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Y2K Compliance Lags Behind Expectations, Survey Finds
"America’s Largest Companies Falling Behind on Their Year 2000 Compliance Timetables," a new survey by Cap Gemini America LLC, reveals that the number of major firms planning to build Year 2000 crisis management centers has doubled since December.Seventy-four percent of major corporations had expected to have more than half of their code "completely tested and compliant" by January 1 of this year, according to the last quarterly survey issued in December. But the current tracking poll reveals that only 55 percent actually reached this goal.With compliance occurring more slowly than anticipated, 85 percent of America’s biggest firms now plan to build Year 2000 command centers or crisis management centers -- more than double the 40 percent planning such facilities in December. The centers will be run by business management in 62 percent of the cases, in contrast to the 45 percent reported in December. The percentage of corporations electing to combine this function with existing business continuity methods shrank dramatically from 45 percent to 10 percent. Risk mitigation, which emerged as a key contingency planning strategy last December, remains a priority for more than 61 percent of companies surveyed. The concentration on crisis management has emerged as companies experience more Year 2000-related failures and hedge their expectations about compliance levels by the end of 1999. Nearly 72 percent of those surveyed have experienced a Year 2000-related failure, up from 55 percent in the previous quarter and 44 percent six months ago. Most failures (93 percent) caused financial miscalculations. And the percentage of firms expecting to have more than 76 percent of their code "completely tested and compliant by December 31, 1999" has decreased from 88 percent last August to 78 percent. Eight of 10 major firms (80 percent) believe they must use independent verification and validation techniques to check the quality of renovated code, up from 62 percent in the previous quarter and only 16 percent six months ago.For more information, visit Cap Gemini America’s Web site at www.usa.capgemini.com/y2k.