Y2K - many
                     large
                     organisations
                     still not ready

                     With only days until
                     2000 and over 30
                     percent of Britain's
                     largest companies are
                     suffering major
                     millennium bug failures
                     already, according to
                     Information Sciences
                     Group.

                     With such a short
                     time until the date
                     rollover, it is
                     impractical to believe
                     all the companies with
                     problems will have
                     time to install and use
                     the company’s
                     Mitigator, a ‘silver
                     bullet’ Y2K solution
                     for legacy IT
                     computer systems.
                     However, ISG has
                     also launched an
                     insurance plan to
                     ensure big businesses
                     survive Y2K systems
                     failure. The Mitigator
                     insurance plan is
                     relevant to those
                     companies that have
                     fallen behind and
                     have little hope of
                     catching up via
                     conventional
                     methods, but would
                     like to have tested all
                     their critical IT
                     systems before 1st
                     January 2000, or for
                     those companies who
                     by conventional
                     testing methods are
                     compliant, who want
                     to eradicate
                     overlooked Y2K risks
                     during the final few
                     weeks.

                     In addition, many
                     post millennium
                     ‘compliant'
                     companies, whose
                     Y2K budgets are
                     nearing exhaustion,
                     recognise the danger
                     of residual bugs but
                     are unable to repeat
                     testing in 1999. For
                     those companies,
                     Mitigator can offer an
                     important
                     `fix-on-failure'
                     solution. The system
                     is held in reserve and
                     activated only when a
                     problem arises. 

                     Large companies
                     have faced a massive
                     undertaking to ensure
                     their IT systems are
                     millennium ready. Only
                     last week, Action
                     2000 reported that
                     65 percent of FTSE
                     500 organisations
                     had uncovered
                     problems that could
                     have caused
                     "operational failure"
                     or serious damage to
                     their business. Large
                     companies have
                     invested substantial
                     effort over the past
                     two years to beat the
                     bug. However, only
                     77 percent are
                     ‘compliant' according
                     to Action 2000's
                     latest statistics. Even
                     those that are
                     compliant run a
                     significant risk of
                     being effected by
                     Y2K related residual
                     bugs and data
                     corruption.

                     BusinessZONE, 17th
                     December 1999
                     Categories: Year
                     2000, Business