As a footnote, I should mention that the successful efforts of many companies to ready their computer systems for the year 2000 date change probably added to the length of this adjustment period in some high-technology industries.
The new equipment and rewritten software that were put in place by the end of 1999 seem to have greatly exceeded expectations both in terms of longevity and associated productivity gains. We continue to hear from businesses that they have been able to extend the useful service life of this equipment and to reap additional productivity gains by fine-tuning their automation systems.