A small city approach.

• Author: Genito, Michael A.
• Position: Rye, NY's computer steering committee's solution to the year 2000 computer compliance problem

The City of Rye, New York, has a computer steering committee consisting of the city comptroller, the Management and Information Systems (MIS) coordinator, and a number of key department personnel. In 1997, the committee was assigned with researching and developing a plan to address the "year 2000 issue." The City of Rye is a community of 15,000 residents, 162 full-time employees, and total annual operating budgets of approximately $20 million.

The plan developed by the committee consisted of the following tasks:

* identify systems in use,

* contact manufacturers and vendors for year 2000 compliance information,

* test all systems for year 2000 compliance,

* develop a solution for systems which are not year 2000 compliant,

* monitor progress on a regular basis, and

* report as necessary to the city manager.

With the assistance of department personnel and vendors, we identified the variety of systems in use. This included financial systems, assessment and tax billing systems, public safety systems, and recreation systems. We obtained the make, model, serial number, type of processor, and any third party add-ons to the hardware we owned. For software, we obtained the manufacturer, program name, and version number. We also contacted the representatives of our outsourced payroll and insurance functions to ensure that their systems were year 2000 compliant.

In many cases, manufacturers have Web pages dealing specifically with year 2000 compliance. These pages may list the manufacturer's units which are compliant and those which are not compliant. They may also include free downloads of software "patches" that can make a noncompliant unit compliant, as well as free downloads of testing software. Many of the pages visited had links to other sites, frequently asked questions, and year 2000 compliance tips. In some cases we had to telephone, fax, e-mail, or write to a vendor. In all cases, we were able to receive a reasonable response to our questions.

We have completed most of our hardware tests and are continuing with software tests. Of the 45 personal computers and eight file servers, only two personal computers and one file server failed the compliance tests. Each of the failed units is over four years old and slated for disposal in 1998. Only one software system...