AN OPEN LETTER TO THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY December 17, 1997 AN OPEN LETTER TO THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY SUBJECT: U.S. Government Acquisition of Year 2000 Compliant Products Today, information technology helps Federal agencies deliver a wide variety of services that directly affect the health, welfare, and security of every citizen of the United States. Unless government and industry work together, however, some of those information technology systems may not be able to meet their important missions at the turn of the century due to their inability to accommodate the change from the year 1999 to the year 2000. We write to ask you to work with us to solve this critical problem. The government and information technology industry must work together on this problem to ensure that Federal agencies acquire only products and systems that are or will be year 2000 compliant. This coordinated effort is necessary to ensure that our citizens receive necessary services upon which they depend. We have taken a number of steps to assure year 2000 compliance in Federal information technology. In January of 1997 the Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council agreed that Federal agencies would not purchase products that are not year 2000 compliant. On August 22, 1997, a refined definition of year 2000 compliance was included in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) (Federal Acquisition Circular No. 97-01, 62 Fed Reg 44830, August 22, 1997). Federal agencies follow the FAR in procurement, and the new definition provides common language that we are using. On October 10, 1997 the President signed the Treasury-Postal Appropriation (PL. 105-61), which codified the policy that Federal agencies will not buy information technology unless it is year 2000 compliant as defined in the FAR. This requirement is mandatory unless a specific exception is made by an agency CIO. To assist in the dissemination of information about the compliance of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, the CIO Council Year 2000 Subcommittee and the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) have been working together to make compliance information available at one web location. The website, which became available on December 1, 1997, provides vendor-supplied information on compliant products as well as vendor plans to make other products year 2000 compliant. It also provides Federal agencies with information on the results of compliance testing by other agencies. We invite the vendor community to post information about its products or provide a URL address for year 2000 websites, so that we can provide links to them. The address of the website is http://y2k.policyworks.gov. In addition, the General Services Administration (GSA) will support Federal agencies by requesting vendors to offer year 2000 compliant products for sale through its multiple awards schedules program. These schedules are regularly used by agencies to meet requirements for products and services, and are offered on the Internet through GSA Advantage located at http://www.gsa.gov/fssintro.htm. Products that are already Year2000 compliant are identified by display of a year 2000 logo. Government and industry have a long history of cooperation in the development and use of information technology. We appreciate that cooperation and are confident that through our work together we will successfully address the year 2000 problem. Ed DeSeve Al Pesachowitz Chair, CIO Council Vice Chair, CIO Council Acting Deputy Director for Management Chief Information Officer Office of Management and Budget Environmental Protection Agency WEB: After accessing the ITPOLICY On-ramp, click on the Year 2000 Information Directory, http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov. E-MAIL: Please direct questions to the above e-mail link address., info@y2k.policyworks.gov.

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