Y2K is a major issue for management because if the computers are unable to interpret the correct date it could mean major confusion. Computer systems manage many different day to day operations such as replenishing inventories, essential human services, vital statistic and bank accounts. There are many things that could happen if computer systems malfunction.

Computerized inventory systems are very crucial to today's businesses. Our food supply system is a prime example. Farmers, food processors, transportation companies, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers all use information technology to get food from farm to the store. If one part of the system fails, the entire system is potentially shutdown.

Essential human services may shut down on January 1st. There are many, but just to name a few, Social security records might be wiped out. If vital statistics were erased there would be no record of things like marriages, births, deaths, etc.

The first issue that must be addressed by the Department of Defense is that of their mission critical systems. A mission critical system is any system that supports a core activity or process within an organization. Of the 25,000 systems in the federal government, 2,800 are deemed mission critical. Of these mission critical systems, more than 1200 belong to the DoD and require immediate attention. More than 1/3 of all government Y2K funding is going to the Department of Defense to resolve its year 2000 concerns.

The year 2000 problem will affect nearly every sort of business and organization that can be thought of in very many ways. Each organization will have to deal with specific problems related to their individual operations. What are to be discussed are the problems specific to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the problems specific to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Like the date extension method the pivot concept has no standard for pivot dates. A program that uses 30 as a pivot date will be incompatible and send "bad" date to a system that uses 50 as a pivot date.

Some common words found in the essay are:
III Patching, , DoD FDIC, Department Defense, Y2K They're, North Korea, Corporation FDIC, II Debugging, FDIC Convincing, Sources Inc, object oriented, object oriented programming, oriented programming, y2k compliant, procedural programming, mission critical, embedded chips, lines code, department defense, pivot date, computer systems, systems mission critical, mission critical systems, essential human services, january 1 2000,
Approximate Word count = 2998
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)