The Viasoft Business Unit of USKO Limited, announced today the launch and general availability of OnMark 2000. The OnMark family of software technology is Viasoft`s new end-to-end suite of products designed to address each phase of year 2000 conversion on personal computer (PC) desktops and client/server applications. The OnMark 2000 solution allows companies to inventory their PC hardware and software assets using OnMark 2000 Survey. Using OnMark 2000 Assess, customers can assess desktop spreadsheets, databases and data files for year 2000 problems and fix compliance issues on the PC basic input/output system (BIOS). Companies can then use the OnMark 2000 Workbench for Excel for discovery and impact analysis of complex Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and the OnMark 2000 Client/Server Workbenches to analyze, fix and verify their C/C++, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder and UNIX shell script applications. Industry analysts predict that the desktop year 2000 problem will cost between R45 billion and $120 billion to correct, for the estimated 240 million PCs worldwide. "The launch of the OnMark 2000 family of software ushers in an exciting, new era for Viasoft," said Chief Executive Officer Steve Whiteman. "Recognizing that our customers needed a year 2000 solution for their desktops in addition to their mainframes, and realizing that no comprehensive, industrial-strength offering was available in the market, Viasoft decided to step up to the challenge and address the issue. During the past six months, Viasoft has aggressively analyzed the market and entered into relationships to offer the most advanced, end-to-end PC desktop year 2000 solution in the marketplace." William Ulrich, President, Tactical Strategy Group, and a noted expert and author on the year 2000 problem said, "Companies need to address the century date problem on the desktop as aggressively as they are on the mainframe. The desktop problem is at least 15 percent of the total year 2000 problem; it`s highly complex, and potentially more dangerous. The reason: with applications such as spreadsheets and databases, users can easily move applications from desktop to desktop, to servers, to LANs and back again with many manipulations. So, it`s difficult to track down where the problems reside. This can be especially problematic for auditors, financial managers and stock analysts where there is widespread use of user-generated spreadsheets and databases." The Viasoft OnMark 2000 Solution: Viasoft`s distributed year 2000 solution is composed of five main components, which can be purchased separately: * OnMark 2000 Survey automates year 2000 PC hardware/software inventory; * OnMark 2000 Assess conducts a thorough risk assessment of hardware and desktop software, including spreadsheets, databases and data files, to determine the severity level of all systems at risk and for fixing the hardware BIOS; * OnMark 2000 Workbench for Excel provides discovery and impact analysis for year 2000 problems in complex Excel spreadsheets; * OnMark 2000 Client/Server Workbenches analyze, plan and help to remediate year 2000 problems in client/server applications written in C/C++, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and UNIX Shell Scripts; * VIA/AutoTest delivers automated, multi-platform, functional equivalence testing of changed applications before and after they are placed back into production. OnMark 2000 products are available now from Usko Limited. Ryan Lawlor, GM of their Viasoft Business Unit comments, "The new OnMark distributed product line, coupled with Viasoft`s industry-leading mainframe software gives our clients a year 2000 solution for their entire enterprise.
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