If you're short of manpower you might need the services of another company to assist. There are many claiming to be 'Year 2000 experts', when in fact they're management consultancies, software houses or resellers that have been in business for many years but have jumped on the bandwagon. It's essential to check any company's credentials, and we've included a few pointers in Year 2000 consultancies . A number of things became apparent during our testing. First, the BIOS errors are the only Year 2000 errors on PCs that can be automatically tested for, and they're easy to find and fix.
Many packages offer a range of extra tests, none of which is particularly useful.
For example, some check whether the BIOS understands that 2000 is a leap year. This would be a valid test were it not for the fact that no leap year bug has ever been discovered. There were reports of mistakes in this area some time ago, but this proved to be incorrect behaviour in the testing software used at the time. Some packages do offer valid extra value in the automated testing and subsequent repair of machines on a network. If you have to check a lot of PCs, these can make life easier.