This date change to the next millenium not only holds ramifications for communications companies dealing with customer service, network management and billing, but also for government agencies, private industry and anyone else relying on computers for their billing, recordkeeping and other essential tasks.
Dates are vital to computers.
Unfortunately for businesses, mid-range, mainframe and personal computers are all affected by this crisis. The year 2000 could result in computers that suddenly come to a halt and others that generate erroneous data, such as incorrect billing or checks. Two research reports indicate many companies will need to cut corporate earnings to account for the cost of the millennium fix as they find they are unable to fund their year 2000 projects from their information systems budgets. Several companies are aiming for the end of 1998 as the deadline for converting their dated code, a year ahead of the federal target. But many are not moving fast enough.