Computergram International: UK Big Business 'Playing Russian Roulette' With Y2K

Many British businesses will not have completed their IT remediation work when the clocks change on December 31, 1999, according to a survey of UK big business Y2K compliance by economic analyst Business Strategies Ltd.

The survey, entitled "On course... or too late?" tried to gauge the preparedness of the UK's top 1,000 companies for the millennium date change. With 17 companies responding and 174 employees interviewed, Taskforce 2000, the independent Y2K watchdog which commissioned the report, claims that many businesses will suffer as a result of lack of millennium readiness. Business Strategies published a similar survey in January called "In crisis... or on course?" The two reports demonstrate that although much remediation work has been done, much more is necessary.

Of the firms interviewed, 19% had still to complete their inventories of systems, the stage which underpins the whole remediation process. Only 43% of companies had completed or nearly completed their Year 2000 projects and were likely to achieve compliance on time.

Taking a mischievous leaf out of Action 2000, the official Y2K body, Taskforce 2000 color-coded its analysis of companies with a traffic light red, amber, green methodology. The 43% fit into the green category, 20% into amber, described as having "a reasonable chance of achieving adequate compliance on time" with 30% still languishing in the red sector, "most unlikely to achieve adequate compliance on time."

If the statistics are correct, that would mean that 300 of the UK's largest firms would have problems with their IT systems. Robin Guenier, executive director of Taskforce 2000, accused UK business of playing "Russian roulette" with the millennium and warned "the industrial world today depends on computing systems. Economic chaos is a possibility."

Guenier laid the blame for this predicament at the feet of the government, accusing them of arrogance, complacency and trivialization. The Labour administration has not paid sufficient attention to the "unglamorous" millennium problem, he argued, and it has failed to demonstrate the leadership required to encourage business to work toward preparedness.