Imagine having to educate journalists about Y2K and regularly facing questions about your company's compliance status? That's what Frank Mitchell, media relations manager, network services, for Ameritech Corp., Chicago, now deals with in his role as Y2K media relations spokesperson.
PR NEWS recently spoke with Mitchell to get a sense of how major U.S. companies are communicating with constituent audiences as well as his impression of how corporate America is faring when it comes to Y2K communications. Ironically, Mitchell isn't one of those stockpiling loaves of bread and hoarding money, despite his front-row seat to this drama.
PRN: Do you think there will be companies whose image/reputation, stock prices or customer base will be severely affected by Y2K?
Mitchell: I don't think so, but if I could predict the stock market, I'd probably be doing something else. I don't see the gloom or doom that others have predicted; I see it more along the lines of a summer or winter storm. I believe the problems will be temporary in nature - there will be glitches - but systems won't shut down. The world won't go dark and this won't be Armageddon. But here, of course, I'm talking about companies that haven't buried their heads in the sand, that haven't ignored the issue.
PRN: Do you think there are a lot of businesses burying their heads in the sand?
Mitchell: Probably not. I can't speak for what other businesses are doing, but Ameritech, for example, has handled more than 10,000 direct customer inquiries and has met with key customers. Even if a company is working on the Y2K issue but isn't revealing particulars, people could interpret that silence as being unprepared. Then there are probably some smaller companies which may be hoping big brother will come along and fix it for them.
PRN: Haven't some revelations that companies are making about Y2K been forced by the SEC? Do you think privately held companies are being as equally forthcoming?
Mitchell: That raises a good point, these SEC requirements. For instance, what is the enforcement channel for those that don't comply? Also, Europe and other areas aren't as far along as the U.S. and what that will mean I don't know, except I'm not convinced that will have much impact here unless it adversely affects our financial markets. Still, we're not ignoring the overall global effect. Ameritech has many overseas locations - we're in 40 different countries - so we have people on our corporate team handling the international part.
PRN: How many Ameritech employees are dealing with Y2K communications or acting as point people to gauge how much of a threat this is to your company and competitors?
Mitchell: From a communications standpoint, we have a team of about eight or 10 - we've had no add-ons; Y2K was incorporated into our responsibilities. We're tackling this from several perspectives: from internal/employee and media relations to communicating with various stakeholders, such as legislators, community groups, the SEC and FDIC.
We've also worked with federal agencies that have invited us to forums, made presentations to the General Accounting Office and have participated at the town hall and city council level. From a customer standpoint, we've had people who've met with our largest customers (Sears, Motorola, state governments) one-on-one. We've also communicated via our Web site, published a quarterly report and installed a Y2K hotline.
We've put out a couple of releases. In January of last year, we updated where we're at and what we've learned and we outlined what we're still going to have to do and when we're expecting to do it. We've told our publics that our mission critical work will be done by January 1999.
PRN: Is it done?
Mitchell: We had 31 million lines of code to remediate and that's been completed, but all the testing hasn't been done. We have initiated 2,000 tests (where we set the clock and made phone calls) between July and December of 1998 with other telecommunications companies. The outcome was that we didn't have any major issues. We had a couple of things that needed to be sent back to vendors and they're issuing a report. We had seven tests that meant we had to send things back, but these were not all Y2K issues.
PRN: How many queries, both internal and external, do you get on a daily basis about Y2K and what is the nature of them?
Mitchell: Probably right now, it's only five to 10 (since mid year last year) and although it's spiked before the first of the year, I anticipate that it will start to increase, particularly as more and more and more writers and reporters are educated about Y2K and start to take it seriously.
The very basic question I get is, "What are we doing to get ready?" That opens up my floodgates and I can talk for an hour. But in some cases, it's basically educating the reporter who's under the impression we're not doing anything. They quickly realize we are when I detail what we've done and inform them that we're spending $250 million.
PRN: If you had to choose between the trade press and the mainstream media, who do you feel has been more responsive and objective about Y2K?
Mitchell: Most have been objective, but I have seen stories in which someone has made some dire prediction and that's become the anchor of the story, and no matter how long we've been working on it, that doesn't seem to carry as much weight as the doomsday angle. On the other hand, I don't know if the mainstream press, with the exception of a reporter here or there, is asking enough layers of questions to uncover the story.
PRN: And the government?
Mitchell: Everything I've read says they're not as far along as business, but what does that mean or what will that do? Generally, Y2K is not a complex problem - it's labor-intensive and redundant - so right now, for us, it's making sure that we haven't missed anything and employees are being thorough (Editor's note: Ameritech can't be responsible for what's on their desktops and specific applications installed by individuals.)
In the end, this isn't solely the job of the 400 people working on Y2K here. It's the 71,000 company-wide. Frank Mitchell can be reached at 800/257-0902.
Y2K Web Sites
http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/cioy2k.htm - what's in the offing at this General Services Administration Office of Information Technology site has a wide span of information, from articles and infrastructure details (such as embedded chips) to vendor resources.
http://www.fcc.gov/year2000 - at this virtual FCC clearinghouse, you'll find resources for communications and broadcasting companies. One of our favorite features? Upcoming events listings.
http://www.nrri.ohio-state.edu/y2kpack.htm - this National Regulatory Research Institute Public Utility Commission Leadership resource has several areas of interest, including contingency planning, public information and commentary.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdy2k/bestpractices.html - Get ready to hit the print button to file away - and share - ZDNet's rundown on best practices in a range of industries.