HOW TO DRAFT A CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY Y2K STATEMENT.

The question of blame for Year 2000 "bugs" has already inspired a scattering of lawsuits and new laws, but marketing consultant Kristin Zhivago argues that it's still possible to prevent open warfare between the software industry and its customers. Her advice: Start by fine-tuning the language of the company's boilerplate Y2K compliance statement.

"The problem is, the first person consulted on this issue is usually the corporate lawyer, who crafts a message that basically says, 'Whatever happens, it's not our fault.' This keeps the company out of legal hot water, but it does nothing for the company's reputation or for its customers.

"Instead, the company should put someone in charge of official Y2K messaging, and have that person interview the product development people, the customer support people, the marketing people, and the company's legal counsel. The Y2K messaging person should then create an internal document that shows:

*How the company's software products will be affected by Y2K.

*What the developers have done about it (tests, results of tests, patches, etc.).

*The typical customer environment and how the company's product interacts with the other aspects of that environment (for example, there are five "at-risk" areas for a PC or a PC network: the BIOS, the operating system, application programs, user data, and data exchange).

*How consumers of the company's software should address the problem.

*Limits of the company's liability and how it must be worded.

"Appropriate portions of this document, once cleared by legal, should be posted on the company's Web site, in a 'Year 2000' section that is listed on the home page. The internal document should be distributed to everyone in the company, with the 'internal only' sections marked clearly.

"The goal should be to be as helpful and straightforward as possible, while simultaneously including legal copy that provides necessary protection against lawsuits.

"A good example of this sort of treatment can be found at www.symantec.com/y2k/y2k/html."

Kristin Zhivago, president, Zhivago Marketing Partners, 381 Seaside Dr., Jamestown, R.I. 02835; 40 1/423-2400 E-mail: [e-mail].

GENERAL MOTORS chief information officer Ralph Szygenda on the potential for "catastrophic" Y2K problems in manufacturing: "Just-in-time delivery has streamlined our supply chain to make it highly sensitive to interruption. Production could literally stop at our plants if suppliers' computer systems are not Year 2000 compliant." (Quoted in Fortune, 4/27/98)

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES senior research fellow William Dennis on a study that shows Y2K problems could shut down as many as 330,000 small companies: "The range of consequences is enormous." (Quoted in Business Week, 9/14/98)

AUTHOR Edward Yourdon on the probability that many Y2K bug fixes will destabilize existing software systems, requiring costly re-testing and debugging: "There's been a naive presumption that a certain amount of money will be spent and then it will all be over. It won't be." (Quoted in Business Week, 12/14/98)

HANCOCK, ROTHERT & BUNSHOFT partner Vito Peraino on Y2K liability suits: "It will be the biggest litigation event in history. Remember the L.A. riots? Very scary. The nature of this problem makes large-scale unrest conceivable." (Quoted in Forbes, 1/11/99)

Ex-U.S. HOUSE speaker Newt Gingrich on the White House's lack of attention to Year 2000 issues: "I can't imagine anything more destructive to [Al] Gore's political future than to talk about the Information Superhighway, and then to have the largest wreck in history on the first of January, 2000." (Quoted in Information Week, 6/15/98)

UTAH senator Robert Bennett on the possibility that Russian missile defense systems will freeze up on January 1, 2000: "If all the radar screens go blank, will they think we did it and decide to launch a nuclear strike?" (Quoted in The Boston Globe, 12/12/98)

UNITED STATES president Bill Clinton on his belief in the government's state of Y2K readiness: "The millennium bug will not delay the payment of Social Security checks by a single day." (Quoted in Business Week, 1/11/99)

U.S. SENATE fiscal clerk Tim Wineman on unpaid bills and reimbursement delays caused by glitches in the Senate's new $7 million Y2K-compliant computer system: "The frustration level has gotten pretty high." (Quoted in Business Week, 2/8/99)