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- Battling the Y2K bug has become a nightmare
for many small businesses.
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- Problems in trying to deal with the computer
glitch that could happen if systems operating on two-digit dates treat
the year 2000 as the year 1900 range from crashes to hidden costs to insurance
risks.
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- Giovanna Cracchiolo, president of a San
Francisco-based equipment-leasing company, says a free compliance test
she downloaded from the Internet last month caused both her computers to
shut down.
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- "Everything - all my tax information,
sales database, the Web page I was designing - was inaccessible,"
Cracchiolo says. She had to pay a data recovery company $1,600 and got
90% of her reports back.
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- Dumping old computers for new ones can
be frustrating, too. Bright Image President Atiq Jilani thought spending
$20,000 on new computers would solve his Y2K problems. But that was just
the beginning.
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- "The hard drive was compliant, but
the software wasn't," Jilani says.
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- Other problems facing small businesses:
* They're vulnerable to scams because many lack employees with the computer
skills to verify that software labeled "Y2K ready" really is
Y2K ready, says Jason Ferris of computer diagnostics company Micro2000.
* Insurance companies are saying they won't cover business lost or damages
incurred from computer crashes. Jodi Romano of Baskerville Communications
says her publishing firm is stepping up efforts to become compliant after
her insurance company said last month it will not cover Y2K-related issues.
* A House-passed bill prohibiting lawsuits for the first 90 days of 2000
could make matters even worse for small enterprises, says Leon Kappelman,
a computer consultant and a member of President Clinton's Y2K Council.
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- Between 50 and 80 Y2K-related lawsuits
have been filed so far.
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- While businesses have speeded up checks
for computer glitches, about 73% of those with fewer than 500 employees
say they don't have contingency plans to cover possible Y2K disruptions,
according to an Institute of Management Consultants survey released Thursday.
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- Only about 25% of larger businesses report
having no contingency plans.
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- Many small businesses don't realize this
is more than a "quick-go-check-my-computers" issue, says Lynn
Hoopingarner of the institute.
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- "They tend to deal with whatever's
in their face and are not notorious for long-term contingency planning,"
she says.
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