EES (United Energy System) of Russia, the largest Russian power company, is going to replace at least 15,000 out of 50,000 of its desktop PCs because of the Y2K uncompatibility. In total, the company assigns US$ 15 mln. for Y2K efforts, with 70 per cent of this sum to be spent on new computer hardware and software. It also plans to perform personnel training for possible Y2K-related disasters. Yet no information is available by the moment about the schedule of hardware and software replacement. Neither the company says how it is going to complete this process by January 1, 2000.

================= The Siberian Internet Company is established

Another service provider, the Siberian Internet Company, has been established in the West Siberian region of Russia. While its parent company is the Yukos oil company, the new business will operate in the Internet services market rather than in oil industry.

The new company's plans call for a whole bunch of perspective projects. The first of them is the Intergrad ("Intercity") Internet portal. It is reported to present a logically linked map of a virtual city, with various industries and fields (e.g., oil, banking, education, law, etc.) constituting its "streets" and "blocks". Intergrad will allow customers to use various services of the Siberian Internet Company and its business partners, such as Web design, Internet service providing, advertising and marketing in the Web, software development, online business transactions, etc. All services of the company, Infoart notes, will be offered to both Russian and foreign customers. According to preliminary estimates done by Yukos experts, foreigners will constitute at least 15% of all customers during the first year of operation, with their share gradually increasing in the future.

The total staff of the company after the first year of its operation is anticipated to exceed 2,000 persons. All technical infrastructure will be provided by the parent company, Yukos, free of charge. On top of that donation, additional investments will be done in the new company. The total amount of indirect investments only (services, hardware, etc.) done by Yukos will exceed US$ 10 mln.

It was specially highlighted by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of Yukos company, that the project will not merely help people to solve their social problems by means of one-time actions but allow them to build their future with their own hands. Despite serious risks and large expenditures, Yukos is the first in this field and will go forward in this direction. This year the company will open its office in Silicon Valley, the world's recognized capital of computer and information technologies. This will allow people to actually work with their partners in Europe and USA and fully realize their potential while staying physically in their home cities.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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