Cutter Consortium - This organization based in Massachusetts provides Year 2000 related assessment services to government agencies in three main categories: IT, Network and Telecom Systems, Facilities and Building Systems, and Supply-Chain Business Risks. *IT, Network and Telecom Systems: Even if your agency has identified the mission-critical systems that put it at risk for system failure, such as accounting, inventory control, and billing, there are other systems that could also cause problems. Those areas include communications networks and telephone systems, PCs that operate on a LAN, LAN operating systems, generic PC applications and print servers. The consortium's assessment of a facility helps determine the areas of risk, develop a triage plan, determine the best testing methods, assist with contingency planning and help assess potential legal ramifications. *Facilities and Building Systems: A noncompliant infrastructure may be as great a threat as failure of a PC system. Failed infrastructures can do physical harm to employees or inmates. An assessment by Cutter includes a physical plant and building systems audit, identification of systems that may need Y2000 remediation like HVAC or fire alarms, and contingency planning. *Supply-Chain Business Risks: Gauging external business risks posed by Y2000 failure by suppliers, subcontractors and others can help ensure operations will continue to run smoothly. In a best case scenario, an agency can assess where potential problems lie and replace those suppliers, but often a contingency plan is needed. The consortium can help ensure an agency has identified risks in core business relationships and help establish necessary contingency plans. For more information, call 781-641-5122 or visit the website at www.cutter.com/consortium. .

CARA Corporation - The CARA Corporation provides problem impact training for agencies of all kinds, including corrections. This training provides staff members with a clear understanding of the year 2000 problem. As part of the training, participants learn: *what can happen to various types of systems, *the location and impact of Y2000 problems found in various other businesses, *how to develop a 'best practices' compliance project, *what Y2000 compliance means and how to minimize costs associated with it, *how to identify a supplier/customer chain, *how to develop a viable contingency plan, and *what outside capabilities are available to aid your agency. The courses are available in a one-hour format for executives, four-hour courses for general awareness of the Y2000 problem, four-hour courses for technical staff and an eight-hour course for Y2000 project personnel. CARA's Millennium Validation Process also offers a process that enables corporations to continue to process data after the year 2000 roll over. Clients receive Risk Assessment of Year 2000 Business Plans, Year 2000 Milestone Reviews, Review of Initial Testing Techniques and Results, Review of Existing Contingency, Disaster Recovery and Manual Systems Plans and Thorough Validation Testing of Critical Systems to Ensure Y2K Compliance. In addition CARA's ARM2000 Team works with a client's IT department to get involved with system end users, corporate management, internal and external auditors, and corporate legal departments. For information, contact David Hall at (630) 368-2823, email dhall@caracorp.com or visit the website at www.caracorp.com.

ViaSoft - ViaSoft's OnMark 2000 BIOS Test & Fix software has been used by corrections organizations with success. The OnMark 2000 BIOS Test is a date-safe test of the Real Time Clock and Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) operation of personal computers. The test evaluates the ability of a system's RTC and BIOS to produce accurate dates as the clock rolls over from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. The product also evaluates the ability of the BIOS to manage year 2000 dates after a system reboot. BIOS Fix is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program to correct Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) date management deficiencies, for year 2000 dates and beyond. According to the company, in most cases, installing OnMark 2000 BIOS Fix software corrects this problem and ensures that year 2000 system dates will be correctly set. For more information on how the free OnMark 2000 BIOS Test & Fix works, call (888)VIASOFT or visit the website at www.viasoft.com

Compuware - Time-Dimensional Testing Tools can be useful for agencies working to locate Y2K bugs in mainframe systems. There are several products Compuware offers that fit the bill. The QAHiperstation captures user input across multiple terminals and applications, stores the information in scripts and then consistently replays those transactions with simulated date inputs. The XPEDITER/Xchange enables testers to precisely control and modify system dates that are passed to applications. The Abend-AID XLS and CICS Abend-AID/FX speeds error-resolution performed in a test by detecting all application and CICS region failures and analyzing captured information so the problem can be resolved quickly. For more information, contact Compuware at (800) 521-9353 or visit the website at www.compuware.com

TAVA Technologies - This company provides step-by-step methodology for identifying, prioritizing, and fixing Y2K compliance problems with its product Method Y2kOne. The process is conducted in four major stages. Within each stage, the methodology organizes the work into phases to simplify project management, resource and staff allocation. The assessment stage begins by developing a project scope and determining the resources and staff requirements. TAVA Technologies can provide trained personnel to supplement a customer's engineering staff. Next, a detailed profile of the production environment and a list of the systems and components is developed, and system architecture documentation is updated or created. System components are inventoried, identifying all workstations, minicomputers, PCs and laptops, as well as microprocessor-based equipment. Technicians examine each component to inventory all operating systems, packaged software for operation and maintenance, and custom code. The analysis stage compares every component on the inventory list with TAVA Technologies' Compliance Y2kOne database repository to determine which hardware, operating systems or application software are likely to fail. At this phase, custom code and product specific scripts are inspected, tested and documented. During impact analysis, which is the final phase, known failures are prioritized in terms of their impact on the systems and on the plant operations that they support. The company also provides Conversion Planning, which begins with the customer's technical staff and TAVA's engineers collaborating to develop a strategy for implementing the necessary systems corrections. Planning includes preparation of cost estimates and work schedules for the recommended projects based on the importance to the system, correction, cost and time requirements. The final initiative in bringing a plant's systems into compliance is implementation and testing of the various conversion projects. For more information, call (800) 825-2958 or visit the website at www.tavatech.com/home.

For more information about vendors related to Y2K, visit the following websites: http://www.y2k.policyworks.gov/ , http://www.itaa.org/Year2000.htm, http://www.gao.gov/y2kr.htm .