Zero Is A Number

The more you know, the worse it looks — IBM chief scientist on the Y2K problem

AND the worse it looks, the better is the booty. The Year 2000 (Y2K) problem—where, because of a technical slip, terrabytes of data in thousands of companies across scores of countries will be rendered useless—is turning out to be one of the best solutions for the Indian software sector in general and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in particular.

The Y2K problem exists because the basic programmes running the vast majority of the world's computers think years are two-digit, not four. At the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999, they will start believing they are in 00 and not 2000. All calculations done till that day involving the future—for example, loan recoveries—will go haywire, since for the computers, the past would become the future: they would see 1997 (97 to them) as 97 years ahead instead of three years behind. TCS, India's largest computer software developer, has set up a 70,000 sq ft facility at the Ambattur Industrial Estate in Chennai.Here, more than 1,000 professionals working with IBM mainframe systems of high processing power, will attempt to solve the Y2K problem. Project cost: Rs 100 crore.

The key feature of the Chennai facility is in automating the process of software development. Says F.C. Kohli, deputy chairman, TCS: "What we are attempting to do is to define the process, assign entry and exit criteria for each task, automate performance of many tasks through software tools and complete the work within a given time cycle." Connecting this facility to New York will be an 'information tube'. Current capacity: 512 kilobytes per second; future capacity: 2 megabytes per second. The company is also planning to tie up with other major European, Australian and West Asian hubs. For TCS, Y2K is big business. Though some projections see Y2K as a $600-billion conundrum, Kohli is realistic: "While many companies will replace their applications rather than change only for Y2K, it is yet a $300-billion (Rs 1,080,000 crore) opportunity." Even the smallest fraction of this business will be big, really big.

TCS executive vice-president S. Mahalingam is prepared. According to him, TCS has tools that can assess the impact of the 'year' field held in systems. "We also have tools in the language processing area that can automatically convert the programs for making Y2K changes," he says. What's more, M2—TCS' tool suite for the IBM mainframe—is sold as a product as well as used internally. Their AS/400 tool suite, Y2kit/400, is now available as a stand-alone tool. At Ambattur, the company hopes to process about 2 million line codes a day.

According to him, this 'factory' will produce 3,000 to 4,000 additional professionals who will get absorbed in the Indian software industry. "We see this as a long-term opportunity, and expect to provide additional software services to our clients well after the year 2000 has come and gone".

Mahalingam claims that TCS is involved in more than 85 different Y2K assignments currently, its client base extending from the US and Europe to the Middle East and Australia. Says he: "The accent is on providing value addition to the Y2K conversion process." This facility captures the systems details into a repository which will not only be used for the conversion itself, but will also becomes useful for future reengineering and/or maintenance requirements.

A recent article in The Economist advised: "The correct response to millennium bug is not dismay but humility because these extraordinary occurrences can be predicted with hindsight." To make that a foresight, TCS is looking beyond Y2K. A looming opportunity lies ahead: the change from the existing seven-digit telephone numbers in the US to eight. TCS hopes to be there.