books and magazine articles coming out on Y2K this year, so check them out to see if there's something you didn't know.

Then, get on line. There are several excellent sites that explain the Y2K problems and how to deal with them. One of the most popular is www.year2000.com. This site has been around for a while, developed and sponsored by one of the real Y2K experts Peter de Jager. There's a ton of information at year2000.com, so finding what you want may take a while. Be patient and read everything! There are extensive lists of FAQs, resumes of consultants, user groups, and vendors of Y2K products. There are links to other Y2K sites, and an archive of articles. Start by getting the FAQ file and go from there. If you hit only one site for Y2K information, this is it.

Keeping in the same vein, there's www.y2k.com. This deals with the legal and managerial aspects of coping with Y2K issues, as opposed to straight checklists and procedures. While most of the information at this site is designed for larger corporation, there is some handy advice about dealing with IS departments and US SEC rules for Y2K compliance.

Another good source of information is IBM's site www.ibm.com/IBM/year2000. This site is not IBM-specific although they do deal with that company's products extensively. Good items from the IBM site include instructions on making lists of software and hardware that need to be checked, compliancy matrices for software, and contact information for vendors. There's a handy explanation of how IBM's consultants are dealing with the Y2K problem that can be adapter for your own use. There's a good FAQ, too.

Microsoft has a Y2K-oriented section of its site, too, at www.microsoft.com/year2000. While this site deals with Microsoft's products primarily, this is a good place to check your own and your customer's Microsoft products for compliance. Although there's quite a bit of fluff at the site (such as a 20-minute on-line seminar about how Microsoft deals with Y2K), a visit to the site is necessary for most VARs.

To keep on top of the Y2K issues, check out the magazine on-line sites. Magazines like Network Computing, ComputerWorld and others all deal with Y2K issues on a regular basis and their articles are available for browsing or downloading. While there is no single source of information for Y2K at most of these sites, there are some interesting articles that deal with specific issues other sites may not touch (such as verifying routers and gateways). 

Finally, you should check out the user groups in your area. Most professional organizations have a user group, as do many vendors (such as the Mitel User's Group). These groups have lots of information about specific issue they are concerned about, and in many cases have real experience about solving problems. Finding out how someone else solved the problem is a lot better than trying many different techniques yourself. Although there's no single list of user groups across the country, most IT or IS people will know of the groups and can provide contact information. Check company Web sites, too, for local chapters of their user groups.

To close this column, a bit of advice from several people who have been working on Y2K for the last five years or so: document everything. Not only will an audit trail or log provide you with a record of what you've done, where the problems lie, and what is to be done, but there's also the need for the record in case of legal problems. Last column we talked about how legal issues about Y2K are still unresolved. Keeping a record of everything you've done is a first step to proving due diligence.