Content area
Full text
Will January 1, 2000 be a day of reckoning or relief for the nation's foodservice chains?
Come that date, will executives be drowning their collective software sorrows in favorite libations at local bars, or hoisting brews in celebration of a technological disaster averted?
The .increasingly publicized computer glitch known as the "Millennium Bug;' "Year 2000 Problem," or simply,""Y2K,"is easily explained yet tedious and complex to solve. Curing it requires a line-by-line rewriting of software code so computers will be able to handle four-digit references to years, and not mistake the year 2000 for the year 1900. The problem stems from the dawn of the computer age when programmers referred to years by their last two digits in order to save on costly data storage.
Debate about the extent of damage Y2K might cause is loud and furious, but many of the positions are little more than speculation.
While senior executives at many foodservice companies are keenly aware of the potential chaos, they also seem supremely confident of their well-organized plans to beat the clock and avoid what some believe could amount to a computing Armageddon. Nation's Restaurant News interviewed 10 operators of large or prominent restaurant chains and they seem well-prepared for the new millennium, employing a variety of Y2K approaches to suit their different operating formats, cultures,geographic spread and willingness to spend.
This is a far cry from two years ago, when sources told editors of Nation's Restaurant News that some of the top chains lacked a well-documented strategy, and estimates for solving the problem nationally were a whopping $260 billion. Many operators, it appears, have gotten in gear and that's become known, in part, because of United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) rules.
The SEC now requires public companies to update shareholders on efforts to recognize and solve potential Y2K problems. Among the companies complying with the rule, Chi-Chi's and El Torito owner Family Restaurants Inc. said it "expects to spend approximately $2 million" to become Year 2000 compliant, and Tricon Global Restaurants reported that the favorable cash flow effects from large writeoffs would benefit Year-2000 preparations.
Today it is common for companies to make obvious to all departments the challenge posed by Y2K, but effective internal communication is only the start....