1. Communicate
a clear statement on what Esri means by Year 2000 compliance.
The cornerstone
for our support is Esri's Year 2000 compliance statement. This statement
defines what we mean when we say our software will not fail due
to the changeover to Year 2000 and beyond. Esri studied many of
the Year 2000 compliance standards and selected the criteria established
by the British Standards Institution (BSI) DISC PD2000-1, "A
Definition of Year 2000 Conformity Requirements," as the compliance
criteria for Esri software.
Esri YEAR
2000 COMPLIANCE STATEMENT
DEFINITION:
"Year 2000 Compliant" shall mean that neither performance
nor functionality of Esri software, when used in accordance with
its documentation, is affected by dates prior to, during, and after
the year change from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, provided
all other software, hardware, firmware, and accurate date data used
with the Esri software properly exchange date data with the Esri
software.
Table 1
YEAR 2000 CONFORMITY
REQUIREMENTS
Rule 1. No value
for the current date will cause any interruption in operation.
Rule 2. Date-based
functionality must behave consistently for dates prior to, during,
and after Year 2000.
Rule 3. In all
interfaces and data storage, the century in any date must be specified
either explicitly or by unambiguous algorithms or inferencing rules.
Rule 4. Year
2000 must be recognized as a leap year.
The Year 2000
compliance statement is on our Year 2000 Web site and can also be
obtained from Esri's Contracts Department.
2. Provide
a compliance rating for each product release.
Esri maintains
a status report on the level of Year 2000 compliance for each of
its software releases. Our feeling is that it is most effective
for us to issue a compliance statement for every product release.
In other words, we classify each release instead of providing one
overall rating for each product.
Esri has classified
each product release into one of five categories: compliant, compliant
with minor issues, not compliant, testing, yet to be completed,
and will not test. See Table 1 for the descriptions of these categories
of compliance.
All minor issues
are documented and fully described. All the up-to-date information
for each product release is maintained at Esri's Year 2000 Web site.
3. Ship products
that are Year 2000 compliant beginning in 1998.
Beginning in
1998, Esri began shipping new product releases that meet our Year
2000 compliance criteria. All future product releases will be certified
to meet these criteria as well. The rating for new releases will
be either "Compliant" or "Compliant with minor issues,"
as described in the compliance rating section above. Whenever possible,
you should move to these new applications in your organization in
a well-coordinated, managed transition.
4. Provide
a Year 2000 Web site for Esri customers.
Esri is posting
important product information and guidance on Year 2000 issues on
a new Esri Web site. This site is publicly available for our customers
to easily get information about topics such as
- Esri's Year
2000 compliance statement
- Compliance
ratings for each release
- Known issues
in each release
- Descriptions
of date handling and support in each product
- Frequently
asked questions about Year 2000
- Descriptions
of Year 2000 certification tests
- Helpful tips
on ensuring your site is Year 2000 ready
- Links to
other important Year 2000 Web sites maintained by vendor-related
products such as hardware, operating systems, and RDBMS. Frequently
asked questions about Year 2000
- Descriptions
of Year 2000 certification tests
- Helpful tips
on ensuring your site is Year 2000 ready
- Links to
other important Year 2000 Web sites maintained by vendor-related
products such as hardware, operating systems, and RDBMS.
Esri's Year
2000 public Web site is found at www.esri.com/y2000
At this Web
site, you can select specific software releases of interest to you
and access reports that list the compliance level and relevant Year
2000 support information for each software release. These reports
also include useful information about date support and handling
in each product. The Web site also has an E-mail alias where you
can send further questions and inquiries about Year 2000 issues.
Information
on this site is frequently updated so you should visit it periodically.
Compliance information on new software and new versions of Esri
software will be added to this site.
5. Develop
tests and publish test criteria for Year 2000 compliance.
Many users have
asked for details on our Year 2000 test criteria for Esri software.
The tests themselves involve many steps to configure all of the
computer platforms supported by Esri and to run a series of automated
and interactive test scenarios to ensure Year 2000 compliance. The
process involves isolating the computers and networks, setting system
clocks ahead to high-risk dates such as February 29, 2000, running
the test suites in a systematic way, and analyzing test results.
Our tests are
based on the British Standards Institution DISC PD2000-1 rules for
conformity as described above. For each rule, Esri has created appropriate
tests for each of its product releases. Because of the exceptional
system configurations (from setting system dates for the future),
as well as the complexity and totality of the tests, Esri cannot
share its actual test suites with users. Instead, Esri provides
a description of the test criteria used at its Web site. These test
descriptions define the actions we tested with various system configurations
and system clock dates. The accompanying article, "ArcInfo Test Criteria," provides an example of the test
criteria for ArcInfo.
6. Provide
our customers with a checklist on how to successfully make the Year
2000 transition.
Esri wants to
help its customers plan for their Year 2000 transition and to approach
the problem systematically. To support this effort, Esri plans on
a comprehensive program to provide you with helpful information
to plan for Year 2000 compliance at your site. This includes providing
the information at our Web site, sessions at user conferences, as
well as future mailings to customer sites. The goal is to provide
you with helpful tips on how to make the transition with GIS software.
The side bar "A Checklist for Year 2000 Compliance" details
some of the steps you will need to go through to plan your transition.
7. Help users
move from older releases to compliant releases.
Often, many
users have older releases of Esri software running on older hardware
with older operating systems. There can be issues with testing these
platforms for Year 2000 compliance, or it may already be clear that
certain releases are not compliant. In this situation, the best
course is to move to compliant software releases. Esri and its distributors
are set to help users in this situation make the move forward. If
you need help making this transition, please contact your regional
office or an international distributor if you are located outside
of the United States.
8. Provide
strong Year 2000 support for each product.
Esri continues
to test its products for Year 2000 compliance and to provide technical
support on Year 2000 issues you may encounter. We have technical
support staff available to customers for Year 2000 technical issues.
This will ensure that you have access to a person who has a thorough
understanding of these issues and how dates are handled in each
product.
Summary
Planning for
the Year 2000 transition is important and can be done successfully.
However, it is a complex procedure because of the various levels
of technology involved and the varied compliance standards for each
vendor.
It will take
time to ensure that you are ready. It is good to get started now
on your Year 2000 transition plans. A good place to start will be
to visit and spend some quality time at Esri's Year 2000 Web site.
It provides useful information and a framework for thinking about
the issues involved as well as links to other key sites you will
need to visit.
