PC4 has been designed to assist organisations of all sizes to focus on assessing their potential Year 2000 business risk and simplifies the process of achieving Year 2000 compliance for both desktop hardware and applications. This is irrespective of whether the machines are standalone or networked. In addition, PC4 will produce a comprehensive profile of your installed base (hardware & software). The resultant report Year 2000 Blueprint, if used effectively, will enable you to accrue significant business benefit from the effort and cost associated with conducting a PC/Server Year 2000 project.

Hardware Resolution

Whether your machines are new, 12 months or 60 months old you need to prove that the hardware is Year 2000 compliant. In order to determine this, each machine should be tested and if a BIOS fault is found you have the option to either repair or schedule the fix for a later date. This work will be actioned with a minimum of disruption to the end-user and typically, takes less than 20 minutes per machine.

Application Resolution

Potentially and probably the most significant threat from the Year 2000 problem relates to date dependencies that reside within the typical application portfolio that organisations have become dependant upon. Because of the inconsistent date windowing techniques employed by some of the more popular software in use today, there is the potential for key business applications to generate erroneous results. Typically spreadsheets and data-base applications that manipulate the date within calculations are most at risk. For example, each version of MS-Excel uses a different windowing technique and some MS-Excel date functions do not employ a date windowing technique. They assume either "19" or the current century. In addition there are approximately 20 date/time-related functions in MS-Excel and if used incorrectly (i.e. the end-user specifies two-digit years only) then the spreadsheet may produce incorrect results.

In Office 97, many MS-Access and MS-Excel applications have been developed around the use of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Contrary to some beliefs, Visual Basic applications are just as likely to fail in the Year 2000. Furthermore, because of the over-confidence in Visual Basic, client/server and front-end systems built using VB could actually cause more of a problem than the legacy languages more identifiable with the Year 2000 problem.

The Solution?

PC4 allows you the opportunity to carry out a sampling exercise in order to determine the scale of any potential Year 2000 problem. This service has been designed specifically for key clients, we will audit both hardware and applications (up to 20 machines and a cross-section of applications) using a range of tools and visual checks. The work will be carried out over a two day period (one day on-site and one day off-site) and a report will be produced that details hardware compliance status, software inventory, results of Year 2000 compliance tests on a sample of both MS-Excel & MS-Access applications, licensing and training implications.

The recommendations contained within this report should be considered as a PC/Server Year 2000 survival "Blueprint". In addition we will make specific proposals with regards to benefits that may be accrued by organisations as they implement a Year 2000 PC compliance project.

The costs associated with PC4 will be quoted upon request. In order to progress matters towards achieving PC/Server, Year 2000 compliance across your business, please contact us.