Business Services Industry

Maintaining your buildings into the next century

Real Estate Weekly, Oct 21, 1998 by Thomas E. Cook

As for "it was the worst of times," all those wonderful computers that I just talked about could cause some serious problems for us as we enter the year 2000. While we should not panic, we do need to do some due diligence. The culprit here is not the "computer" per se, but rather the memory chip embedded deep within a multitude of electronic equipment. The chip's purpose is to sort date-sensitive information. The problem occurs when the chip stores the year in its memory by designating the last two digits only. In a nutshell, the chip cannot differentiate between the year 2000 and the year 1900, since the last two digits are the same.

How did this happen? Back in the 70's, when computers were in their infancy, memory (storage space) was at a premium. To save space, programmers eliminated the first two digits of the year, and assumed that when technological advances were made, the original programs would become obsolete. The thought was that new programming would correct the problem upon the introduction of computers with a greater memory capacity. What actually happened, however, was that programmers realized it would be a lot cheaper and more efficient to "patch" existing programs rather than to write new ones. Unfortunately, the concern for what would happen in the year 2000 was not in the forefront of our minds back in the 70's. Each succession of programmers hoped the next generation would solve the problem, and we lulled ourselves into complacency.

Okay, so the chip doesn't know whether the year is 1900 or 2000. So what? This is where due diligence comes into play. If all that the chip controls is where you stored the letter you wrote last week, that location will simply be listed in the wrong chronological order. But if that chip controls your electronic elevator, it could "read" that the elevator had not been maintained in 99 years and send the disastrous message for it to "shut down."

There are basically three ways we anticipate computer equipment will react to the year 2000 problem. The first, which is what most people are hoping for, is that computers will simply display the wrong date. The second is that the chip will shut down the equipment, which will have to be reset, but which will continue to operate with the wrong date. The third is that the chip will "crash," totally shutting down the equipment and its ability to re-start. So the extent of the "disaster" really depends on the kinds of equipment/operations the chip controls.

Speaking of dates, let's not forget that the problem is not just 1/1/00. Computer programmers years ago often used the date 9/9/99 as a stop for the computer performing a cyclical calculation. The other date to watch out for is 3/1/00. Does the chip recognize the year 2000 as a leap year? There are more specific dates associated with this problem.

As you can see, depending on the amount of chips used in your facility, this could be a substantial problem. So where do you go for help? There are many sources of good information. Professional real estate publications and organizations are an excellent source. One book that I have found particularly helpful is "Meeting the Year 2000 Challenge" published by BOMA (http://www.boma.org/year2000). Other informative web sites are www.year2000.com; www.sba.gov./y2k; http://y2k.1mi.org/gsa/y2kproducts.>With the proper information, you can take the necessary steps to develop a plan to address the problem. There are also many consultants who specialize in this field. Your strategy should include at least three steps: identification, testing and solutions. It is prudent to have a contingency plan for all critical systems because they could have imbedded chips that have not been identified. Armed with the proper information, you can ensure that the "best of times" that we are currently enjoying - with a good economy and fully occupied buildings-continues well into the 21 st Century.