Limit functionality
One way to reduce the effort in getting your systems Year 2000 compliant is to reduce the functionality of the system. For example, try: "Sir, we have tickets in two prices. Do you want to sit in the front, or the back of the plane?"

One response you might make is that those extra features are necessary otherwise the competition will gain customers, because customers like choice. This is where triage becomes difficult. The basic assumption is that you don't have enough resources to do everything in the time remaining. So what will you do? What core of your systems will you save? You're right, there's a gun to your head. We all put it there by not addressing the Year 2000 problem earlier. So choose. What functionality do you keep? And what do you let slide?

So you need to make the tough decision and slim down the code and functionality and revert to bare bones bits and bytes in order to survive with some semblance of a system. Remember, triage is Hobson's choice.

Be risk-adverse
Naturally not all systems can be "slimmed down" without involving an entire re-write of the system, and this is NOT the time to be re-writing systems. At least not from scratch. Beware of the Year 2000 compliance strategy that has you installing a new hardware platform, or software environment for the first time. You're risking the organization on the roll of the dice to paraphrase some all but forgotten Canadian politician.

Meeting deadlines
One of the key components to the decision-making process for any information systems department when planning for the Year 2000 conversion, is your historical track record for meeting deadlines. Be honest here. On budget is of lesser consideration.

You can run over-budget on this project and still be left with a viable company. You cannot miss the deadline by three months and ask for forgiveness. There'll be no one around to dispense absolution.

Identifying systems to simplify
What systems are candidates for the slimmed down approach? Accounting comes to mind. If you can't fix your entire system in time, then perhaps it's time to look at an off the shelf product. Dun & Bradstreet and Great Plains Software have both announced their products are Year 2000 compliant. Perhaps they offer a way out of the quagmire we find ourselves in?

The trouble with packages is they never meet all your requirements. Only custom software does that, and if the truth be told, most times it does it poorly. You're lucky if an off-the-shelf package does 80% of what you want. The question you have to ask is, "does it do 90% of what we need?" Remember, in the Year 2000 crisis, need is defined as the core functions required to run the company.

Make tough decisions
If many organizations are to survive, then they'll have to make these types of decisions and make them soon. When push comes to shove, when your project to '2000-ize your accounting application is three months behind schedule and it's the last quarter of 1997, you must make what is called an executive decision. Those are the ones that justify the high salaries some managers get paid.