TIME for a change?

Given the `doom and gloom' headlines generated this year by the realisation that there actually is a huge IT problem heading our way, you would be forgiven in thinking that Nostradamus had something after all. Or perhaps he was just a Cobol programmer old before his time? If so, he would be in great demand at the moment.

There is no doubt that most of the larger computer systems likely to be infected with the millennium bug - or, more prosaically, to have been programmed with only two-digit date fields that can't tell 1900 from 2000 - are `legacy' mainframe systems still ruling the roost over financial services, big business operations and, ironically, government departments.

Ironically, because the previous government was a little late to this particular millennium party. Although it set up Taskforce 2000 last year to promote awareness of the problem, the DTI's efforts were only getting into full swing earlier this year. And other government agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive are only now addressing the wider issues of the Year 2000 problem, such as its impact on real-time and embedded systems in industry.

The HSE has commissioned Glasgow-based Real Time Engineering to prepare a report on such systems and the potential effect of their failure on workplace safety. According to Real Time's technical director Jim Henderson, `one of the most important things is appreciating the scale of potential problems. For example, safety systems are highly reliable under normal circumstances because of dual or triple back-up systems, but there is no protection against the millennium problem. If one system fails, it will quickly be followed by the failure of any stand-by or back-up system that has not been made Year 2000 compliant.' Real Time's report is to be published in December, leaving just 24 months for action.

Meanwhile, back in the world of big business, companies like Esso UK have been working on their mainframes since as early as 1995. Esso is confident that it can solve all its problems in time, but even so its total `repair' bill could be as high as £15million. That is just for its own in-house supported systems, of course. Third party systems supported by vendors - such as process control systems, for instance - are another issue and one which is generating a great deal of activity.

You always know when IT suppliers think they have a market for a new product - they create a three-letter acronym for it. So, the Y2K compliant system was born. Last month, for example, Wonderware announced that all the components of its FactorySuite automation packages are Year 2000 compliant and allow users to easily upgrade older applications without having to re-engineer the applications completely. According to Wonderware's Joe Cowan, the problem is that `anyone using DOS or earlier 16-bit Windows versions of their HMI (human machine interface) products have never been able to upgrade application programs with just a few mouse clicks, so they will be forced to develop completely new applications from scratch if they want to make use of the Year 2000 compliance in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95'.

A novel alternative to such re-engineering is offered by Intellution. The company says it will buy back any manufacturer's non-compliant Scada or batch software, up to a maximum value of £50 000, if the user agrees to replace it with an Intellution product.

Fisher-Rosemount, Intellution's sister company in the Emerson Electric group, is not going quite that far, but it has implemented a comprehensive, five-step process to ensure that all its customers need have no worries about Year 2000. The process can include product revisions, a software `workaround' the problem, or simply an economic migration path to a newer product.

Next month's CIM show (see page s22) will inevitably be featuring Y2K solutions from the key IT vendors, including one set up in 1994 solely to tackle the problem. Millennium UK has, in association with ERA Technology, developed a service for users of those embedded systems - special purpose hardware, programmable controllers and PC-based systems - that are currently concerning the HSE.