Oakbrook Terrace-based Platinum Technology Inc. said it has teamed up with Lucent Technologies Inc.’s Visual Insights venture in Naperville to create a new software tool that can cut in half the time it takes to analyze the impact of the Year 2000 problem for computers.
Assigning colors, shapes and sizes to represent data, the software makes it easier for companies to figure out which applications are in most critical need of attention, Platinum said. For example, date fields that need to be changed to accommodate the new millennium would appear on reports in red, while data that aren’t affected would appear in blue.
The software helps to illustrate the problem for those without technical experience.
Platinum sees the greatest market opportunity for the new software, called TransCentury Visualization, overseas.
Most U.S. firms have identified their Year 2000 problems and are beginning to test their systems. But many European-based companies, occupied with European Union plans for a common currency, have largely ignored the problem until now, said Theresa O’Neil, Platinum’s vice president of marketing for data warehousing and year 2000.
In the future, Visual Insights said it hopes to find ways to integrate its data-visualization technology into Platinum’s other software solutions, including database and systems management, data warehousing and application-infrastructure management.
Prices for the software start at $25,000.
Platinum shares added $2.37, to $26.44, a 10 percent rise, on the Nasdaq stock market.
