Will Your Year-2000 Compliance Happen? What are your remedies?

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With the Year 2000 clearly in sight, organizations the world over are enlisting the help of software and hardware companies, programmers, experts and consultants -- and it's no party. How can you be certain that these people, responsible for attaining your organization's Year-2000 compliance, actually deliver?! Furthermore, when and if they do, will it be:

• On time?
• Meeting all compliance criteria?
• With full protection of your interests?
• While addressing all facets of the conversion challenge?

There is no second chance. And with all the problems that could arise and all the vendors you will have to deal with, you need protection and you need it today.

A once-in-a-century opportunity

For these reasons, ICN has formed a partnership with the prestigious law firm of Budd Larner Gross Rosenbaum Greenberg & Sade, with Peter Frazza as Project Director. This partnership will provide a comprehensive source of assistance to our clients to ensure that they successfully address the issues surrounding the timely and thorough achievement of Year-2000 compliance.
This vital partnership service is available to assist you with management, negotiations, legal responsibilities, acquisitions and supplier accountability as they relate to the issues that attend Year-2000 compliance.

We share your concern

The problems posed by the Year-2000 date change will not go away, and they must be addressed immediately to allow time for testing and verifying solutions. In truth, failure to act now in a comprehensive and thorough manner can introduce expensive and very sticky legal ramifications into an already intimidating scenario in the future.

Consider these situations!

1. You hire a firm or some independent consultant to help with achieving Year-2000 compliance. Question: What happens if they don't deliver? Will you accept the statement, "We're sorry we missed getting everything compliant this century. We'll try to do better next century!"
   
2. Those Year-2000-compliant people you hired left in the middle of the job to work for someone else who offered more money! Question: How high do you think the bidding will go for people who can do the job? (How many people do you know who can program in COBOL?)
   
3. Your current third-party software providers are telling you everything is being taken care of, but they don't share any of the risk or cost of compliance? Question: Do your contracts address fully the issue of accountability? In fact, do they even mention it?! What are your options?
   
4. You make sure suppliers warrant that their new software complies with Year-2000 requirements. Question: But what if it doesn't ... completely? Will it interact homogeneously with existing systems? Where exactly is the line of responsibility drawn?
   
5. Your conversion efforts are guaranteed to be completed by December 31, 1999. No problem. Question: That's great! But will you get the time to test and verify the changes before the new year?
   
6. You have all new equipment, so this Y2K hoopla doesn't apply to you, right? Question: Well almost. Unfortunately the brand-new computers and software you just bought may still have Y2K problems. So now what?
   
7. You've got it all under control. In fact, other companies are using your Y2K conversion as an example of how to achieve compliance with no interruption of business! Question: But ... have you made certain that your suppliers are equally as prepared? It is good that they are trying, but what if they don't succeed? What will happen to your business flow if a supplier can't deliver because he's still mired in compliance?

We're here to help you

We have heard your concerns at our public workshops and conferences. We've listened to you during visits to your facilities and in casual conversations. You want to know, with certainty, that the experts you've engaged are doing their job, and will finish completely, on time - you want it in writing.
What can we do for you? We can help you make certain that you are, indeed, covering all the bases. (Why should they take all the money, and you take all the risk?) With our combined experience, we offer assistance in several areas that include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Assist in the RFP process for, and the negotiation and drafting of, agreements for: the assessment phase, project officer/project offices, and the conversion and testing phase of all Year-2000 projects.
• Analyze existing hardware and software license agreements to determine Year-2000 exposure.
• Assist in the procurement of addenda for all existing hardware and software agreements; which addenda will procure Year-2000 representations and warranties from vendors.
• Provide legal and business advice with respect to Year-2000 projects.
• Provide you with reliable information on the issues of: management and legal, copyright, overseas service providers, bank examination, accounting and auditing, director, security, and vendors abandoning products.
• Draft and review Year-2000 provisions in new licenses.
• Assist with due diligence forms.
• Get you up and running on Contract Manager Software. The ideal tool for managing, not only your Year-2000 contracts, but all your organizations contracts.

Put our experience to work solving your problems. Contact ICN's general manager, Suzanne Curry, at (407) 740-0700 to discuss your needs and ideas or E-mail her at suzanne@dobetterdeals.com. Don't hesitate. After all, the next century should start with a bang, not a bomb.

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