Budget support for Year 2000 projects is often found from more conservative senior management staff such as finance. Request an amount to do planning and costing then an out of cycle request when total cost is known. Seek vendor help with budget estimation and executive presentations. Be aware that some costing software will overstate costs because it assumes all code much be changed. Year 2000 consultants sometimes use such software.
Some software tools can help with estimating time and conversion costs.
This includes determining what the vendor believes the compliance level to be, any plans for fixing problems and checking that vendors are correct that indicate their code is accurate. Vendor responses are often vague. Vendors may not inform customers if they find they were in error when they claimed compliance . A language or database type can be compliant but the application noncompliant. Solutions for Obtaining Vendor Compliance Approach vendors at user conferences to request information and influence bringing products into compliance and testing.