Business Management Systems is Y2K Compliant.  As we approach January 1, 2000, BMS feels it is important to share with you our efforts to ensure that the Year 2000 (or Y2K) has no impact on our systems or on your use of them.

Throughout the evolution of the computer industry, storage and memory capacity was limited. This meant that, in many instances, dates were reduced to six digits with two digits being used to indicate the year. For example a date of August 24, 1999 would often be represented by 08/24/99. With a six digit date, the year 2000 would be represented as “00”. Thus, some computer software cannot distinguish between 2001 and 1901, 2002 and 1902. Being ready for the Year 2000 simply means that computer hardware and software can “understand” this date change.

BMS has been planning for the year 2000 ever since its founding more than 20 years ago. This is a complex subject with many facets, which we will try to explain briefly.  Basically, systems consist of several levels starting with the hardware and ending with the application programs our customers use.  The levels in our systems are Hardware, Operating Systems, Application Environment Programs, and Application Programs.

Bethlehem Steel provided the following definition of Year 2000 Compliance:

     To be compliant a system/process must:

• Handle date information before, during and after midnight, December 31, 1999,          including, but not limited to, accepting date input; providing date output; and performing calculations and comparisons on dates or portions of dates.  Date interpretation and manipulation must be correct for all valid date values within the application domain.

• Function accurately and without interruption before, during, and after January 1, 2000, without any change in operations associated with the advent of the new century.

• Respond to two-digit date input in a way that resolves the ambiguity as to the century in a disclosed, defined, and predetermined manner. Interfacing software must make the same century assumptions when processing two-digit years.

• Process 2000 as a leap year.

• Correctly handle any date fields containing non-date information and correctly handle a date held in a non-date field.

• Correctly process any date with a year specified as "99" and "00", regardless of other subjective meanings attached to these values.

                         © 1998, Bethlehem Steel Corporation

Based on this Year 2000 Compliance Definition, we will analyze each of our system components.

 

Hardware

 

Servers	Terminals	PC's
Printers	Modems	Terminal Servers

BMS has two families of Servers (CPU's) installed at its customers’ sites. These are Motorola 88K RISC processors and Motorola PowerPC processors.  Motorola claims both families are Year 2000 compliant. Back

Terminals do not depend on internal real time clocks and are therefore unaffected by the Year 2000. Back

BMS has tested its PC's and it is safe to say that nothing the PC does should affect our systems.  The only problems might come from files you are storing locally or from older programs you are running on the PC. Back

Printers do not have internal real time clocks and are therefore unaffected by the Year 2000.
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Modems do not have internal real time clocks and are therefore unaffected by the Year 2000.
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Terminal Servers do not have internal real time clocks and are therefore unaffected by the Year 2000.  Back

This operating system is used on the Motorola 88K systems supported by BMS.  All systems are at Version R32V3.2.  This is not Y2K compliant but Motorola has a "patch" available to make it so.  We downloaded this patch and installed it on our 88K system.  Since everything worked OK, we then installed the patch on our customers’ systems.  This was accomplished before June 1999.  Back

Motorola certified that AIX 415R2 and higher are Y2K compliant.  Most of our customers were using earlier versions, so we installed AIX 415R2 at those sites.  This was a multi-step process and had very little impact on our customers other than the need to reboot their systems after each step in the process.  We finished this also before June 1999.  Back

Microsoft stated that both Windows 3.x and Windows 95 would continue to work properly through 2000 and beyond.  That does not mean that all application programs will work correctly.  We offered to help you determine if you have any problems and have solved all those presented. Back

Balance Tree Access System (BTAS) is BMS' application database file system.  It does not manipulate dates directly.  It stores dates in 32 bit binary format and uses UNIX time stamps.  It has been tested in Year 2000 situations and had no problems.  BMS certifies that BTAS is Year 2000 Compliant.  Back

Most of BMS' application programs currently run using an EDX Emulator.  We are moving to Java in our modernization efforts and this will replace the EDX Emulator.  We tested the emulator in the Year 2000 environment and experienced no problems.  BMS certifies that the EDX Emulator is Year 2000 Compliant.  Back

BMS' application package for Freight Forwarders and Custom Brokers was designed to be Year 2000 Compliant.  Dates are stored as 32 bit binary quantities calculated as the number of days since January 1, 4713 BC.  This system of date storage will be valid for several more millennia.  Two digit years may be entered and are interpreted using a moving window scheme.  Our window extends 10 years in the future and 90 years in the past.  Thus, 04 would be interpreted as 2004, while 12 would be interpreted as 1912.  In some cases, a date/time stamp is stored.  We use the UNIX format for this date that is a count of seconds since January 1, 1970.  This will remain valid until sometime in 2038.

Within AIRPEX, date processing is handled by a centralized set of routines linked to the individual programs at compile time.  As a result of our testing, we made some changes to these routines and we now assure that every program at every customer site has the fully compliant versions of these routines in place. If you haven’t already tested your version by now, you should do so.  Be sure to try dates in the year 2000 in your systems.  Probably the most sensitive test is February 29, 2000.  Although we don’t anticipate any problems, please let us know if you encounter any.  It takes just a few minutes to send out any corrections.

One problem that has an easy workaround is the matter of transaction numbers, which, of course, are not dates. AIRPEX uses an 8-digit number starting with the fiscal year.  The system will not accept a fiscal year of 00.  The solution is to name the fiscal year that otherwise would have been 00 to something else, for example 80, as long as it does not conflict with any existing records.  This results in a potential problem in the year 2080, but you will probably have purged 80-year old data long before then.  Back

Uniplex is Year 2000 compliant only in Version 9.  We have some customers using Version 7 and others with version 8.  The cost involved in upgrading is prohibitive.  We recommend that PC’s with standard office automation software, such as Microsoft Office, be provided to all users who are required to perform word processing and spreadsheet activities to assure Year 2000 compliance.  Back

The version of VSI*FAX that BMS had been installing is not certified Year 2000 compliant.  But the problems cited are minor and we believe the product will continue to be functional.  The upgrade to VSI*FAX Gold, which is Y2K compliant, is not recommended.  We will continue to evaluate other products and make a selection for installation before the end of 1999.  Back

We hope that this information will assist you in answering the multitude of surveys and questionnaires you are receiving.  Remember that you probably have other office machines that may have Y2K compliance problems.  Examples are postage meters, fax machines and copiers.  You will need to survey your equipment to see if any problems exist.  BMS will help you to the extent that it can.  Back